Medical Anomalies 'r' Us

Just got a call from my Internist's nurse (which is a surprise in and of itself, but that's another story). She wanted to tell me that all the arthritis/lupus/etc tests came back negative, but that I had elevated strep antibodies. That's news to me, because I think I'd remember strep throat, right? Anyway. Apparently, strep infection CAN cause the joint pain I've been experiencing. So, she's called in a Z-pak.

Riddle me this, Batman.... How in the name of all that is good, decent and holy did my cholesterol get WORSE????? Apparently worse enough that the doc wants me back on the cholesterol meds. :-( Thankfully I'd already gotten them re-filled prior to surgery, so I have some. It is my hope that I'll be able to get back off of them as I continue to banish weight. I did do some reading regarding perimenopause this morning. Yeah, I'm a smidge young for it, but I have a LOT of the symptoms, and have had for a year or so. Even on BCP, my periods were weird. They weren't terribly irregular, but they weren't regular, either. And they've been getting lighter and lighter, then I'll have one that's extremely heavy. I read that elevated LDL is often present in women in perimenopause. Dunno. I go see my Ob/Gyn next month, so I'll talk to her about it. Sadly, there's not a lot they can check to see if that's the case, but maybe she'll have some suggestions regarding the cholesterol. The periods? Meh. I can deal. I'm just concerned about my cholesterol. I did read that women who have PCOS and/or hypothyroidism (lucky me, I have both) and women who've never delivered a baby (me again) tend to go into perimenopause earlier. I'll be 38 at my next birthday, and that's not too far under the average of 41 that I think I'm totally crazy. :-) Okay, I may be totally crazy, but this is not the proof. So, I'll just add that to the things I want to talk to my Ob/Gyn about. The thing that throws me is the idea that you can get an idea of when you'll go through menopause based on when your mother did. Unfortunately, my mother had a complete hysterectomy when she was in her early 30's, so I have no idea when she would have gone through if her body'd been left to its own devices.

Mostly, I'll just keep trucking with my VSG diet, exercise and stress management. Everything will work itself out and it'll all be all right. :-) At least it's not RA causing my joints to hurt!