The Month after Christmas

Twas the month after Christmas, And all through the house, Nothing would fit me, Not even a blouse. The cookies I'd nibbled, The chocolate I'd taste At the holiday parties Had gone to my waist. When I got on the scales There arose such a number! When I walked to the store (less a walk than a lumber), I'd remember the marvelous meals I'd prepared; The gravies and sauces and beef nicely rared, The wine and the rum balls, the bread and the cheese And the way I'd never said, "No thank you, please." As I dressed myself in my husband's old shirt And prepared once again to do battle with dirt... I said to myself, as I only can, "You can't spend a winter, disguised as a man!" So, away with the last of the sour cream dip. Get rid of the fruit cake, every cracker and chip. Every last bit of food that I like must be banished Till all the additional ounces have vanished. I won't have a cookie, not even a lick. I'll want only to chew on a long celery stick. I won't have hot biscuits, or corn bread, or pie. I'll munch on a carrot and quietly cry. I'm hungry, I'm lonesome, and life is a bore... But isn't that what January is for? Unable to giggle, no longer a riot. Happy New Year to all, and to all a good diet.

Good News...

The Hida scan was a good thing to have done. The Surgeon would have ordered it anyway, so by getting the PA at the other clinic to order it before-hand, we shaved a week at least off of the time Everardo is missing from work. His result of the Hida wasn't horrible... at 34% it was only 1% less than the low end of "normal", but the fact that the CCK shot reproduced the pain he has been feeling was the "Aha!" for the Doc and so out comes his gallbladder! He's scheduled for surgery on Tuesday the 12th, and has been told he'll be out of work for probably 2 weeks after that. So, that will bring the grand total to 4 wks of work missed. I never really thought I'd say I was glad to have gone through bankruptcy, but the fact that we did, and that the only debts we now have are the house and a student loan, means that we are stable enough now (and have enough saved up) to get through this time without it being a crisis. We aren't even having to dip into our emergency fund, unless something more unexpected happens. We will have a hefty co-insurance portion to pay to the hospital, I'm sure, but this hospital has always been really great about letting us make payments (and they don't charge interest) so I don't think it will be a big problem. It will probably push back our trip to Mexico, since we need to save up a lot of $$ before we can go, but we weren't planning on it until probably after school gets out, anyway. Life goes on. :)

Just a quick update...

Ev. went for his CCK Hida scan at the hospital today. Sure enough, when they gave his the shot of CCK, he got hit by the same pain that he's been feeling. That makes me hopeful, but now we have to wait until tomorrow afternoon when we see the surgeon again to find out the results of the test and what that means as far as the problem and treatment. I'll update again after we see the doc. On the unrelated side, I've lost 5 lbs! :)

A light at the end of the tunnel?

I just hope it's not an oncoming train! lol! I took hubby to a walk-in clinic Saturday evening because he was still complaining of the abdominal/stomach pain, and now it seemed to be in the lower right quadrant also... which made me wonder if it was appendicitis or something related. So off we went... the first clinic we had planned on going to told us there was a 2 hour wait, and we know from experience that they would probably just send him to the ER anyway... so we decided to head towards the hospital. As we got close, I remembered that there is another walk-in clinic in the same building near the hospital where Ev saw the surgeon last week, so we decided to stop there and see if they take his insurance... They do, and there were only 3 people ahead of him in line, so we decided to stop there. I'm so glad we did. The PAC that saw him is one who I have worked with (interpreted for) before in another town... turns out this is her side job on the weekends. She listened to our story and agreed that the appendix should be checked, and also checked him for a inguinal hernia just in case before sending him to the hospital for a CAT scan. Then we went back over to the clinic for the results... appendix is fine, no kidney stones or hernia... then she suggested that the next test that the surgeon would probably recommend would be a special test to see if the gall bladder is functioning. Just because he doesn't have stones doesn't mean that the gall bladder hasn't just quit working altogether. As we talked about his upcoming appointment (not until Thursday) she decided to go ahead and order the test so that they can hopefully get it done and have the results by the time we see the surgeon again, and not have to wait yet another week in agony for it to be done. She also wrote him off of work until Thursday, which is a good thing considering the medication she gave him to try in the meantime is such that he shouldn't be operating any machinery or even driving while taking it. He took his first dose tonight, and was acting really loopy, we'll see tomorrow whether it really makes any difference in the pain.
I feel a lot better after this visit, mainly because she has given us an inkling of what might be going on, and a plan to get to the bottom of it instead of leaving us hanging. (On a side note, I was kind of irked that the surgeon didn't even talk to me after the scope to let me know how it went, and the report the nurses had was scanty at best, and offered no advice for in the meantime.)
I'm hoping that the more things get ruled out, the closer we are getting to finding out what is going on. :)

Happy New Year!

Well... we're off to a roaring start to the new year... Actually it feels more like a snail's start. Today feels like just another day, hubby fell asleep last night before midnight, and I was asleep by 12:01. I wasn't even staying up on purpose, just trying to get a few things done and it happened to be midnight when I finally turned in.

My husband's ultrasound and EGD (endoscopy) yesterday to find out why he is having so much stomach pain/pressure was basically a waste of time. The only thing they found was some gastritis, or inflammation of the lining of the stomach, but I don't think that is enough to explain all of the symptoms he's having. He's had gastritis before, but it has never affected him like this. So know we feel like we're back to square one. The bad thing is, now we're back to the beginning of out deductible and out of pocket limits on the insurance too. (The fact that we reached the yearly out of pocket limit last year gives you an idea of how last year went for him, health-wise...)

I have been fighting my own battles with my weight, my will-power, and depression. Stress has been taking it's toll, and since I'm an emotional eater, my weight has been reflecting that. I think that my metabolism has been very slow due to the fact that I have been "dieting"... for lack of a better word for it... for so long. So in November and December I decided that I was going to forget all of that, and just eat, since eating is the way to signal the body to boost the metabolism. My hope is that my metabolism will have recovered enough during that time to work in my favor when I begin my journey this year to change my lifestyle. I've been around too long to think that there is a magic-potion that will melt off all this weight and keep it off without me making any changes to my lifestyle. And I recognize that the fact that I have gained back the weight that I had so proudly lost a few years ago is due entirely to the fact that I had not made the permanent changes to my lifestyle and eating habits that I needed to have done, and so when I got burned out on what I was doing, and then got hit with the stress triggers, I started eating myself into oblivion again. I have to admit that I spent a good part of the morning in tears though, after I stepped on the scale (fully clothed... it's too cold to weigh stripped down like I normally would!) and saw that my weight has reached 294.5 lbs!!!!! I haven't been this heavy since right before my son was born! I have a plan for taking it off and for maintaining my weight once I get it off, and the main part of that is going to be looking hard at the emotional eating issues that I have and finding other outlets for my stress. This year has a lot of big things planned already... I pray that we will find it to be a year filled with blessings, especially since last year was filled with so many trials.

I am really looking forward to studying the new Gospel Principles book in RS this year... especially since I'll be teaching every 3rd Sunday of the month. The lessons are much shorter page-wise, which often means more preparation work for the teacher, but it also means more opportunity for discussion in the class. My hope is that we will all find our testimonies strengthened as we go back to the basics and focus on the things that are important in the big picture, instead of hyper-focusing on the problems we feel we have today. My goal is to recognize the blessings as they come and the workings of the Spirit in my day-to-day life.

Well, there are a lot more things to talk about, but I'll stop here for now and continue another day.

Happy New Year!