As of this morning, I weigh 171.2lb, on a 6 1/2ft frame. Two years ago, I weighed 230, and after watching all those pharma commercials, I recognized that their target audience was all overweight. So I decided to put the fork down a bit sooner at each meal, and got it down to 175-180. After the recent heart attack and a much more cautious approach to the salt and fluids, I got down to the 170-173 range.
Tolerating one's own overweight is a life choice.
The VA is enrolling me in a Post MI/Congestive Heart Failure health monitoring program that involves a daily routine taking 5 minutes. I will receive a module that's a tad larger than a tissue box, incorporating a BP cuff, a scale, a mini data keyboard/monitor terminal, and a cellular data transmission node. I become one of a panel of about 50 patients who constitute the sole responsibility of a nurse practicianer. On the basis of daily responses to a triage questionnaire and my vitals, a dialogue is established where trends and anomalies can be recognized and addressed on a daily basis. Conditional meds onhand will constitute a means to address the more urgent situations.
I already record these data manually, but now, they are available to my health care professionals within minutes of their acquisition. This program supplement the nightly ICD RF data query and transmission I have had in place since a decade ago. People who fear technology don't avail themselves of these medical advances.
That's my taxpayer dollars at work.
Greg