I think it is no surprise that insurance companies are amongst the most profitable companies in the world. Often times, insurance is required, so we purchase it and yet we hope that we will never have to use it. The same is true for all those extended warranty plans sold by the likes of Circuit City and Best Buy. These companies tend to make more money selling these plans than actually selling products. Given that, I figured it was just about time to make my health insurance company suffer just a little bit. I like health insurance a while lot better that dental insurance. You pay fifteen to twenty bucks and for most standard procedures there is nothing more to worry about. On the other hand, dental insurance seems to cover absolutely nothing completely.
Anyhow, so I decided to get a physical done, since it has been a very long time since I had my last one - must have been some time in my high-school days. I’ve also been suffering from more head aches than usual recently, which was another reason to visit the doctor’s office. After a short discussion we concluded that my symptoms did not match any of the known head ache types completely, even though the list is amazingly long. Thus, I ended up heaving up my first ever MRI to rule out some possibilities. The MRI is performed by one gigantic apparatus that resembles a seriously oversized, side loading washing machine. The whole procedure takes about twenty five minutes, and you do absolutely nothing but lay still and listen to some very strange electronic sounds. The sounds resemble an electronic goa-trance track gone seriously bad. The highlight of the procedure is an injection that increases the contrast of your brain vessels on the scan. The results turned out negative, which means not tumors, no damaged blood vessels, and thus no closer to what might exactly be causing my head aches. My doctor thinks that they are tension head aches, however, I really do not feel like I’m overly stressed, or possibly migraines, but he himself admitted that they usually do not last several days. Thus, my home work for now is just to keep track of my head aches until our next meeting in about month. My hypothesis: I most likely hit myself on the head while dreaming about bizarre events and then wake up with a head ache :)
The rest of my health is pretty good: my liver is in good shape, my sugar level is good, blood pressure is in line, HDL is at 44 and anything over 40 is desirable. About the only problem is the LDL which comes in at about 179, while the target level is anything on the lower side of 130. In short, my cholesterol level is too high. A little something to worry about but not much, since based on all the stats my doctor collected, my chance of developing a cardiovascular disease over the next ten years is less then one percent. I suppose I will watch more what I eat and will try to frequent the gym on a more regular basis, but considering the fact that high blood pressure seems to be hereditary in my family I really don’t think there is that much I can do about it – but at least I will give it a try.
Anyhow, so I decided to get a physical done, since it has been a very long time since I had my last one - must have been some time in my high-school days. I’ve also been suffering from more head aches than usual recently, which was another reason to visit the doctor’s office. After a short discussion we concluded that my symptoms did not match any of the known head ache types completely, even though the list is amazingly long. Thus, I ended up heaving up my first ever MRI to rule out some possibilities. The MRI is performed by one gigantic apparatus that resembles a seriously oversized, side loading washing machine. The whole procedure takes about twenty five minutes, and you do absolutely nothing but lay still and listen to some very strange electronic sounds. The sounds resemble an electronic goa-trance track gone seriously bad. The highlight of the procedure is an injection that increases the contrast of your brain vessels on the scan. The results turned out negative, which means not tumors, no damaged blood vessels, and thus no closer to what might exactly be causing my head aches. My doctor thinks that they are tension head aches, however, I really do not feel like I’m overly stressed, or possibly migraines, but he himself admitted that they usually do not last several days. Thus, my home work for now is just to keep track of my head aches until our next meeting in about month. My hypothesis: I most likely hit myself on the head while dreaming about bizarre events and then wake up with a head ache :)
The rest of my health is pretty good: my liver is in good shape, my sugar level is good, blood pressure is in line, HDL is at 44 and anything over 40 is desirable. About the only problem is the LDL which comes in at about 179, while the target level is anything on the lower side of 130. In short, my cholesterol level is too high. A little something to worry about but not much, since based on all the stats my doctor collected, my chance of developing a cardiovascular disease over the next ten years is less then one percent. I suppose I will watch more what I eat and will try to frequent the gym on a more regular basis, but considering the fact that high blood pressure seems to be hereditary in my family I really don’t think there is that much I can do about it – but at least I will give it a try.
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