Jobs, Illness, Heart Disease & a Flooded Desert

Jobs have come and gone.  Other jobs have proved elusive.  Another job was not what it appeared to be on first presentation to me.  Having expressed interest in one job I arranged to have an informal chat.  Which then became a more formal-sounding interview.  I appeared on time only to discover that they’d given that job to another. And somehow they’d forgotten to telephone or email me to let me know…

A close friend in town is very ill and we’re awaiting news due next week of his test results.  He’s way too young to be this ill.

I had hoped to make it to age 50 before having heart disease shoved up close and personal by way of a prescription for cholesterol lowering medication.  I have always had high cholesterol and it’s presumed to be genetic. The lowest reading I’ve had was 5.5 mmol/l and it’s been around 6.5 over the past five years.  But over a period of 3 months it skyrocketed to a more worrying 7.5.   Diet had not been changed so it’s time to try medication.

My blood pressure over the past year has also crept up very high (but with occasional large dips back to safer levels) & my doctor advised purchasing an automatic blood pressure monitoring kit.  Which I did.  And it looks like my BP is a lot lower when taken upon getting up in the morning.  This is good for it should mean I won’t need blood pressure medication yet.

Just the cholesterol-lowering medication.

I will be curious to see the results of the stress ECG & other heart tests later this year.  My father’s side of the family (including my generation) all have heart disease to some degree, many also have a history of minor heart attacks.  Dad died suddenly at age 65 from a massive heart attack.  In fact, most of the men on that side of the family died suddenly in their early 60s.

With all the rain that has fallen over outback Queensland over the past weeks & flooding the channel country, we’re hoping to do a flight over the desert to see the water flowing for ourselves.  Given good weather we should take off tomorrow morning for Birdsville, Boulia and maybe Innamincka.  I’ve charged up my camera battery in readiness.

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