36: A Nice Number

Today was the 36th anniversary of our wedding day - August 23, 1969. We were both so excited to celebrate the anniversary of our wedding for the 36th time. Two days ago I asked Marilyn what she wanted for her anniversary to which she responded, "Oh," and, after an extended silence, she said "What do you want for yours?" Then, there was another extended silence followed by no answer from me. Then the thought occurred to me, why should we feel obliged to want something? We have all we want and when we want something we don't have we go get it. So, what's up with having to want something because it's our anniversary? Anyway, we made an unspoken agreement to skip the presents this year. Last year we went to New York City for the first time.

Today our plan was for me to go to work. Marilyn was to attend Ladies Class and then go to Rapha (the relief ministry where she volunteers). We were both thinking in terms of going out to dinner, but we couldn't decide where. We were kinda having this running discussion of where, but with no decision. We went to a movie last week, so that wasn't part of tonight's plan. I decided to not be a complete klutz. At lunch, today, I bought a flower arrangement and took it to Rapha. The folks at Rapha were surprised to see me and they had bought an ice cream pie for Marilyn's anniversary.

This evening we searched the web for an eating place. We looked at steak houses, seafood places, fancy places, near places, Indian food places. Finally, out of sheer frustration we decided on this little Thai food place we'd never been to before. It turned out to be super food at a reasonable price. See, our research and pre-planning paid off big time. We came home for coffee afterwards. We also hired a professional photographer to come by and take our picture. Looks good doesn't it.

We have this little game we play. I start talking about where we were on previous anniversaries. Earlier in our marriage, I'd try to get us to remember what we did to celebrate. Marilyn has never been all that excited about this game. I don't know why. After our life's pattern began to develop we realized that we would be doing well if we could remember what country we were in for each anniversary. Now it seems like we celebrate the fives-and-zeroes and just acknowledge the ones in between. Thus, New York City last year -35th - and strip center Thai food this year - 36th. Oh well, she's still the love of my life and assures me I am of her's as well. We've traveled many roads together. Lived in many houses. Visited many countries. Flown countless airways. Been blessed with great kids and now grandkids. We've always loved what we were doing. God has blessed us far better than we deserved. 36 is a good number. It actually is my favorite number. I'm happy we've reached this mile stone.

Samuel and his mom

Well, one of the things going on in our lives is not happening here. It happened in College Station, Texas last week. Our older grandson, Samuel, started school. He is now officially a kindergartener. He was awake early, anxious for breakfast. But then he was too excited to eat it all. His school walking distance from his house. So, the parents do a "Walking School Bus" to escort the boys to school. The two other primary passengers on the Walking School Bus (besides Samuel on the left) are Cole and Jacob.







While we are on the subject of schooling, here's a picture of Samuel's mom, our own sweet Shelley, as she finished her schooling. She was graduating from Texas A&M. That's her Gra'ma Brabham for whom we will have a big birthday bash next month. She will be 90!! but don't tell anyone.

Another big even in Samuel's life was his first Rock Climb and his first zip line ride.




Marilyn and I have been team-teaching a Bible class, at church, for about three years. It's mostly young couples about the age of our children or younger. We made a big shift this week. We are, for the first time, teaching from a book rather than preparing our own material. That decision resulted in it being easier for me to teach alone, as opposed to the team-teaching we've done since the beginning of the class. We've decided the change of pace will probably be good. We like the material and the class seems to like it as well. No Bible class pics available.

Blood Numbers

I know of a couple of my relatives who are interested in this information, so I thought I'd blog it in case others might be interested as well. I have, for several years, been aware of the fact that I have high cholesterol. It is a problem I inherited (I think). It runs in my family (in my opinion). That's why I have relatives who are interested. I have, for decades, been a pretty faithful runner and, more recently, bicycler. Nevertheless, I have carried high cholesterol numbers. At first I tried to control it in mainstream ways. We are always told "exercise and a low fat diet." I worked at that for years. Sadly, to no avail. Actually, my numbers simply got gradually higher. I first discovered the problem at a total cholesterol of 232. I continued my exercising and began watching what I ate - low fat, no fat, moderate amounts, etc. etc. etc. By late 2003 my weight had increased to 199, I felt lousy and even had the docs check out my heart a couple of times because of "chest sensations" - not chest pains, just "sensations." They found nothing wrong with heart but my blood numbers were getting higher. I think I had a 280-something test at one time.

Enter Dr. Atkins! When I hit 199 on the scales I decided it was time to do something different about my weight. Einstein is the one who defined insanity as "continuing to do the same thing and expecting to get different results." For some reason, though I'd never been on any sort of weight loss diet in my entire life, the idea of limiting a specific intake of something - calories or fat or something - made perfect sense to me. Dr. Atkins said that something was carbs. So, I went low-carb on January 1, 2004. New Year's resolution - lose weight! One thing Atkins said to do was have a blood test to establish where you were starting with your blood numbers. Remember, though, my motive for dieting was weight loss. He said your blood numbers would improve, but I considered that to be gravy (no pun intended). So, in Feb, 2004, I had my doctor check my blood. He found the following:
Total Cholesterol - 291
LDL - 184
HLD - 94
Triglyceride - 66
Total/ HLD ratio - 3.09

The weight loss program worked GREAT. I was very satisfied with every aspect of eating low-carb. I ignored the fat content of food and simply stayed away from carbs. I ate meat and nuts - both of which I love. I began to feel stronger and sleep better. I no longer needed a Tums to counter the acid I felt after EVERY meal. Marilyn told me I stopped snoring. Best of all, I lost weight. It was slow and deliberate, but it was real. By the end of 2004 I weighed 172. I have stayed there, easily. In November, 2004 I had my blood numbers checked again. I was hoping for similar success as I had experienced with my weight. But, alas, the readings were:
Total Cholesterol - 279
LDL - 176
HLD - 92
Triglyceride - 56
Total/ HLD ratio - 3.00

Improved - if you looked real close. Like with a microscope! [I might note that these only slightly improved numbers were, nonetheless, improved while ignoring - even disdaining - the idea of low-fat anything] So, it was time to do something else. Marilyn told me about Red Yeast Rice. I got on the Web and started reading. I discovered many things. One thing I came across was something that sounded better than RYR. It was a thing called Polycosonal. A quick summary of things I learned that I considered important are the source of blood cholesterol and how doctors try to control it. There are two sources of the cholesterol in your blood. One- what you eat. Two- your liver. What you eat accounts for 20% of the cholesterol in your blood. The other 80% is produced by your liver. So, the doctors treat your liver in an attempt to get the numbers down. They use statin drugs - Lipitor is the main one, but there are other brand names. It turns out the RYR is also a statin. But, it is a naturally produced statin rather than a chemical, like Lipitor. Polycosonal is not a statin and has not been found to have any impact on the liver. It has been found to reduce LDL as much as Lipitor and increase HDL - which is good and which Lipitor does not do.

So, with the above blood numbers, I started taking Polycosonal in December, 2004. I ignored my doctor's prescription for Lipitor and began with 10 mg/day. Everything I had read said 20mg/day was the best dosage. In March, 2005 (four months later) I had my numbers checked again. The results:
Total Cholesterol - 263
LDL - 174
HLD - 81
Triglyceride - 47
Total/ HLD ratio - 3.25

The doc again prescribed Lipitor. I told him I was going to double my Polycosonal dosage and see what happened. He kinda shrugged his shoulders. I was pleased to see some impact, but still not satisfied. I knew the time was approaching when I would have to do something that worked. My weight remained completely under control. And, for the first time, my blood numbers were improving - albeit, slowly.

Last week I went to have the numbers run again. This time my doc was on vacation. So, I was seen by his lovely PA, Molly. When I told Molly I wasn't taking Lipitor she was noticeably put-out with me. She asked me questions like "Do you exercise?" "Do you watch what you eat?" "How's your energy level?" I answered, "I run 3 miles-a-day 4 or 5 days-a-week." "Yes" "Great." Then her last question was, "If this blood test shows the Polycosonal isn't working would you be willing to take Lipitor?" I answered "I'd have to think about it." She left me with this factoid "All we can do is show you the numbers and recommend what you need to do. We can't force you to do it." My unspoken response was "You got that right, Cutey." Today the blood numbers arrived:
Total Cholesterol - 250
LDL - 154
HLD - 89
Triglyceride - 37
Total/ HLD ratio - 2.80

The recommendation from the doc (or the PA, I don't know which), "Continue with Polycosonal, diet and exercise." The increased dosage, after five months brought the LDL down 19 points! It increased the HDL by 8 points.

I am now an advocate of low-carb eating for weight control and Polycosonal for cholesterol control. I am confident my numbers will be more improved in six more months. The target upper limit for LDL is 129.

There's my blood numbers story.