Progress Report and Dr. Crandall’s new book!

       I’ll never forget the look on Dr. Crandall’s face as he joined us in the exam room and spotted Bill!  His expression broke into an irrepressible, ear to ear grin.  He kept saying how great he looked, patting Bill’s shoulders and back and nodding approval all the while.  “This is really good, what have you been doing?” he wanted to know.  And Bill said “Dr. Crandall, I’ve been doing exactly what you told me to do!” This had turned into a pretty good start to our review of Bill’s latest lab work.  His weight was down 20 more pounds (total 42), he’d “graduated” from cardiac rehab and was working out almost daily.

We were there crossing our fingers, hoping to further reduce Bill’s medication.  I had his blood pressure log from the previous 30 days, showing his BP was low and stable.  Scanning my log and Bill’s file, Dr. Crandall mulled it a moment and then said he could stop taking the last of his blood pressure medication, the ACE inhibitor.  Great news!   Reviewing the lab reports again,  his lipid profile was excellent–a total cholesterol of 132, HDL of 69 and LDL of 59.  Dr. Crandall circled it and wrote “GREAT” on the report and handed it to Bill.  With this additional good news he decreased the statin to a  low dose and decreased it further by telling him to take it only every other day.  (We’re pushing to be able to eliminate the statin altogether If Bill’s next lab report is equally good!)

Official business concluded, we remembered to ask Dr. Crandall about his new book coming out. He said it had just been released and he only had three copies in his office, one of which he autographed and presented to Bill, giving us the photo op!  At this point, Dr. Crandall stuck out his hand for a shake and said “I’m proud of you!” … now Bill was grinning.

It was a good day, and we left feeling very pleased and happy with big grins plastered on our faces too!  It was a great milestone in this journey, and it validated we were on the right path!

I’ve added Dr. Crandall’s new book to the Books & Links page, and you can check out Bill’s Amazon.com review here.

Another note of interest!  We’ve been reading that some people are wheat sensitive even though it may not be causing digestive issues as with gluten sensitivity.  We’re thinking this could be the case with Bill.  With the change in diet, we’ve become more in tune with how foods make us feel, and we noticed on the days when Bill ate wheat, even though it was healthy whole grain, he was hungrier and craved more bread.  So we stopped eating wheat, replacing it with other whole grains.  On this lab report, we noticed Bill’s fasting glucose had dropped 20 points and we think it’s the wheat!   I’m continuing to dig in and explore this topic, and may post more about it in the future, as well as posting more wheat free and gluten free recipes, like this delicious cornbread Bill loves!