From the Editor’s Desk: Healthy (Premium)

I've spent a lot of time at the doctor lately. There's nothing wrong per se, just some overdue check-ups and vaccinations, and whatnot. But I also wanted to use this time to be proactive about my health and get ahead of a few things. And while I suspect not many people try to drag out their doctor appointments, I recently found myself doing just that.

Long story short, I've been overweight for most of my adult life, and, like many, I've tried different things over the years to fix that. More specifically, my blood pressure, (bad) cholesterol, and glucose levels have been at least a little bit high for over 20 years. And while I'm sure they've gone up and down over time, I was surprised to discover that each was down in my most recent tests, as it's not like I've been particularly good about eating lately.

Less surprisingly, health care in my country is broken. I think I told the story about one of my previous doctor's visits after the height of the pandemic when I told her that I was concerned about all the eating and drinking we had been doing to cope with the stress. Don't worry about it, she told me, as everyone was behaving similarly. That's not what I want to hear from a doctor.

And so it is perhaps not surprising that I am being seen by a different person now. And after doing a full blood work panel and going over the results with this new physician, I noticed something was missing from the otherwise rather complete set of tests. There was no glucose measurement. So I asked about that, and she brought in a nurse to prick my finger and run the test on the spot. And as noted, it was a little bit high but lower than the previous year.

Most people would likely have accepted that as a victory---and perhaps even stopped for a celebratory ice cream on the way home from the appointment---but I don't like ice cream and, more to the point, I had an ulterior motive. I wanted to get a continuous glucose monitor so that I could see which food spiked my blood sugar the most so that I could avoid those foods. (I was reminded of this because Microsoft's Scott Hanselman, a diabetic, was wearing one during his Build 2023 sessions. I've been meaning to try one for a while.)

Did I mention that health care is broken in my country?

Well, I can't get one: they're expensive and I don’t have pre-diabetes or diabetes, so my insurance won't cover it. She agreed with my argument that it's healthier and smarter to be preventative with this kind of thing, but that's not the system. And so I was told that I could get an over-the-counter glucose test system, which involves a lot of tiny needles and test strips, and pricking yourself in the finger throughout the day. It's not great, but in the interest of science---or, my own health, I guess---I've been trying to keep up with it. There are no surprises yet---things like bagels are very bad, things like steak not so much---and now my fingertips hurt.

I had other concerns that delayed my doctor ...