Ow.

I can't believe it's been almost a week since I posted here. That's really not like me. Especially when there's so much going on in my life this week.

I had Monday off for President's Day, which was awesome. I figured, since I had the day off, that it would be a good day to get my annual physical exam. Yippee! Or something like that. A few days before the appointment, I got a letter in the mail telling me that I didn't need to fast for the physical, and that it would only take about a half hour.

Half hour my ass. I was there for over two hours. It wouldn't have been nearly that long if they didn't leave me sitting in the exam room for 45 minutes wearing nothing but a thin gown that barely closes in the back. Of course, this happens almost every time I go to the doctor's office, so I should really stop being surprised when it happens.

But the other reason it took so long was because some issues came up. My doctor has been concerned about my heart for the last six months or so. I've got high blood pressure - while not typically unusual for my family, it is unusual for me to have developed it so young. I'm on medication for that, and it hadn't really gone down very much since the last time I had been in. So the doc upped my dose. But he was also concerned about my heart rate, which was elevated. Also not common for someone who is not quite 30 years old. So I got an EKG. It actually showed a normal heart rate, but raised another question - something about the thickness of the muscle in the heart. I don't remember the term he used. But just in case, he ordered an echo-cardiogram. It's really just to check and make sure everything is ok.

Remember how the letter the clinic sent me said that I didn't need to fast? Yeah, that wasn't true, either. If I had fasted, I could have gotten my blood work done that day. Now I need to go back (no easy task - from my house, it takes 3 buses and over an hour to get to the clinic) and get some blood drawn for some test... not even sure what they're testing for anymore. I also need to collect my pee for 24 hours. That's gonna be awesome. (More details on the pee test later... that's worthy of its own post).

So, tomorrow I go in for my echo. I'm also going to do my fasting before then so that I can stop by the lab and get my blood drawn (which I hate - both the fasting and the blood thing). Yippee.

In other news, it's Olympics season! I tried to boycott the games this year (because of the plight of the women ski jumpers, but I just couldn't. I love the Olympics. I love the crazy sports like the biathlon and curling. I love the national pride (for all nations, not just my own), and I love seeing gold medal winners singing along with their national anthem.

Last night my parents had a few of us over for game night, and apparently I missed quite the night of Olympic goodness. Phooey on that.

Oh, remember when I went to the doctor's office the other day? I was due for a tetanus shot, and I finally got my flu shot and H1N1 vaccine. Now my arm hurts. Still. 3 days later. Grr.

Lastly, I've been noticing a lot of ice on the sidewalk by my house. I always leave the house from the back door (that's where I keep my shoes, and I don't want to go stomping through the living room when my roommate is sleeping below), and I walk down the sidewalk to get to the corner to wait for the bus in the morning. This morning, I looked down the sidewalk, saw the ice, then looked in the street, didn't see any ice, and decided that would be the safer path. First step into the street? Hit a patch of very slick black ice (didn't see it at all), slipped and fell smack onto my knee. I didn't damage anything too badly - my pants got a little wet, but they're fine now, and my knee barely hurt by the time I got to the bus stop. Of course, now the bruise is swelling up, and it really hurts.

Curse you, winter. Curse you and your icy death traps.