Happy Halloween

It is good to be home. I did get my exercise in on this trip to Yankton. Twice a day even. School hot lunch did not agree with my band at all. I am pretty certain I didn't gain any weight as it didn't stay down. Oh well! I had my pre-op conversation this morning with a surgical nurse from Sanford. One of her questions made me laugh. "Have you purposely lost any weight in the past month?" DUH - like maybe 34 pounds since banding. I must admit I am edgey and not real happy about current events. I won't weigh until Monday morning at the hospital. I plan to start liquid diet tomorrow just in case they have to fiddle with my liver again. Since it is the last day of October, I need to set a new exercise goal. 354 miles isn't bad! Never would have believed I could do that. I guess I will set one for the next 60 days which would take me right up to New Years Eve. I wish my knees would let me jog as I would like to "run" a 5K in January with Allison. Maybe I could run the first block and the last block so that I look confident. I think I will load some moderately fast music on my player and try something on the treadmill at the Rec tomorrow. Can't hurt since I won't be running after Monday. Can you tell I have an "attitude" tonight. Guess I will go do some quilting to shake this mood.

Back to the Grind

We had a great time in Michigan! If shopping counts toward walking, then I was OK. However, I only took one opportunity to really exercise while I was gone so today it was back to the grind. I really did notice that I wasn't formally exercising and I guess I could say that it didn't feel right. I hope the scales don't show that result. Most of the time I was mindful of what I chose to eat. I so miss Lake Michigan. There is something about the sound of the waves and the open water that invigorates my soul. I rode my bike this afternoon when I got home from work. I will finish out the week with two a days and try to finish off my exercise goal with a bang. Since I am having surgery on Monday I don't know what restrictions will be put in place. I will start a liquid diet on Saturday so that I have a ready liver if they need to get into that area. I really wish i didn't have to do this again. Oh well! I did take my 24th day of the month picture and will post it tomorrow.

What a Difference

I know yesterday was Thursday but the lurking scale was used because I was leaving on a jet plane for Michigan and would not be able to weigh on Friday as usual. Six days and two pounds! Of course I was pleased. The real test though was sitting in those airplane seats and using the seat belt. If truth be known, I always feared that someday I would have to use one of those extenders and I always worried about my flab invading the personal space of the next person. NOT NOW! I could sit comfortably and actually cinch the belt. What a great feeling. May seem like a little problem but really not. I remember flying just this past summer when the flight attendant met a very obese woman at the door of the plane with the dreaded extender. I remember feeling so very embarrassed for her. I even sat in the middle seat of three on the flight out of Chicago and was not worried at all about the invasion principle. I had the opportunity to talk to a very nice Azusa Pacific student. He is a cross country runner. On the flight to Chicago I had just read about a 5K held in the St Paul duing the Winter Carnival. So I asked the young man how many miles that was. I will be jogging/walking a 5K soon. I plan to make that a new goal!

I Guess I Am Hooked

Today was a very busy day. I had to be in Platte by 7:30 so that I could meet Dan and drive to Andes for a meeting at 8:45. After work I needed to get a flu shot and then it was off to quilting class. I totally enjoy that experience even though I need to be more precise in measuring and cutting! When I got home after 9:15 pm, I just knew I had to exercise. I couldn't go to bed without putting in the time necessary to see results. That's why I say I guess I am hooked! I just know that each day is a gift and I need to take advantage of this opportunity to do what is healthy for me. Exercise and eating right are the two important things I need to remember.
Also, I know I have many friends and family pulling for me. You can't imagine what a morale booster that is! I so believe in the power of encouragement and the gift of caring about others. I need to reiterate my reason for writing this blog. Without a doubt, I need to write about this experience in order to sort out how I feel and what I am thinking. But also of importance is the good that might come to someone else who is contemplating this surgery. It is almost eight weeks and I am facing another surgical experience, yet I have to say, it is the best thing that has ever happened to me. Well, I have to admit, being a wife, mother, and grandmother are probably the best things. I so want to succeed!

What I Love About Me

Deep! This might get a little deep as I just returned from church and God is speaking to me. For, oh so many years, I have tried to love myself but to no avail. From my degree program, I learned that if you want to be OK with others, you must first love yourself. But try as I might, I have always allowed the louder tapes (from others I might add) to dominate my thinking about what is/was wrong with me rather than what is right. I need to shake this stinkin' thinkin'! I am reading a delightful book right now, Nora Ephron wrote, I Feel Bad About My Neck and other Thoughts on Being a Woman and I laugh until I start to think about the text. I am having some better thoughts these days in response to me. First, I feel really good about exercising at least once every day and with the primary goal of exercising twice every day. I feel good about the sweat and the burn that sharpens my thinking. I feel good that I take the initiative to go do it and when I am finished with the 35 minutes, I have done it! It is not a habit and I am not certain it will ever become a habit, but for now, it is what I do and I feel good about it. I have several young friends who are running marathons and I applaude them for their efforts. My marathon is exercising every day for the rest of my life. By the way, today I will break the 300 mile point in my exercise goal for August 27 - October 31.
I also feel good about my legs. I have great legs. They are not cross hatched with spider veins like some of my peers. They are not covered with hair. I remember that about my age, my mom stopped shaving her legs. Gross! And this morning when I was putting on stockings I did some further investigation. I have always had well developed calves. I started dancing when I was four and didn't stop the lessons and performances until I was 16. In order to put the pounds "on point", I had to have strong muscles in my calves (don't really like the plural form cause it alludes to cows-oh well). Back to this morning. I can now take two hands and keep my fingers touching all the way up to the knee. Now granted, I won't insure my legs like Ann Miller, but I love my legs.

16 Sticks of Butter

Oh my goodness, my life is a roller coaster. Yesterday I scheduled surgery to fix the port on November 3 and today Thomas's scale showed 211.5! My BMI has moved to the bottom most spot on the morbidly obese chart. I am less than 12 pounds to legal on my driver's license and I now wear a size 8 shoe. Numbers are a constant on my mind. I think I should post a picture taken last weekend as even though the top is white, I do look so much healthier. No, I will wait until next week and then that will be my two month shot.

A Bump in the Road

Just got home from Sioux Falls and my appointment with Dr. Glatt. It was my day to get my first fill. The good news is that I weighed 218 on the scale in Dr. Glatt's office and that is 8 pounds since September 17 (28 days or an average if 2 pounds a week). That is just great. The bad news is that my port is trying to flip over or according to the X-ray, be as elusive to the needle as it can be. Tracy tried to get it and so did Dr. Glatt in his office but they worried the port had flipped and the tubing had a kink. So Dr. Glatt said he wanted to get a floroscope (real time X-ray) so he knew what he was dealing with. I prayed all the way over to X-ray and when he inserted the needle again, he said " that little bugger" and announced that he was able to insert the needle and take out fluid and insert 3 ccs of saline. He had me sit up and drink water to see if all was OK. It was and he was going to add a bit more but when I laid back down, the port started moving again and he couldn't inject the needle. Now all of this sounds horrible but really I only felt the pressure and the nerves were far worse than anything. So the conclusion is that Dr. Glatt doesn't want me to have to go through this experience again. I will be scheduled for surgery to open the incision where the port is, they will push the tubing back into the cavity where it has worked its way out, and re-attach the port so that it doesn't move around. If I didn't have so much flab around that area it wouldn't be so difficult to feel but all I can do is work on that. I am lucky to have such a fine surgeon and will await the call from Nurse Tammy to schedule one more operation this year. I think I jinxed myself by telling Vince a few weeks ago that I was not having any more surgeries. We laughed on the drive home about having something to "blog" about.