Luna Cinzenta

The company I work for offers free health screenings to employees every year or so. In the past, nurses from a local medical center would come onsite to do the screenings, which included blood draws for the lipid, iron, and glucose level tests.

This year, I missed out on the onsite screenings. But I got a voucher for a free screening at Walgreens (a pharmacy chain). So I did that today. Unlike the prior screenings, these tests were done via finger-pricks rather than blood draws, and the results were available right away, rather than a few weeks later.

During the years 2005 thru 2012, my numbers were in the following ranges (mg/dL):
Total Cholesterol: 121 - 133
Triglycerides: 29 - 64
HDL Cholesterol: 47 - 59
LDL: 62 - 72
VLDL: 6 - 13

The HDL + LDL + VLDL numbers equal the Total Cholesterol numbers.

I was first screened in 2002, and I skipped the next 2 years. For whatever reason, my LDL was a bit higher in 2002:
Total Cholesterol: 151
HDL: 49
LDL: 90
VLDL: 12


Today's results showed an even higher LDL value, 96. That caught my attention, as it is near the high range of optimal (<100). Then I noticed that today's results don't include VLDL, so today's LDL number must include the VLDL. Then I noticed that today's numbers don't even add up... The sheet says:
Total Cholesterol: 121
HDL: 52
TRG: 45
LDL: 96

Hmmm.. 121 - 52 = 69. The nurse must have transposed 69 to 96 when she wrote the LDL number down. In fact, I remember looking at the machine that had analyzed my finger-prick blood sample, and seeing it display "N/A" under LDL. The nurse must have been doing arithmetic in her head.

Anyway, so this year's real LDL number is likely 69, and it likely includes the VLDL, so rather than it being much worse than the other years, it is slightly better.

Then again, this page says:

There may be several reasons for an LDL cholesterol result of N/A. The LDL cholesterol is calculated as follows: LDL=(TC-HDL-TRG/5). If the triglyceride result is >400 mg/dL (>4.51 mmol/L), the calculated LDL cholesterol will not be accurate and the LDL result will be reported as N/A. If the TC, HDL or TRG results are outside the measuring range of the instrument, the LDL will also not be calculated and will be reported as N/A.

So maybe today's LDL number isn't reliable at all.

Hmmm... for all the prior years, VLDL = Triglycerides/5.
So it appears that the VLDL and LDL numbers are always calculated, rather than measured. Only the Total Cholesterol, HDL, and Triglyceride levels are actually measured.

Today's test didn't measure my iron level. In the previous years, it ranged from 89 to 138, all within normal limits.

My blood pressure tends to be on the low side. Today it was 90/65. The highest one from prior years was 107/73.


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A few of my videos on Youtube continue to get occasional comments long after I uploaded them. For instance, the ones where I discussed dysthymia. Some of the comments really make me curious as to what I specifically said in those videos. Comments such as:

"Every word you said sounded exactly what I am going through"
"You describe the whole thing perfectly."
"Great testimony. You explained things very well, and I relate completely"
"Hey, this really rang a bell with me. I've been thinking along the same lines, too, and I really think there's some truth in that "fantasyland" you were talking about.",
"You and I could be the same person, everything you described is me to a tee. "

But the only way for me to remember what I said in the videos, is to watch them again. I keep thinking I should transcribe them for my own reference. Maybe I'll finally do that. Maybe I'll see how good the automatic closed captions are, and see if I can copy & edit them.

If I had made it a text post to begin with, instead of a video, I wouldn't have to spend time watching and transcribing it. I could simply bring up the page and see the words. I probably would have been able to compose and articulate my thoughts better, too. But oh well. Videos seem to reach more people and get more comments, than text posts along the same lines. So videos have their benefits too.

If I compose text and then try to read/speak it in a video, rather than ad-libbing, I feel totally awkward and silly. Besides being self-conscious about what I've written, it also seems fairly pointless to make a video, rather than simply posting the text.


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If you've ever been a geography buff*, you'll probably enjoy this game: GeoGuessr.

* when I was as a kid, I read all the National Geographics I could find, and my idea of fun was to memorize the names and locations of all the Shetland, Orkney, and Hebrides islands.


via andrewducker


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Me: Do these look ok together?
[brandishing a black/gray plaid shirt and a black/purple/white tie-dye pair of pants]

Qiao: hmm... Based on your standards, yes.

Me: :-/


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This is a very strange t-shirt.

These pants are quite striking.


Crossposted from Dreamwidth. Comments there:
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I'm curious as to what people think of it. I have an ASD, which gives me a lot of trouble when it comes to relationships and connecting emotionally to people, and as a result of that that I am rarely physically attracted to someone else, and even if I am issues with physical intimacy mean that I rarely actually do anything about it. So, functionally, I am asexual. And since I've come to terms with this I've discovered that there is a LOT of hostility towards asexuality, from both gay and straight people. I'd like to know what your attitude is, and why.


THANS!