A Tale of Two Doctors.....

This is a tale of two doctors.... only they happen to be the same woman.

Subtitle: I love it when I'm right.

Three months ago, I had some paraphrased version of the conversation below with my doctor. She looks about twelve years old, is cute and perky, and has never criticized me for my weight. Those are some of the reasons I love her. I think I was one of her early patients, which meant in the early days I could talk her into anything. She has wised up over the years.

Me: At what point could we think about changing my blood pressure medication, possibly even discontinuing it?

Doc: Oh no, we don't usually do that. Once you start the medication, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. What makes you think you should change it? Or discontinue it?

Me: Well, my blood pressure has been pretty low recently. Plus I've lost some weight....

Doc [Interrupting, which I'm pretty sure they're taught in med school not to do]: You've weighed ___, ____, ____, ____, and ____. We don't like to make changes in medication based on a single reading.

Me [Resisting the urge to scream "That's what your colleague did when you were out on maternity leave for the gazillionth time!"]: Oh.

We went back and forth some, and she (reluctantly) agreed to split my combo medication into two separate ones and allow me to discontinue ONE of them if my blood pressure remained low. She also said I had to come back in three months instead of the customary six, which Hubby claims is just an attempt by medical professionals to pad their incomes. I discontinued the medication the doc told me I could, the dizzy spells stopped immediately, and I began tracking my blood pressure religiously. Some might even say fanatically.

Fast forward to today. I present the doctor with a printout of my recorded blood pressure readings for the last three months. She nods, murmurs a little bit, then says she'll be right back with my lab reports and some exercises for my (still) aching hips.

When she comes back, she is almost exuberant. "Wow, you've lost 11 more pounds since you were here three months ago. Keep this up, and you may be able to stop the blood pressure medication altogether."

Huh? Didn't I say that back in March? Didn't she almost castigate me for suggesting the possibility?

And then I discover the real reason for her exuberance.

"Your cholesterol is high," she says.

Butthead. Just had to have the last (negative) word.