AndyJ's Body Enhancement Thread

:sneak:

For the last few months I’ve mostly used the Size Doctor vacuum extender with a paracord yoke, pulleys, and weights, as a sort of hanger. A few weeks ago I started using it in its default configuration. I’ve moved from no extender rods to 5mm, 10mm, and lately out to 30mm, and it’s time to go to 35mm. I’m not making miraculous gains; I’m just regaining the size I had before the infection and scarring.

The “extreme grower” thing is a hassle; I wind up having to pump first to get enough length and girth, then I can just barely get the Size Doctor on fully compressed… and in an hour or so, it’s loose again, and could use another extension.

I decided to build a static extender base for the Size Doctor bell to ride on. I came up zero at the local Lowes, so I turned to eBay. I have some 5mm stainless eye bolts, coupler nuts, threaded rod, and kurled adjuster nuts coming in. The price of stainless hardware has gone up sharply in the last few months; those pieces cost almost $30 with shipping. Ah, well.

I can move the springs down outside the bell and run the nuts against them to use the extender in its default spring-loaded mode, and the adjustment nuts should eliminate the extender bar hassle.

I’ll post a picture when the bits get here.

I saw the doctor today. Looks like I’ll be taking blood pressure meds now, at least for a while. He’s also running a testosterone/estrogen panel and a full thyroid array. His phlebotomist took five vials of blood for the labs.

I pointed out that he’d commented on an elevated white blood cell count in 2016 and 2019; he’s going to see what the new lab results show.

I’ve been very short of breath for the last six months or so. We agreed that being fat and out of shape was the probable cause, but he’s sending me to a respiratory guy for a workup.

When I go in his nurse always weighs me. This time I had her use the height measuring thingie. It said 5’10, so without shoes I’m probably 5’9. I’m in the age group where people start shrinking as they lose spine and joint cartilage, so I was expecting that.

He takes blood pressure with one of the old-school wall-mounted sphygmomanometers filled with mercury. I brought both of my wrist cuffs with me. They seldom agree, but the newer Omron cuff and his wall mount agreed. He said he was going to buy one of those for himself.

Some of the other stuff on my list is on hold until I see the allergist and get results back.

We talked about my weight loss program. He told me to read up on GLP-1 and get back to him. I’ve just done a quick skim so far, but it’s a diabetes control drug that is sometimes used off-list for weight loss. I’ll read more on it tonight. If there aren’t any horrible side effects and my insurance covers it, I might give it a try.

“Hi, Doc, it’s your favorite pain-in-the-ass patient, and I’m baaaack!” As usual, I showed up with the last month’s medical journal printed out and clipped together, my list of symptoms and questions clipped together, crude pencil drawings if needed, a sheet about previous problems and whether there are any changes (generally none), and a blaze orange file folder to keep it all in. I always try to get the last appointment of the day since, uh, I probably suck up more time than his staff schedules for an ordinary visit.

Thing is doctors think people are incapable of dietary change, so their only option is to recommend a drug. All drugs have side effects. I don’t know GLP-1.

The tests you are getting are really useful but potentially incomplete. If the thyroid one has problems, I’ll pass you some reading material.

Have you considered other sources of medical advice, like people who brand themselves “functional medicine” doctors. You know, those people interested in the root causes and trying to fix those rather than treat symptoms.

If you get your wife to go with you to the right doctor, (s)he’ll recommend dietary change and then you have a stronger case to interrupt the normality of your weekly shopping.

I asked for the full thyroid workup. There are four or five different tests; mostly they only run one, even though much useful information can be had from the others.

> All drugs have side effects.

That’s the major downside of blood pressure meds. Hopefully I won’t need them forever.

Holy crap I’m out of shape. (round’s a shape, isn’t it?)

I’m doing simple stretching exercises, no weights yet. I’m getting serious burn just from that. Every day or two I add another exercise, rather than jumping in head-first like I did before. And I’ve started a log like the ones I have for general medical stuff and PE. It’s not like I’m some autistic datalogger; once I get into the habit of writing it down, I feel bad if I don’t make an entry, so I wind up doing stuff to have something to enter, if that makes sense.

One of the exercises is simple neck twisting; just turning my head from left to right. The amount of popping and crackling is impressive. Something hurts, you stop doing it… and after a while, it starts to freeze up. But even a few days has helped. I can’t look over my shoulder to back out of a parking place yet, but it’s noticeably better.

I’m also doing “pre-op therapy” exercises for knee replacement surgery. Not all of them; some of them put forward or side load on the knee, which is destructive to any cartilage that’s left. I’ve done them before, and wound up on crutches for days before I could get around with just the cane again.

It turns out there’s no fixed standard for joint range of motion. Or, perhaps as computer geeks like to say, “standards are wonderful, there are so many to choose from.” Published figures for knee movement are 120 to 150 degrees; I’m right in the middle of that, as best as I can tell without measuring equipment. Physical therapists use a device called a “goniometer”, which is just a giant version of a simple carpenter’s angle gauge, but I don’t need to know exactly where in the range I am.

There you go - way to take some action - keep it up and gradually increase effort. You might really like Fitocracy - give it a try - it’s social like this and adds some accountability.

Are you getting your diet under control?

Pre-hab is what I always called it and it makes a big difference.

Still working on the diet. Spousal resistance is initiated severe marital stress.

When I was in school we were taught a resting heart rate should be around 45, no more than 50. Apparently, like almost everything else we were taught in school, that was a lie.

By modern standards my heart rate should be 72 to 75 at my age. Mine averages around 55, very occasionally dropping into the high 40s or up into the mid-60s. By that chart, my heart rate falls into the “athlete” category.

Nothing I can take credit for, like my pancreas, but it’s nice to know I’m not *totally* decrepit.

Why would a diet cause stress? Does she want you dead? Are you heavily insured?

Only three days on Lisinopril so far. It doesn’t seem to be doing much, but the it’s supposed to take “up to a couple of weeks” to show results. Further reading has shown that blood pressure meds are sometimes “stacked”, with two or even three meds at the same time. I hope I can avoid that. On the plus side, I haven’t noticed any unfavorable issues from Lisinopril, at least so far.

If straight Lisinopril isn’t working well by then, I’ll try increasing my L-Arginine dose, and I might add aspirin and niacin.

BP was 167/95 this morning. What’s particularly annoying is that for most of my life I had *low* blood pressure. Then it went up into “normal” for a few years, and now the sudden jump up. Lisinopril is the first med I’ve taken since I got off the anti-inflammatories fifteen years ago. I’ve added some dietary supplements since late last yer, but I’ve been logging my BP for many years, and none of them affected it. (most list “lowering BP” as side effects) Activity and fitness went way down from being ill for so long, but diet and weight were unchanged.

Stretching exercises are continuing. I managed to tweak my back doing the back twist yesterday, but I was able to do the routine again this morning with only minor discomfort. The limit between “healthy exercise” and “pain pills and crutches” is awfully narrow there, and that’s where most of the prior exercise plans came to a halt.

My lower back still hurts; enough to wake me up a couple of times last night. I got a *little* too frisky with the twisting exercise a few days ago.

I’ve kept doing the exercise, just not twisting as much. I’m settling into a routine now.

BP was still between 160 and 170 yesterday. I still had most of a bottle of a diuretic the doc had prescribed last year, when my BP wasn’t as high. I quit taking it because it takes about twelve hours to do its thing, and frequent “Go NOW! Nice try.” trips to the bathroom all evening and night, meaning I couldn’t leave the house or go out into my workshop, or sleep a whole hour at a time before the urge hit. Worked fine for my BP, but “quality of life” sucked.

Last night I tried the Bumex again. Got a few hours of intermittent sleep between trips to the bathroom, but BP was 137 this morning. My excuse for not mowing the yard just evaporated.

Got a call from the doc’s nurse yesterday, he wants me to come in for an office visit next week to go over the results.

You do realize a BP of 160-170 is stroke territory do you not?

That’s what my doctor says, yes. Which is why I stacked the diuretic instead of waiting two more weeks to see if the Lisinopril worked on its own.

I find it to be a cause for concern, but a few decades ago 160 was considered “normal”. The healthcare industry has lowered their numbers twice since then, now claiming 120 or less is “normal.” I don’t even *know* anyone with a blood pressure that low, even the ones who are on BP meds.
Still, I’d like for it to be lower, which is why I’m taking the meds.

The old thought for those over 60 was the upper limit of the systolic was 100 plus your age. That has long been changed. If your BP is that high all day long don’t wait to see the doctor; call him now.