I turned 59 a few days ago. I did not go into a dark, deep depression. It was just another day for me. As many health problems as I have, I consider it a blessing just to wake up in the mornings. My wife, on the other hand, has an issue with each birthday she comes across. She’s a little over a year older than me and when she turned 60, let’s just say that she turned into a different person. It took a few days for her to get out of her slump. I’m not looking forward to next year.

I know I’ve written about it before but one of my health issues is that I’m having issues with my breathing. This has been an ongoing thing for several years. It started off as a side effect of one of my cancer medications. The medication was causing fluid to build up around my heart and lungs. I had to have fluid removed from around my lungs on four different occasions totalling up to around 5 liters. The first time I had it done they weren’t sure what was causing my breathing issue and it took several weeks of testing before they found out. During this time I wasn’t able to do much of anything without getting out of breath. Even walking a short distance became a struggle. Remember now, I was still trying to work through all of this.

Like I said, this has been an on going struggle for a couple of years now but after several medication changes it got better. Now it’s back but with a difference. There is no fluid around my lungs. X-rays have proved it. As with the other times, my weight would go up dramatically, and it’s doing the same thing now. I’ve gained upwards around 30 pounds in about a months time. That’s not normal. I’m on mediation to help relieve the fluid but I ran out last week. I had to wait until this week before I could get it refilled because of the insurance.

I think a big contributor to this is salt. I’m supposed to be on a low sodium diet but that’s hard for me to do. I’ve greatly reduced the amount of salt but I need to reduce it some more. Another thing that is not helping is, of course, my diet. I’ve got to do better. I’ve committed myself to a weightloss program for the next six months. But, until I get this fluid undercontrol, I will just continue to gain weight. Losing weight for me right now will definitely be a challenge. One, I get out of breath so easily so walking is a challenge even the treadmill will be a challenge. Two, the fluid. If I only knew the cause then I might could do something about that.2

On August 15th, my birthday, I weighed in at 287.2. On the 16th I weighed 287.4, 18th 288.5, 19th 290.5, also on the 19th I received my medication and the next day, the 20th I weighted in at 286.6. Of course I peed every thirty minutes or so. I haven’t weighed in this morning so I don’t know if I’ve lost any weight or not. BTW, I know I’m going to get some people telling me not to weigh everyday but this is what my cardiologist wants me to do. I should weigh about 275lbs once I get all the fluid off.

I’m planning on posting weekly to let everyone know how I’m doing on my weight loss.