I’m tired and I’m giving up. Let’s face it. Without it I’m screwed. I love to eat the wrong things and I can’t do the right exercises with my health the way it is and the situation is getting worse. Life is just too short to spend the rest of my life in a constant state of disappointment about my weight. For years now I’ve fought with the idea to have some sort of weight-loss surgery thinking that I didn’t pay someone to get this fat so I’m not going to pay someone to get rid of it. Two weeks ago, I made the phone call to hopefully get the ball rolling. I made an appointment to sit through a virtual seminar. The first thing that they asked us to do was to make sure my insurance would cover the surgery. Before the seminar, I made a few phone calls and found out that Medicare does cover the surgery IF you meet certain qualifications. I talked to a nice lady and she asked me several questions. Some of the qualifications included were obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and BMI over 30. Unfortunately, I met all the above. I”ll just have to pay 20 percent of the bill. But there is a hitch. I have a stomach ulcer. In some cases, they will not do the surgery on a patient with a stomach ulcer.
On December 4th, I have two appointments. One to see my gastrologist and then to see the weight-loss surgeon. Hopefully, the gastrologist will give me the go-ahead to have the surgery. I’ll keep everyone updated.
I’m still having the problem of fluid retention. It’s not as bad as before though. I’ve only had one Thorsontesis done in the last couple of years. Fluid mainly accumulates in parts of my body such as my feet and legs now. I can start telling by seeing a couple of extra pounds on my bathroom scales every day. When this happens, I take a couple of my booster meds, and in a couple of days, my extra weight is gone. It’s a major pain having to keep up with it. Now that I have gained control of my fluid I have started to feel a little better. I still can’t do much without getting out of breath but I’m doing what I can.
I’m not sure I’ve written anything about it but about three years ago I drove to Knoxville Tn and purchased a kayak from one of my high school friends. It’s a Tarpon 120, 12ft long kayak. I used it a lot the first year I got it but it sat under my deck for the next two years. Not this year though. I go fishing at least once a week since it got warm.
I’ve taken my wife, who doesn’t like to fish, and one of my daughters who likes to fish. It’s not riding a bicycle 20 or so miles but at least I’m not sitting on my couch 24 hours a day like I have been.
This has not been a good week. Fluid started collecting in my body. Each morning I would weigh and the number would be two to three pounds more than the previous day. I had gained nine pounds before I was able to start back on my booster meds. With the booster, it was not enough to have a loss week.
On another note, I got some results from my oncologist the other day. One of the things they test is my creatinine levels. It has gone up in the last couple of months. This is not good. The higher the number the closer I get to dialysis. For those that don’t know, I’m at stage 4 out of 5 kidney failure. I have got to limit my salt intake otherwise I’ll be on dialysis three days a week. I do not want that.
What a rollercoaster of a ride! I thought I knew all about weight loss but nature threw a curve ball at me. I was doing so well but I woke up one morning to find that I had gained three pounds over the course of twenty-four hours. I had counted all carbs and it was far below my allotted amount. I had exercised quite a bit that day too so I felt confident that I going to see a new number. Boy, when I stepped on that scale thinking I would see a much lower number, I was astonished to find out that I had gained three pounds. The rest of the week went about the same. This week’s weight loss was a struggle but I managed to lose exactly one pound. I’ll take it.
After a rough start to the week, I was able to get back on track and do what I needed to do. To help matters, I had a flower bed that I needed to replace the dead rose bushes. It took me three days to do it but I managed to replace the dead bushes with new bushes. I am completely worn out. After all that I managed to lose 2.8 pounds last week.
Tomorrow is weigh-in. I’d like to see if anyone out there is willing to voice their opinion as to how much I’ve gained or lost.
Come on guys let’s play along. Did I gain weight? If so, how much? Did I lose weight? If so, how much did I lose?
I’m looking forward to seeing what you guys have to say. Remember, I lost over fifteen pounds last week. Did I lose that much again? What do you think??
Alice Fitts. One of the girls that I photographed earlier this week.
I would if I could. For years now I’ve been having trouble breathing, especially when I do anything strenuous. Walking up a hill or an incline, pushing or pulling an object or just taking a shower causes me to get out of breath. For years now I thought it was due to fluid being built up around my heart and lungs due to diastolic heart failure and medications for my CML. I just recently went to my pulmonologist and they found a little bit of fluid around my lungs which I had it removed it was only 1.5 liters of fluid. After having it removed I’m still having trouble breathing. The pulmonologist put me on a once a day inhaler for 2 months. Today marks the end of my inhaler as well as my next appointment for my pulmonologist and I’m not any better as of yet.
I’ve got my doctor scratching his head because there is no apparent reasoning for my shortness of breath. The pulmonologist did suggest that I tried to lose weight because I’ve got a lot of pressure against my lungs.
I’ve lost 6 lb since my last visit two months ago.
I know, it’s been a while. I’ve been rather busy with life’s ups and downs.
The Great Cycle Challenge is over and I met my goal of 200 miles by riding 219 miles. However, I didn’t quite meet my monitary goal of $1000 but I did manage to raise over $800.
My son bought a house and he’s driving me nuts with things he’s wanting done in the house. My wife and two daughters spent a week there helping him paint several of the rooms. Now it seems every time he calls he’s wanting something else done. Now it’s hanging a fan, replacing a thermostate, and a multitude of other items that he can’t do himself.
I have failed as a father raising him. My dad made sure that I knew everything there was to know about everything. He made me help him do everything and at the time all I wanted to do is lay around and watch television. I hated him for ruining my sleep espesially on weekends. So as a father I didn’t make my son do things my dad asked me to do and now it’s coming back to haunt me. My son even called me and asked how to cut his grass. I know I’ve taught him how to cut grass but evidently I didn’t.
I appreciate the fact that my son thinks I can do anythiing he asks of me. Most of the things he asks I can do but there are some things I can’t do and I think he doesn’t believe me when I tell him so. For example, he couldn’t get his cable to work in one of his rooms. He asked me to help him fix it. I don’t know much about internet but I told him I’d help him check it out. We worked in his attic for nearly two hours trying to figure it out. Finally, I told him that he’d better call his cable company because it was obivious that we didn’t know what we were doing.
H went to college for five years to get his degree in Mechanical Engineering. He is willing to do the work himself but in most cases he doesn’t know what he’s doing and he gets himself into trouble. Example, at 8 pm the other night he decides he’s going to disconnect his washer and get it ready to move out. He called wanting to know which direction to turn the water off. I told him that even though the water is turned off he would still have pressure on the water hose that feeds the washer. He called again about five minues later telling me that he needs help because he’s flooded his kitchen. As I’m getting ready to leave my house he calls back to tell me that he thinks he’s got it. Five minutes later another call demanding me to come help becuase he’s still getting water out of the hose. I asked him how much and he says a lot of water.
His house is a good 45 minutes away. He’s stated that his kitchen is flooded and the water is getting deep. Thoughts of him having to pay for damages for his appartment as well as the one beneath him is running through my head. I’m wearing a pair of shorts and t shirt. I grab some sandels, my keys, my driver’s license and my tools from my truck and off I went in my wife’s car. Upon my arrival 45 minuets later I find that he has stuck the hose from the faucett into a bucket which is quickly filling up. I took a wrench and grabbed the handle of the valve and turned it a couple of times which caused the water to slow to a steady drip. I stuck the hose from the bucket to the drain in the wall and called it done. That will keep the water from the going on the floor until the appartment manager can call a plumber and replace the valve.
I spent the next half hour helping him clean up the water on the floor. It really wasn’t that bad. His panic made it sound a lot worse than what it was. As we were cleaning up the water we talked about what he could have done differently and what he learned from this experience. I have a rule about doing any type of plumbing work after 5pm. Most hardware places close about that time so if you run into issues then your screwed. Unless it’s an emergency it can wait until the next day. Disconnecting a washing machine is not that difficult but for someone who’s never done it and don’t know what to expect when you have a gate valve that won’t shut off completly can be quite problematic.
Now I’ve got to install a ceiling fan which I’ve never done before but I’m sure between the two of us we can figure it out. I’m proud of my son for what he’s become. He’s smart and willing to try anything. He’s been living in appartments since he’s started college and now he’s bought a house. He’s making more money that I’ve ever made. I’m sure through his many failures he’ll learn what to do and not do and when he get’s to be my age he’ll know more than I know about doing things.
My goal for today is 25 miles. The most I’ve done since I’ve started back riding is 17 miles. I’m behind in my 50 mile per week goal of 50 miles due to a breakdown on my bike. Hopefully I can make it.
Grayfeathersblog 