Archive for October, 2010

Hi Friends,

So I went to mass on Sunday and rehearsals started right after mass. WOW! Was I surprised at the sound coming out of my mouth! I’m simply amazed at how much difference there is now that my diaphragm has the room to do what it’s supposed to do! My lungs have a much easier time filling up with air and I now have control over my air flow through them. (My voice teacher once described singing as intensified speech with great control over airflow.)

While I was still in mass, I used that time to warm up for rehearsal….I hit every note on key! LOL It’s gonna take me a while to get used to the new me in so many ways! The people standing in front of me turned around before they left and told me I had a beautiful voice,  it was like they had their own choir standing behind them. I thanked them graciously. But inside I was jumping and doing cartwheels! Years ago, before my fall, people would do that to me all the time. It was awesome then, but it’s more awesome now, since they have no idea what road I’ve traveled to get back to here!

The rehearsal was GREAT! I was welcomed in by some really talented, nice, down to earth people. People who respect my contribution to their choir. After the first run-through of a song, (I had to hit a high A right out of the gate!) one of the altos looked over at me, gave me a thumbs up, and said, “nice sound!” She plays violin professionally so I will gladly take that compliment since she really knows the difference from a good note and bad. LOL

My voice teacher once told me before a performance that I should just graciously accept all compliments with a thank you and a smile. However, if someone I know is in the field of music and they compliment me, I can soar a little with it because they really know what they’re talking about.  So yesterday I   S   O   A   R   E   D!  And I still might be flying a little today…LOL

I should probably take this time to thank Dr. Bennett, my anesthesiologist from surgery, who, when asked if he would use a smaller airway because I sing, accommodated me. Thanks Dr. Bennett. He assured me he’d worked on other well-known singers in the past and they had no problem. Neither have I.

On Friday I did something to my left elbow during PT and woke up Saturday morning with it aching…I’m left handed so I’m a little concerned… I’ll have to address the issue when I go see Doug today…Amanda’s at a different office :>(( till Wed. He’ll know what to do for me.  I so trust them with my healing. I go, they tell me what to do, I do it, I heal. Done!

I’m still having some balance issues and am not ready yet for heels. I wore a different pair of shoes to church, with a slight heel, like what you’d have on a pair of penny loafers, nothing drastic, but different in pitch from the very flat soled shoes I’ve been wearing. Well, let me tell you. Just that slight pitch threw me off enough to be unsteady. I don’t know if my hip had anything to do with it or not but it took me a while to walk in them before I was steady. I wore them around in the house before I went outside which was probably a good thing. It’s amazing how involved learning how to walk all over again is. There’s a huge dynamic when your center of gravity is changed! I’m gonna try a little bit higher heeled shoe maybe next week to see if I can get Doug or Amanda to help me walk in them and be steady. If my hip bothers me too much, I may have to wait until after the MRI to see what else I need done so I can wear heels. That’s my goal!

I have to run now, Julie is coming for a visit at the end of the week for four days. We’ve been best friends since high school. I can hardly wait to see her. I have sooo much to talk over with her. I have to get the house presentable for her visit. Oh, and I’m going to perm my hair too. I”m gonna let it grow out a bit. We’ll see how it looks…. if not, there’s always a pair of scissors handy!

Remember to take care of you, and I’ll post more later,

hugs,

Kathleen

GREAT NEWS!!! My graft took from my ribs to my spine and it’s completely fused together!!! Joe, Dr. Smith’s PA took a look at my x-rays and said he was pleased my back did what it was supposed to do…YAAAAY ME!

NOW, THE NOT SO GOOD NEWS. I’ll be having my next MRI and x-rays for my hip that keeps popping out of place and my cervical spine which I kindof knew I would maybe have to have surgery on as well. It’s hard to believe it’s been almost 5 months since my first one! BUT, if I gotta have it done, my take is, the sooner the better…that way I can get all of this behind me! I’VE GOT PLANS! BIG PLANS! LOL And it doesn’t include any pain!

I have to wait for prior authorization to get the MRI done so it’ll be a couple of weeks before I get em and then get back to see Dr. Smith.  That’s ok though, I’m about half way through now and it feels great! I’m so ready to get this all over with…and if my second surgery goes as smoothly as my first, yes, I said it went smoothly, though it didn’t sound like it…. I’ll be celebrating with a bottle of one of the BEST champaignes and some huge strawberries! Even if I have to celebrate alone! LOL It’s a higher risk surgery but it should be simpler and less recovery time….I think. I have to do more research on it!

I’ve been doing really well at PT with my team so, now that I’m done with the narcotics for a while I’m concentrating on loosing at least 20 more pounds before my next surgery!

This should get real interesting!

Remember to take care of you, will post more later.

hugs,

Kathleen

When I was in College English (age about 40) learning how to write, I was assigned to write different stories about points of view, classification, definition, description, and comparison and contrast. This one is “classification.” I got an A- (the minus was because of the comma rule.) My prof added this note: “As Plato said, “you can’t explain anything to those who are ignorant of the fact they are ignorant.”"

There are those of us who are destined to be players and others who will be observers at a distance. And then there are those who will ridicule and belittle everyone no matter whether someone has tried something or not. Sortof a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” outlook. Personal experience has brought me to a unique revelation.

For most of my adult life I’ve been what you could call a player. There’s little I don’t find challenging or interesting enough to try at least once. I’ve had the fortune of traveling across country to thirty-eight states. With the travel, I’ve had varied and exciting experiences with both the places and the people who, when I think of them, each memory could be a complete story. I’ve chosen to keep an open mind about different religions and to understand how my friends and their lives play a part in a bigger picture, interacting, and actively participating with them.

 Some challenges have come to me; without my searching for them, but each still with a purpose. My sense of awareness of others’ plights has been heightened simply by me being thrust into particularly difficult situations of my own.

I tried hobbies that at first looked interesting to me but I failed at, jobs I took thinking I could rise to the challenge of and failed, interests I actively engaged in that I had to put aside for reasons of other demands.

All of these challenges, step by step, prepared me to meet my most current one, at middle-age I’m going to college and come hell or high water I’m going to graduate. The challenge was put before me, I didn’t go out and seek it. It came to me at a time I thought I needed it least, but in reality, was the key to unlock many doors I stood in front of and couldn’t open.

When I was at the threshold of one of my doors, I spoke with my brother. A man, I felt, had a great deal of intellect. After all he’d gone to college for a year and could banter with the best of em, or so I thought. (Later I was to learn that knowledge is not necessarily equated with enlightenment!) A closer look at his personality gave me a different perspective about who he really was.

I expressed to him my thoughts and feelings about getting a degree. When I was done telling him my postion, he looked at me and asked, “But what if you don’t make it?” I was stunned. This, coming from a man with an IQ of genius? 

First, I don’t choose something I think I’m going to fail doing, and secondly, it wouldn’t be the first thing I failed trying, nor would it be my last.

Over the course of the next few months I scrutinized my brother’s behavior patterns trying to understand why that comment was made. The reality became very clear.

Here I was thinking I should consult this man, and yet, he is the one who has not held a job for more than two years at a stretch. He’s built a life on “what ifs.” He didn’t marry a woman who was deeply in love with him, and the mother of his daughter, because he said, “What if someone else comes along that I’d rather be with more, then what?” His nonparticipation in sports was not for the mere pleasure of it because he might not do well and look foolish. Here is someone who’s spent the better part of forty-two years not participating in life or getting in the game. So I found it ironic that, at the end of my fifth semester, when my brother-in-law, my brother, and I were standing on the porch talking and my brother-in-law asked me how I was doing in school, my brother took this opportunity to belittle me.

I went through the list of the seven classes I was taking and telling each grade I thought I would get. At the point I shared I’d be getting an “A” in music, my brother butted in and remarked, “Now you can really get a good job with that, this is real scholar material, and you pay for the privilege for them to teach you this.” (It took a lot of nerve to say something like that in front of me!) It was useless to try to explain about Pythagoras and his mathematical theories as applied to music. The point was moot. He would never get it, simply because he didn’t participate in college long enough himself to find out.

I walked away from that conversation thinking I was doing something meanial and meaningless, but as I’ve had time to reflect on the whole conversation, I realized I was the one coming out ahead. It angered me to think he had tried to belittle me for the classes I was taking. I was a singer, it was an elective class, of course I’m going to take music! I wish I would’ve had the wherewithall to retort, “Until you participate and see it to completion, until you are ready to get in the game and be a team player, until you know what it is like to tast the vinegar of defeat to have a chance to taste the sweetness of victory, no matter how small that victory may be, don’t judge others by your inabilities and inhibitions.”

At least my life has been full of participation and memories, not “what ifs” and judgements. So, if I had the chance to replay that conversation on the porch, my retort might have been, “PUT UP, SHUT UP OR GET OUT OF MY WAY!”

Hi all,

I’M NOW 15 DAYS OFF THE NARCOTICS!!!! IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE! My head’s still a little fuzzy but each day I seem to be remembering more. Last night I saw a lady at Walmart I taught Confirmation Class at church with and couldn’t remember her name…but I kept thinking really hard about it and within an hour I remembered it! I’m hoping it’ll get better as the drug effects subside.

I’ve had a difficult week, my hip keeps popping out of it’s socket. I’m working really hard on how I place my leg down when I walk to correct it. I feel like I’m walking like a bowlegged cowboy but Amanda says that I’ve been walking wrong for so long to compensate for my spine, that I now have to walk properly. THIS IS HARD! A lot harder than I even imagined it. I’ve been doing some really specific exercises just for that area hoping it will strengthen those muscles used to keep my bone in place. I want to walk in heels and the only way I can is if I learn how to walk in flat shoes first. Sometimes I look like I’m drunk or drugged of which I’m neither!  I’m terrified of falling eventhough Doug and she have empowered me with knowing how to fall and handle myself in that event.

I’m really excited to be having a visitor coming to spend time with me. My high school girlfriend, Julie will be here for a scrapbooking convention at the end of the month. But first…. I go to see Dr. Smith on Thursday! I need to have x-rays done on Tuesday before I go see him. I’m really pumped to hear what he has to say. I have a list of things I want to discuss with him and he always gives me the time to get all my questions answered. He’s AWESOME!

I’ll be ramping up my energy to get the house decorated before Julie gets here and then the big push for Christmas as Brian and Ally will be spending their first Christmas together. Brian asked if he could have an old fashioned Chirstmas like we used to have when he was little. I always decorated and had all the traditional stuff. He wants to share it with Ally. I totally get it and am thinking I’m ready to expend that kind of energy to make it happen. She’s so worth it. It’s gonna be really cool for her, to watch her see how we’ve decorated since the last time she was here. We still had boxes and all kinds of stuff still in the living room. She was only here for like a nano second but she still saw the stuff. Of course she understood we had just moved and I had surgery but I want her to feel welcome. Brian said he wanted a real tree this year too. He’s highly allergic to pine, his asthma and allergies are going to kick in big time. But he’s willing to suffer through it so he can have a real tree for Ally.

So we compromised. We’re going to put up the fake tree for decoration until the day she gets here. Then we’re going to bring in the live tree that we purchased ahead of time and let the two of them decorate it with their special ornaments that they made when Brian goes to see her for her birthday at the end of this month! I can hardly wait to see them. Brian has all the plans set out in his head and has been sharing them with me, our house is going to come to life with Ally here. She isn’t coming until after Christmas, so Brian wants to hold our Christmas off until the 28th when she gets here.

Which works out perfect because I’M SINGING ON THE STRIP FOR CHRISTMAS EVE AT THE CATHEDRAL! I am sooooo pumped! I got the call the other day from the director with an offer to sing. Yes it’s at church, at the Cathedral that’s on the Strip! LOL It’s a real milestone for me because I’m finally able to hold a note! The sound that’s coming out of my mouth is as good as any when I was younger! Maybe even better! Rehersals start on the 24th and I’m going to give it my all! I’ve so been waiting for this for like EVER!  What better way to give thanks and gratitude to Him than to sing His praises! I’ve been blessed and I should not forget who blessed me!

Well the dishes are calling me and a big day of grocery shopping is ahead. I’ll be posting what the doctor has to say at the end of the week, so come back to see what he had to say.

Remember to take care of you, and I’ll talk to you soon,

hugs,

Kathleen

It’s a well known fact that people, no matter who we are, find change uncomfortable. It’s human nature to resist the unknown. We’re more comfortable in our little fifedom knowing all the players and all their reactions and most of the time second guessing and being right.

That’s not really so for me. In the past I’ve been thrust into many unknown, almost intolerable situations of the greatest magnitude. So when I went to Dr. Smith I expected change would happen. But in the bigger scheme of things, I didn’t have a clue just how much change would take place for me. Dr. Smith’s been in my life for all of a nano second of all of my years on earth and yet, by one snap decision he made to do my surgery, has changed my life so profoundly for the better, forever. I was a year past his cut-off age for doing this surgery, and for some reason, he decided to give me this gift. A total stranger, who, had no idea what type of person I am, trusted me to do the right thing. To do exactly what he perscribed, for me to heal. That’s powerful, to hold the future of another in the palm of your hand and know you can make that kind of difference for them. And he’s done it very humbly. The XLIF and PLIF procedure, along with his personal tweeking has been transformative. On the other hand, he entrusted to me the responsibility to do all that I can to help myself. And I am. I don’t want to let myself down. Or him. For the first time in my life I’m focused on me. It’s a strange feeling this change of direction.

I was talking to Amanda today about it and I wondered if Dr. Smith realizes just how much of what his act does to someone emotionally. Yeah, I’ve seen people shake his hand and grown men almost brought to tears in his office, thanking him for giving themselves or their loved one relief. But I wonder if the Doc REALLY realizes just how profound his acts are. We kicked it back and forth and came up with the notion that maybe he didn’t really think about it for a couple of reasons. The first, he’s always thinking about the next challenging case. Secondly, I tried to add up the minutes he and I were in each other’s space…the first visit 15-20 minutes, the second, third and fourth for maybe a total of 25 minutes. No wait, one visit I saw his PA, not him. I chuckle to think that for less than an hours’ worth of contact, my life could be so prfoundly changed. AND for the better. That’s mutual trust. It’s amazing!

The changes of my physical self are noticable to a lot of people already. My one friend here in Vegas keeps telling me I look taller. I am, by a little over two inches! But not so with other changes. What I’ve held close to the vest, are the changes going on inside of me a quiet confidence is coming over me like I felt when I was in college. I’m gaining an assuredness and confidence that’s long been dormant. My thoughts are more deliberate now than at any other time that I can think of. It’s as if I’m redefining myself to my new body, challenging all the old paradigms. I look at things as if they are possibilities now, not just something I hoped I get to do.

My mother spent her life “thinking about things” and it drove me crazy. When I’d suggest something to her, even if it was to make her life a little easier or more pleasant, her response was always, ” I’ll have to think about that.” She went to her grave not experiencing half of what she wanted. Now that I can, and am forced to focus on me, I’m learning all about the new me. Stronger and more intuned with my needs than ever before. Since I no longer think about pain, I’ve entertained my thoughts in some pretty random ways. Pretty COOL ways. I never thought I’d have those kinds of thoughts because I figured I’d always be in pain. To that, I see the light at the end of the tunnel, and that’s really cool too.

My final goal in the journey with Brian to HIS wellness was to be a part of and witness his 21st birthday. But by then I was in so much pain I didn’t feel well enough to go to his birthday dinner. He’d already downsized his activities to accomodate what I could be a part of and it broke my heart and I felt so guilty that on this last momentous day for him and I, I didn’t feel like being there. But, as always, I put on my game face for him, sucked it up and reveled in the celebration. It was wonderful, but I prayed for the dinner to be over. Pain robbed me of my final goal I set for him and I as a parent. (That is until he gets married and has my first grandchild. LOL Those goals are not within my power so I stopped having my goals as his at his 21st birthday. LOL)

I am starting to think about things like being more productive, more creative, more compassionate, being more passionate. I feel free to have the time to do the things that really matter to me. Yes, I still care about all the people in my life, but you’ve been telling me adnausium to think about me for a change…and at least for now, I think I will.

I want you all to know that this journey I’m sharing with you in no way diminishes what is happening in your life as not being important. Life has it that we get on and off the merry-go-round as we see fit to accomplish our individual life’s journey. I also think it’s important for you to know that I care about you all. I’m taking care of me so if you need me, I’ll still be around to lend, if nothing else, an ear. Mom always said, ” to be a good conversationalist is to be a good listener.”

As I continue on my bifercated journey, both physical and emotional, I’ll keep in mind that others’ journey may hold just as much “special stuff” in their own as I have in mine.

To all of you who have taken the time to share the changes happening with me, thank you. Come help me enjoy my new me!

remember to take care of you!

hugs

Kathleen

Monday at mattsmith Physical Therapy (a blatant plug for them) I thanked Amanda for teaching me how to kneel and told her about church and singing. I love the new things my body’s now able to do!

Amanda, that is, Dr. Amanda, doctor of physical therapy, seems like she loves what she does and takes pleasure in helping people heal from their sore bodies. I explained to her that I’m cold turkeying my meds so she gave me two more new exercises to do. I now do 43 of them. One laying on my tummy on a big ball that I have to pretend I’m an airplane and one, the dying bug, I did fifty of! VERY, VERY HARD ONE! I also rode the bike for over 5 miles! Amanda thought she was so sneaky when she very cavalierly walked over and started talking to me as she was turning up the difficulty on the bike. She thought I didn’t notice but I did! I was sweatin like a pig but the natural endorphines can only be released if I use my body, then it helps replace the down feeling I’m having with the lack of meds. They (the endorphines) lasted until almost 9pm! I was normal for almost 5 hours!

Some of the other changes in my body I’ve noticed is the lump on my back, almost like the Hunchback of Notre Dame’s, is gone, and in different shoes I walk differently. One of the very first things I noticed different about my body was that I could feel both my butt cheek bones on the seat at the same time! I’ve been so crooked for so long I didn’t remember how that felt. Seats are harder now to sit upon, but at least I’m even!

Not only am I two inches taller, but when I look in the glass as I pass by a store window I see my posture almost straight up! AMAZING! I still have to work at reminding myself that I don’t have to bend over any more. The mind over matter thing applies here.

My mind has been so conditioned to me not doing things that I find myself doing things I used to to compensate, eventhough I can now do them. I know intellectually that I’m now able to bend at the hips and pick things off the floor without pain. Before, I used my feet most of the time or left it until someone else picked it up. I dropped a bottle cap by the garbage this morning and instinctively I used my toes to pick it up. After I did, I scolded myself because I knew I could bend over but didn’t. My mind is still telling me I can’t do something when I know my body now can. This healing has been just as much mental as it is about medically healing. If a person isn’t in the right frame of mind for healing from the PLIF or XLIF procedure, then it will be tough to regain what once was lost. (for those of you who don’t know, I had BOTH procedures! SIX levels of vertebrae were fused!) A robust determination and a no quit attitude is extremely important to make sure you can get the most out of the procedures.

I swam yesterday for the first time in a very looooong time. I wasn’t just walking or peddling on a noodle, I was SWIMMING! I did the backstroke and back crawl, the breast stroke and then did water cycling on a noodle! I felt AMAZING! I was downright giddy! It’s so good to be able to swim, really swim again. Of course I did my stretches first in the water… which felt great! I can get my legs up higher in the water and have more resistance than on land. And I felt good for about three hours afterwards. The natural endorphines worked that long with only an hours worth of swimming!

Today, I had to admit to Dr. Amanda that I had a sharp pain between my shoulder blades, muscle cramps in my neck and a headache when I laid down at night. This all while I’m not to take any painkillers as I come off the narcotics. UGH! I got up and walked around the house and went out to the back patio, but at four in the morning, it’s not a good thing to get dressed and go for a walk…at least not in Vegas! 

I’m decidedly calmer that I was five days ago… the sweats are almost gone and the shakes are as well. My head’s still a little fuzzy at times, I can’t seem to remember some people’s names. I hope it’s just the drugs and it will eventually return to normal.

I can hardly wait to go back to Dr. Smith. I want to see the new set of X-rays to see how much healing has been going on. I really have done everything he’s asked of me. It’s been damn hard but I’ve done it all, EVERYTHING!

Oh, and I don’t remember if I said anything lately about the high heels. Well, I didn’t take them into PT last week. I don’t think I’m quite ready for them just yet. I’m still having balance issues in different shoes. If I put on a different pair, I have to adjust my whole stance to accomodate for their style. Bummer. I know in my heart I’ll wear high heels again, but I don’t want to be stupid about it either. Ten years is a long time to wait. A couple more weeks “ain’t nothin but a thang!” LOL

Amanda is helping me with my weight plateau. I think this week if I do everything she says, I’ll have a breakthrough. YES, ALONG WITH EVERYTHING ELSE I’M GOING THROUGH I DECIDED TO LOOSE SOME WEIGHT! I know, I know. CRAZY, RIGHT? But, the lighter I am the less pressure I’m putting on my back. And the only reason why I was heavier was because I couldn’t move as much. Now, I really don’t have an excuse! LOL But that’s ok, I’ll take the way things are now. I’ve waited so long to put my money where my mouth was when I used to tell people if I could only not be in pain, I’d loose the weight. I’m 26 pounds down from my weight the day of surgery, even after replacing it with muscle weight. I’m so pumped! Most of my clothes just hang on me now and there was an issue of having to get new guchies cause they were falling off! LOL DON’T EVEN ASK! Just know that I’m already down four dress sizes, and counting!

At any rate, Amanda seemed to think I wasn’t taking in enough calories to heal properly. So we had a nice heart to heart talk about what I should be eating. I want to go back to Dr. Smith and tell him what I now weigh just so I can see the look on his face! I bet few of his other patients have complied like I have. It puts me just that much closer to my goal weight to weigh what I did in high school for when I go to my fortieth class reunion next August! I want to do that so bad for no other reason but just because it’s something I want! AND, I HAVE THE CONTROL TO GET IT DONE! THAT is an awesome feeling!

I don’t know if I mentioned it yet, but, I’m trying to learn Italian. You never know if an opportunity may arise that I might get to go there. Tuscany….ahhh the thought of it! I want some Italian dishes. At least some serving pieces. For the first time in my life I can have thoughts like that because I’m not in pain! It’s an amazing feeling too, to be able to know that I could make a long flight like that, no problem! That’d be so cool! But first, I have to learn Italian… me and Rick Steve’s travel phrase book and dictionary are becoming good friends! I’m going to walk to Borders one day ( it’s in my backyard practically) and just sit there and read some of the Italian books they have. (the learning how to speak it kind! LOL)

In the meantime, I’ll just keep going to PT, connecting in a BIG way with my PT TEAM! They’re fantastic! Doug, Amanda, Julie, Bobby, Shane and Carol, THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART! You folks are awesome!

more later, remember to take care of you,

HUGS,

Kathleen

As I laid in bed for the two months just after surgery, I waited for the pain to subside. I would pray for the pain to go away, but instead He gave me sleep, though intermitten, it was sleep. He doesn’t always give us what we want in the form we want it, but we MUST be open to hear or recognize His signature on something.

My whole surgery has had His signature on it. From moving out here on a dime’s decision, to closing out my worker’s comp claim, to meeting the perfect doctors to guide me through to healing. I can’t forget the friends He has brought to me, total strangers who have supported me and got me through some of the toughest times. I want you all to know that I’ve felt every hug, and appreciated every note you sent me. (thank you even to facebook, for without it I wouldn’t have had that support!) And, probably right next to my neurosurgeon, my PT TEAM has been the greatest I could’ve ever asked for. I can’t do the rest of my healing without them.

I went to church today to thank Him in person for all the blessings He’s given me. I had to go early cause the list was long. LOL  I prayed for each and every one of you too, that you all may be as blessed. I was able to stand and kneel and do all the ups and downs that Catholics are so notorious for with little discomfort and no real pain. My biggest surprise was that I can sing again. As my spine collapsed it put pressure on my diaphram and my ab muscles were so weak I couldn’t hold a note for any length of time and I had to give up singing. I won’t go into the details of this until my book but just know that I bartered with God to let Brian be cured and I would give up the one thing that I love in this world the most besides my son. I never thought I’d EVER sing again. The sound that came out of my mouth this morning was bigger (maybe not) than when I was taking voice lessons as a young lady. I’m contemplating singing for midnight Mass at the Cathedral as part of their choir. NOW THAT’S A PRAYER ANSWERED.

For those of you who didn’t know me when, I was a singer with high hopes. All of them faded through a series of life circumstances. But this has given me a renewed hope.

The other thing that He has given back to me through the talented and gifted hands of my neurosurgeon, in the gift of my future. I don’t mind telling you that when I heard the second doctor tell me my life would be shortened if I did nothing, it scared the hell out of me. Dr. Smith has given to me the greatest gift of all, hope. Hope for the future and hope for new dreams fullfilled. I can hardly wait to see what the next year has in store for me. It’s an exciting time in my life!

I have sooo much to be grateful for.

I will be posting more often now.

Take care of you and yours.

Love,

Kathleen

Yesterday I went to my general practitioner. Good news/bad news. Good news is I hit my weight goal for when I saw him and my bloodwork came back GREAT! Bad news, I’m going to cold turkey take myself off my pain meds. He seemed to think it would take about two weeks. He expects my BP to rise and me to eat sweets. I’LL just have to show him! LOL
Actually, I have been blessed with the greatest PT TEAM on the planet! My lead therapist, Doug was very understanding about what’s going to happen to my body in the next two weeks and we’ve already devised a plan for my withdrawl.  I love that guy! He makes me feel like I don’t have to go through it alone! Rehab is a lonely place to be when you go three hours plus, three times a week! I’ve been doing everything they’ve put in front of me… and I can feel it working. However, last night we went to the movies and something happened I didn’t expect. I could hardly walk up the stairs eventhough I’ve been doing my step-up exercises. So, when I went to PT today…. Doug found a solution, not without a whole lot of discomfort but a solution. I’m so grateful to have him and my team. They are so friendly it’s making a very boring task ok to go through. Sometimes even my happy place isn’t enough to get me through it without them.

THE CHALLENGE

We’ve devised a system now that I’ll be going to PT three times a week M/ W/ F and swimming T/ TH /S. This should pretty well spend me completely. I have a new goal to loose another 10 lbs before I go back to my surgeon. I’VE GOT THREE WEEKS. Any suggestions? I want to do it in a healthy way so no dumb suggestions… and I can’t buy any diet food, I have to do it with regular food. Wanna help? Send me a FB message or just a post… let me know a few good whole food combinations. I CAN DO THIS WITH YOUR HELP!!! ( I think!)

Take care of you and have a wonderful weekend.

Kathleen