I bet not a lot of doctors say these things.
Scene: ten years ago. Cardiologist’s office after a tilt table test at Stanford, deliberately stressing my autonomic nervous system to see if it would react. It most certainly did; they stopped the test fast with the alarm sounding and a second doctor coming running as my blood pressure hit 63/21 on its way down. That cliche about the hearing goes last? It’s true.
Cardiologist: “I don’t often tell my patients this, but… You need to eat more salt.” (Acknowledging at the same time that the basic problem was the lupus’s effects on the brainstem. I am really really glad to have that particular problem mostly in remission now.)
Today. After discussing the cardiac complications from trying to be in the first few family photos outside in the sun last week–the heart is settling down okay now, no worries, just checking–I mentioned that my weight had been slipping and all my best efforts had only gotten it to hold steady at 110 the past month after going down relentlessly since February.
We discussed a bit. He looked at me. He hesitated. And then he said, “I don’t usually tell my patients this, but…
You need to eat more fat.”
I had a container of homemade chocolate truffles in the freezer already. I told him, that and a vitamin pill equals a can of Ensure, right?
He laughed and did not tell me no.
Maybe I’ll add a little smoked salt to the cocoa coating next time. Just to cover all my ganache bases.