saxy's check up required for his driver's license was this morning. we got there around 10:15 a.m. and didn't get home until around 1 p.m., and he was inside with the doctor most of that time. we already knew he had high cholesterol. diets to lower your cholesterol are expensive, especially now that fish prices are just plain ungodly. cheap meat is the bad stuff: red meat with lots of fat. chicken seems to waver in prices, but is almost always cheaper with the skin. pork is generally reasonable priced, but, apparently, a bad meat. fortunately, we don't eat it often. in fact, we eat very little meat at all. we just can't afford it.
and now we have to make changes in the diet that are going to be healthier but bump food costs up. now, in addition to high cholesterol, saxy has high blood pressure. and is overweight (well, we knew that - i'm overweight as well). and the doctor wants him to see a chiro about his neck. plus wants blood work done.
the good news is he passed the physical enough for his license.
the chiro thing is like my tooth thing: it's just going to have to wait until we actually have money to take care of it. saxy isn't complaining of headaches or any other kind of pain.
but the diet thing is a problem. we need to take care of it - the last thing i want is for my hunny to have a heart attack or worse - but i just don't know how we can manage it. we don't even manage a halfway decent diet now. fresh fruit has been out of the question (and is now a requirement), vegetables have been pretty much limited to those cheap-o bags of broccoli and cauliflower, and bread has been that cheap, supposedly enriched, white stuff. we buy the boxed, breaded fish every once in awhile, but not often, and other fish has just been out of our budget for months.
all this kind of stuff always makes me want to ask the doctor if he's going to cover the extra he's just added to my already strained budget. forget the excess bills (i do!), just surviving is a struggle.
and then there is the exercise, much needed, but we're both bad at forming at least that one necessary habit. and we both have 100 pounds to lose. joy.
what is it with doctors? can't they ever give you good news? or an easier way to manage the bad news?
