My Dirty Little Secret

I bet you weren't going to guess my 'dirty little secret' is my cholesterol. Everyone's first response is always, "What you're so young!" "What, You eat so healthy!" "What you're not fat!" None of that matters when high cholesterol runs in your family. Technical term; Familial hypercholesterolemia. Good times. It all started about six years ago when I went to the doctor for something entirely unrelated, and she reported back, "well that was all fine but you're cholesterol was through the roof." One or all three of the phrases above were my first reaction. I had not fasted for this blood test, but she said it didn't matter, the numbers were still too high. I went on a statin, yes, under 30 on a statin. (A statin blocks cholesterol from being produced in the liver, Crestor and Lipitor are the biggies.) After a few months I blamed it on a panic attack. The panic attack was so far off the norm from anything I had ever experienced I figured it had to be from the statin, so I stopped taking it. Since then it's been in the back of my mind that I need to get it checked. My parents, grandma and aunt are all on statins. Every time my heart races I think, "Oh no, I'm one of those 30-somethings that appears perfectly healthy and has a heart attack." I had never gone to get it rechecked. Finally, 2012, I decided to get it together. I've got a house, we're settled in, time to get a Primary Care Physician (PCP), have a physical, and a cholesterol test.

Ted, my aunt and my grandma all liked a practice that is a few miles from our house. I made an appointment and went last week. The doctor was my age (weird!) but she was great and answered all of my random questions. I had fasted for over 14 hours by the time my blood was drawn. Then I waited for the results. I had been anxious for the results, but I was not prepared to read them. I opened the letter on a Friday afternoon, and the cover letter said, "You blood test was fairly good, but your cholesterol is very high." First of all "fairly good" does not sound good at all, and "very high" is definitely not good! 251 LDL to be exactly, I'm not sure exactly what that means, other than it's supposed to be under 100 so 251 is like getting a 25% on a test, definitely not good! It is so high that exercise and diet will do very little to bring it down. It is so high that I'll be on a treatment for life. It is so high, that I was not too far off being worried about a heart attack.

Update: I wrote the above over two weeks ago and have since had some other medical excitement. I'm happy to report despite blacking out two times in two months (syncope), a CT Scan and Cardiologist visit both declared I'm healthy (well other than the ridiculous cholesterol thing). I still have a few more tests to go but the cardiologist and my PCP say they are both precautionary and they really see nothing to worry about. Although it's been a little scary, I feel good feeling like I've been THOROUGHLY checked over and don't have anything to worry about, except the cholesterol. (If you're curious, the blacking-out was a vasovagal response heighten by taking cold medicine the day before. Needless to say, no more cold medicine for me!)

If anyone out there knows any other young people with ridiculous cholesterol please let me know, I'd love to feel a little less like a Hematologic freak of nature! It was weird enough being in a cardiologist office today, the youngest patient by about 40 years!