Since HIPPA doesn't mean squat here and I freely talk about the kids medical issues, I figured it'd only be fair to share my own problems too, especially since they may end up having a significant impact on the rest of my time here.
Apart from seeing my family while I was home, one of the big reasons I had to go back was to see my doctor. For several years I've had problems with my blood pressure and have had problems trying to keep my numbers down despite several types of medication. My doctor has been really perplexed about my body's resistance to the meds and even sent me to a neurologist last year to rule out some kind of brain tumor which may be impacting my pressure (which was ruled out, thankfully). I've been on a regimen of several meds for the last year and it seems to be having a decent effect. My numbers are routinely around 145/85; not great for someone on so much medication, but not horrible either. Well, after arriving to Guatemala my pressure skyrocketed. I was testing myself daily and getting numbers like 180/95, way higher than normal. I went through factors that I thought might be affecting it, but couldn't find anything that made sense. If anything, the change in diet should have been helping my pressure since I was eating a lot less salt (and a lot less food in general). I finally went to the doctor here in the clinic and talked to her about it. She assured me that my pressure was higher because of the altitude and it would settle down once my body was accustomed to it. I had considered this, but since I had been in Guatemala for almost two months at this point, I had thought that my body was already used to it. Sure enough though, after another few weeks my pressure started creeping back down and fell into my normal range. The one thing that persisted was me being red all the time. My face is always beet red, enough to warrant questions from the kids and staff here on an almost daily basis. I've always been really red in the face so I didn't put much thought to it.
When I came home, I told my doctor about the pressure stuff. She agreed that it was probably just the altitude and now that my body was used to it, I'd be okay. She gave me my meds for the rest of the year, ran the bi-annual blood work necessary for my hormone therapy and I was off.
Fast forward three days. While Mom and I were enjoying our own little vacation together to Cape May, she gets a phone call from a strange New York number. She was in the shower so I answered for her, and who's on the other line but my doctor. Now, it's never good news if your doctor is calling your emergency contact number. The doctor was super relieved once she realized she had gotten in contact with me, and proceeded to explain that my blood work had come back and showed that my hemoglobin levels were dangerously high. Short biology lesson: hemoglobin is a protein that's part of your red blood vessels. It's the muscle man of your blood; its job is to carry oxygen around your body. When people live in areas that have less oxygen (like high up on a mountain, like I do right now), their bodies don't get enough oxygen to keep them going. This is why when someone from a lower elevation (like NY) moves to a higher elevation (Guatemala) they get out of breath from very little exercise. Anyone who's been on Skype with me while I climb the stairs here knows all about this. In order to compensate, your body starts making a whole bunch more hemoglobin with the idea being that the more guys we have to carry the oxygen around, the more oxygen we'll be able to get into the body. Makes sense. Another thing that can cause increased hemoglobin production is testosterone. Since I need to take testosterone injections every week, I've always been at risk for high levels. Fun fact: hemoglobin is made up of iron which is what gives blood it's red color. This is why my face has been insanely red for the last few months.
I'm not going to go into detail about dangers of having high hemoglobin levels because it'll sound dramatic. I'm not worried about croaking or anything, but it's potentially bad, so it's important to get the levels down right away. I can't do anything about the elevation issue, so my only recourse: stop testosterone.
Yeah.
So, that's really crappy. It opens the door for lots of interesting/horrifying things happening in the near future. I suppose God felt that this experience was a little to easy for me so he wanted to up the difficulty level a bit :/ I'm hoping that I can water my blood down with liquids and help my levels that way (while watching my sodium levels) so I can get back on T as quickly as possible. My doctor said once I get my levels down to 17 I can start on a teeny tiny dose of T which will hopefully be enough to keep my body in check. (Right now my levels are 19). I'm going to have my blood drawn next week to get an idea of how I stand and then go from there. If my levels continue to be super high even without the T, I'm going to have to look at all my options closely. Health comes first naturally, and sadly living at a higher elevation doesn't leave me a lot of choices. Maybe I can have the kids dig me a hole to live in ;)
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