-- Buddha, Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta
Day 95 AS
What a lucky woman I am!! I feel most fortunate, and grateful there for.
Total food freedom day has arrived. I can now eat anything, even raw vegies and fruit, so salads are now officially back in the mix. I still have problems if I exceed my capacity, but now can have a LITTLE sugar and fat too -- moderation in all things, even moderation.
Christmas yesterday was wonderful. Santa was more than kind. John, on his behalf, provided some photography motivation in the form of a fabulous new macro lens for my big Canon SLR camera and a handgrip add-on for my little Leica. We had a lovely Christmas Eve celebration the night before with wonderful friends and family. My first one with "forced" moderation and it was OK!! I consumed half of a Triscuit with the most amazing mushroom pate that John made -- it was OMG delicious!! Made with porcinis, chanterelles, almonds and cream -- truly delightful. Later I had 3-1/2 Swedish meatballs and a couple of bites of Honey-baked ham (thanks to Fern for reminding me to slow down my eating process and to chew chew chew!!). I passed on all of the herring and other fish, meats and cheeses this year, but I heard rave reviews for John's chef skills, well supplemented by his sous-chef Roger. There is still a ton left, so I suspect I'll nibble on an item or two here or there over the next couple of weeks. The gravlax I'm told set new records for wonderfulness. John attributes it to the extra aquavit he used in the curing process. Of course no aquavit, beer or glogg for me this year -- but John did find a nice still bottled fancy water that I enjoyed immensely, along with the smell of the glogg spices.
Health wise all continues to go well. I saw my internist last week and am now down officially 130 pounds since that scary April high weight -- another 70 would be lovely if I can do it. I'm still plagued by lack of motivation to exercise and know I need to find a way to get into it. Ugh. That's the only way I'm going to do another 70 though I know. My internist also noted I have a ton of nervous energy now (weird to have any kind of energy I must confess after so many years with none!!) and suggested I look into some kind of meditation. There's a Buddhist temple in the hills about 20 miles from here. Her husband took a class there and really enjoyed it so I may check it out. The only issue I have with it is that it's Thursday evenings from 7:30-9:30 and I turn into a pumpkin at 9. We'll see!!
The gout finally seems to be under some degree of control -- yay. I can actually wear soft leather shoes again without wanting to scream in pain by the end of the day. My blood pressure is awesome -- no more dizziness or exhaustion. Cholesterol's a little high, but all my docs are attributing this to the period of rapid weight loss -- all that fat floating around in my blood instead of settling into my body waiting for excretion apparently. My blood sugar's still a little high, but my endocrinologist increased my oral med dose and it's almost right now... One oral med vs. the olden days of two plus max dose of insulin is quite a wonderful change in my mind -- one I could be happy with forever if we don't get any better than today's med routine. Of course, this is another big reason to psych up for the dreaded exercise thing -- that would help both the cholesterol and the blood sugar.
All in all, although this hasn't been my favorite year, I have to say it's been a good one for me. I'm so glad I made the decision to have the surgery. There are times I emotionally wish I could just sit down and eat a ton of some wonderful thing or the other, but the physical difference in my digestive system prevents me from making that bad choice. Feeling so much better, and having so many dramatic improvements in my overall health have definitely been worth the (fortunately fairly infrequent) moments of longing for the olden days. The other awesome benefit is the improvement in John's longevity that's followed -- he's lost a lot of weight trying to help me eat more healthily and looks great!! We're going to have to save our pennies in the first months of the year to buy both of ourselves new wardrobes. :)
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Good news!
“Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!” -- Anne Frank
Day 79 AS
I hadn't realized it's been so long since I posted! Apologies to those who've been asking...
I saw my surgeon yesterday and my progress is astounding! I'm down 124 pounds now since my April high. She calculated I've lost 58% of my excess body weight. My blood tests came back great overall -- normal kidney and liver functions, calcium, B12, iron and other vitamins are normal (a concern with this procedure -- looks like my supplements are working!). My cholesterol was good although triglycerides a little high but that's to be expected with rapid weight loss I'm told. My fasting blood sugar's a little high too, but I test every day so knew that already. The surgeon was still amazed it was so close to normal with only one oral med now -- vs. two in the past and massive doses of insulin. I do so hope the insulin days are over... time will tell, but so far so good!
I was having problems with low blood pressure and those are now gone. I have a lot more energy as a result and no more dizzy spells -- woohoo. Still some annoying gout issues in my big toe, but I'm trying a different med now and it's definitely better. Hopefully after the next few months that will get back to normal too.
Thanks to my office neighbor, the headaches that have been plaguing me at work due to the fluorescent lighting may now be at an end -- fingers crossed. She had the great idea of removing the lights above my desk. That helped a ton, but the lights in the hallway still led to a low level headache. To the rescue once again, Robin loaned me a big umbrella that we set up in my line of vision to the hall lighting and voila -- not one headache today for the first time since I returned to work. Go Robin!! This is saying a lot as the stress level generally totally sucks at work right now, so headache free in spite of that is totally awesome.
I went out to lunch for the first time today with another wonderful colleague, Belinda. What a great time we had! The server was concerned that I wasn't enjoying my meal as I still eat so little, but it was delicious -- no worries. I felt quite odd telling her I just don't eat that much -- never something I ever thought I'd say. I drove -- still paranoid that seatbelts won't fit, even though intellectually I'm pretty sure most will now. I've been enjoying the little milestones as different accomodations for my size that I've made have been going away -- Belinda pointed out one I didn't even know was gone now, that being the ability to cross my arms over the steering wheel as I crank into a parking place. In the past my arms would be limited pretty much to the bottom of the steering wheel, likely because I had to sit back so far to fit behind it. I've had to move my seat closer to the wheel a couple of times now!
Catching up on a great past event -- Thanksgiving. Our visit with my dad and his wife was fantastic. It was so great seeing him!! We went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant the night before the holiday. I enjoyed some yummy Pollo de Caldo (their concept of a chicken and vegie soup) for that dinner and a couple of subsequent lunches. John outdid himself with Thanksgiving supper. He brined a fresh free range turkey using Alice Water's famous recipe, originally shared with us by our awesome home-chef friend Carol. He made some traditional stuffing, his now-famous ancho-chili sweet potatoes, perfect gravy and a Splenda-based pumpkin pie. I made some Splenda cranberries and found both of the Splenda dishes surprisingly tasty. I did exceed my half-cup collective limit by a bite or two and paid the price for a short time afterwards, but it was totally worth it. I learned my lesson and kept in line with leftovers. One of my favorite leftover creations of John's was a 1/8 of an Ak-mak cracker with turkey and low-fat jarlsberg melted over the top -- yum yum.
We hosted our first dinner party post-op last week in honor of John's birthday. It was great seeing everyone. I was worried about how I'd deal with 4 courses, but it turned out to be a total non-event. I am still seemingly full all the time so simply passed on appetizers, (in spite of how good they looked), had my normal meal portion of the entree and passed on the cheese course and dessert. I experimented with a Splenda flourless chocolate cake for me and it was a nightmare -- glad John picked up a decadent "real" one for everyone else. I guess I just need to practice modifying recipes a bit more. Fortunately no worries as I wasn't at all interested in dessert as it turned out -- another quite odd feeling for me. John opened some lovely (as I was told) old wines that everyone enjoyed. I'm glad I have no interest at all whatsoever in wine still and hope that continues, given the negative consequences for me after having had this procedure. The only downer of the evening is that it was one of my "bad" days -- I seem to have one a week or so where I just feel generally crappy. Thank God for such terrific friends though. I had to go lay down for a few minutes after the entree and when I got back up all of my lady friends were in the kitchen calmly (and wonderfully!) taking care of clearing the course. I am such a lucky person to be surrounded by so many awesome people.
Speaking of awesome people, John remains the awesomest. I'm so glad I broke that promise to myself to stay away from men for life a couple of months before we met! :) My life would be so sad and empty without him. He finished an incredible exterior holiday light display last week. He received the best ever compliment too for it. A lady had stopped her car in front of our home at dusk. He was rolling the trash cans to the curb and given it's a little odd for someone to do that around here he checked to make sure everything was OK with her. She had a couple of young kids with her and responded that all was well, they were just waiting for Santa to wake up. We have had a very jovial Santa blow up for many years now (some of you may remember the year some hoodlum slashed him and I had to stitch up his wounds. I'm extra glad I did so now!). Sure enough a couple of minutes later the timer switched him on and he lit up and blew up and "woke up." They stop by every night on their way home from day care to see Santa wake up -- how cool is that? :)
I truly hope you are enjoying this holiday season. There's so much to be thankful for. I love the Anne Frank quote at the start of this blog entry. I hope we all find our true potential.
Day 79 AS
I hadn't realized it's been so long since I posted! Apologies to those who've been asking...
I saw my surgeon yesterday and my progress is astounding! I'm down 124 pounds now since my April high. She calculated I've lost 58% of my excess body weight. My blood tests came back great overall -- normal kidney and liver functions, calcium, B12, iron and other vitamins are normal (a concern with this procedure -- looks like my supplements are working!). My cholesterol was good although triglycerides a little high but that's to be expected with rapid weight loss I'm told. My fasting blood sugar's a little high too, but I test every day so knew that already. The surgeon was still amazed it was so close to normal with only one oral med now -- vs. two in the past and massive doses of insulin. I do so hope the insulin days are over... time will tell, but so far so good!
I was having problems with low blood pressure and those are now gone. I have a lot more energy as a result and no more dizzy spells -- woohoo. Still some annoying gout issues in my big toe, but I'm trying a different med now and it's definitely better. Hopefully after the next few months that will get back to normal too.
Thanks to my office neighbor, the headaches that have been plaguing me at work due to the fluorescent lighting may now be at an end -- fingers crossed. She had the great idea of removing the lights above my desk. That helped a ton, but the lights in the hallway still led to a low level headache. To the rescue once again, Robin loaned me a big umbrella that we set up in my line of vision to the hall lighting and voila -- not one headache today for the first time since I returned to work. Go Robin!! This is saying a lot as the stress level generally totally sucks at work right now, so headache free in spite of that is totally awesome.
I went out to lunch for the first time today with another wonderful colleague, Belinda. What a great time we had! The server was concerned that I wasn't enjoying my meal as I still eat so little, but it was delicious -- no worries. I felt quite odd telling her I just don't eat that much -- never something I ever thought I'd say. I drove -- still paranoid that seatbelts won't fit, even though intellectually I'm pretty sure most will now. I've been enjoying the little milestones as different accomodations for my size that I've made have been going away -- Belinda pointed out one I didn't even know was gone now, that being the ability to cross my arms over the steering wheel as I crank into a parking place. In the past my arms would be limited pretty much to the bottom of the steering wheel, likely because I had to sit back so far to fit behind it. I've had to move my seat closer to the wheel a couple of times now!
Catching up on a great past event -- Thanksgiving. Our visit with my dad and his wife was fantastic. It was so great seeing him!! We went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant the night before the holiday. I enjoyed some yummy Pollo de Caldo (their concept of a chicken and vegie soup) for that dinner and a couple of subsequent lunches. John outdid himself with Thanksgiving supper. He brined a fresh free range turkey using Alice Water's famous recipe, originally shared with us by our awesome home-chef friend Carol. He made some traditional stuffing, his now-famous ancho-chili sweet potatoes, perfect gravy and a Splenda-based pumpkin pie. I made some Splenda cranberries and found both of the Splenda dishes surprisingly tasty. I did exceed my half-cup collective limit by a bite or two and paid the price for a short time afterwards, but it was totally worth it. I learned my lesson and kept in line with leftovers. One of my favorite leftover creations of John's was a 1/8 of an Ak-mak cracker with turkey and low-fat jarlsberg melted over the top -- yum yum.
We hosted our first dinner party post-op last week in honor of John's birthday. It was great seeing everyone. I was worried about how I'd deal with 4 courses, but it turned out to be a total non-event. I am still seemingly full all the time so simply passed on appetizers, (in spite of how good they looked), had my normal meal portion of the entree and passed on the cheese course and dessert. I experimented with a Splenda flourless chocolate cake for me and it was a nightmare -- glad John picked up a decadent "real" one for everyone else. I guess I just need to practice modifying recipes a bit more. Fortunately no worries as I wasn't at all interested in dessert as it turned out -- another quite odd feeling for me. John opened some lovely (as I was told) old wines that everyone enjoyed. I'm glad I have no interest at all whatsoever in wine still and hope that continues, given the negative consequences for me after having had this procedure. The only downer of the evening is that it was one of my "bad" days -- I seem to have one a week or so where I just feel generally crappy. Thank God for such terrific friends though. I had to go lay down for a few minutes after the entree and when I got back up all of my lady friends were in the kitchen calmly (and wonderfully!) taking care of clearing the course. I am such a lucky person to be surrounded by so many awesome people.
Speaking of awesome people, John remains the awesomest. I'm so glad I broke that promise to myself to stay away from men for life a couple of months before we met! :) My life would be so sad and empty without him. He finished an incredible exterior holiday light display last week. He received the best ever compliment too for it. A lady had stopped her car in front of our home at dusk. He was rolling the trash cans to the curb and given it's a little odd for someone to do that around here he checked to make sure everything was OK with her. She had a couple of young kids with her and responded that all was well, they were just waiting for Santa to wake up. We have had a very jovial Santa blow up for many years now (some of you may remember the year some hoodlum slashed him and I had to stitch up his wounds. I'm extra glad I did so now!). Sure enough a couple of minutes later the timer switched him on and he lit up and blew up and "woke up." They stop by every night on their way home from day care to see Santa wake up -- how cool is that? :)
I truly hope you are enjoying this holiday season. There's so much to be thankful for. I love the Anne Frank quote at the start of this blog entry. I hope we all find our true potential.
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