It’s time to announce the creation and work-in-progress of my jewelry website:
www.marahelena.com
This website is primarily to showcase my work, a reference point for other crafters I’ve met, and is certainly less about making “big bucks off” of web sales. In fact, if you live locally, don’t order off the site and pay for shipping…talk to me and I can save us both money by hand delivering.
The site leaves room for lot’s of improvement, so any feedback you might have would be really excellent. This project has been a bit overwhelming, what with the holidays sneaking up on me, and I realized that it doesn’t need to be perfect. I will be regularly fine tuning and adding new and exciting things.
Enjoy!
A year ago I went in for my obligatory annual and I decided that, since I was about to reach the thirty mark, I should get my cholesterol checked. It came back at 210…which, according to the American Heart Association was just enough be concerned:
Total Cholesterol Level:
Less than 200 = Desirable
200–239 = Borderline high
240 = High
Even though many people would brush this off as ‘no problem’ I went through the 5 stages of grief: Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Although to be honest with you, I never reached acceptance. I simply couldn’t believe that I had actively obsessed about my weight, diet and life-style all my adult life to ultimately receive a ‘borderline high’ cholesterol mark. I was devastated. It didn’t help that Josh had had his own cholesterol checked and he ‘passed’ with flying colors (I couldn’t tell you what his number was but it was certainly desirable). I was outraged that Josh could eat mac and cheese out of a box and Tottino’s pizzas and have a better cholesterol reading then me. So I fasted and took the test again (meaning I was poked with yet another needle) and my cholesterol came back even higher: 212.
They did a full lipid panel the second time, which broke down all the different cholesterol readings, (LDL, HDL, etc) and is far too boring and inconsequential to go into detail here. The results of the blood work actually revealed something far more worrisome then a “higher then would be expected” cholesterol number–my white blood cell count was low. After getting poked in the arm every Friday for the month of December (resulting in a very impressive vein that popped out on command in my right arm) they determined that I did not have a serious disease (i.e. cancer) but a low grade infection that needed extra white blood cells. I was also on a considerable amount of medication at the time for an unrelated health problem I won’t go into and one of the side effects was quite possibly strange blood readings. This was after they had sent me to a Hematologist at Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center and I sat in a waiting room with seriously ill people who were there with the simple hope of hearing news of their rising (or falling) blood cell counts. I did not have cancer. In fact the Hematologist seemed amused at my worry since my blood test came back with flying colors–all counts high–and I’m sure I was the easiest patient he’d had all year.
The white blood cell count was freaky enough to distract me momentarily about my unfortunate cholesterol reading. However, when I wasn’t trucking over to get my blood drawn every week I was agonizing over my ‘borderline high’ cholesterol number. How could this happen? I ate cereal every morning with a fiber count of 5g or more, I started eating a handful of almonds every day (which has developed into a much better habit then eating a granola bar for snack), I tried hard to avoid Christmas treats, and vowed to only eat dessert that I had made in my own kitchen (no store bought goodies laden with trans fat). I remember the pain of buying the special Trader Joe’s peppermint sandwich cookies that only come out for Christmas and guiltily nibbling two after dinner.
This was when I crossed over to the Anger side of the 5 stages. “Screw you, test results!” I thought. “It must be the medication, there is NO WAY I have anything but a stellar body.” I might be obsessive about my health but I have yet to remove dessert from my daily diet….I just can’t. Oh sure, I’ve entertained the idea of how I could be even thinner if I just stopped buying dark chocolate. As it is, I’m sure my activity level just barely balances out my desire for a daily treat. It didn’t help that this was also Christmas time and my anger turned into spite: I’m going to eat whatever I want! Screw you, doctors, I’m having three pieces of fudge. The spirit of “it’s Christmas” evoked a very bad attitude in my eating. It’s as if all the focus, all the pamphlets they sent me about how to improve my cholesterol, provoked me to rebel.
I consulted a nutritionist, read the pamphlets, talked to my father (the family health expert), looked up everything on the web, and came to the conclusion that with the exception of my Christmas binge I was doing everything right. I don’t eat scones, I eat bread made out of cracked whole wheat, I don’t eat eggs every day, I don’t eat huge amounts of meat, I don’t smoke (and this was when I was on my year long alcohol fast), and I was trying to be good and do this ridiculous pilates work out dvd every day. I slowly put my cholesterol behind me, although it always lingered in the back of my mind: “Oh yeah, I have high cholesterol” (which I didn’t but you know how I always exaggerate). However, I moved on…
A few weeks ago I dutifully fasted and had my blood drawn for another cholesterol test. My results were shocking: everything had dropped. My new cholesterol reading was 172. I did a little dance when I found out. The nurse somehow felt that she was still obligated to lecture me about proper health and diet. “You’re thirty now and you need to be very conscious of your health–what with the huge rate of heart disease in women.” I told her that I was healthy, a dancer in fact, and that I was obsessive about my health. I asked her for the numbers, comparing last year with this year, and she said, “Well your number last year was 212 and it’s appearant that your life style changes helped decrease that number.”
I couldn’t help but say, “Life style changes? I haven’t made ANY changes…I’m just no longer on any crazy drugs.” The nurse seemed skeptical that I hadn’t abandoned a lifestyle of donuts but agreed that perhaps it was the medication.
I’m not sure what the point of this post is. Go get your cholesterol checked? Always take your test results with a grain of salt? Recognize that no matter how hard you try you might get a health curve ball? Or maybe, all of above…I’m just happy I can tick on thing off the worry list.