Knees....

Mine have hurt for YEARS! In 1984, I injured my right knee in a bicycle accident. I used it (my knee) to stop a bike which ended up having no brakes. I stopped at the bottom of the hill when I hit a car fender with my knee. OUCH!! I have had a water pocket on it ever since then--25 years. And, since then, I have favored that knee and put more weight and strain on my left knee. UNTIL 1999, October to be exact, when I fell down some steps and totally wrenched my left knee. I'm talking wrenched, literally...twisted that puppy round and went down. And, in October of 2000, repeat! I re-injured that same knee in a fall down a longer set of stairs. We don't know whether I blacked out for a sec or the knee just went out from under me, but the result was the same either way.

Fast forward all these years and factor in the loss of 200 pounds. For all those years, 25 of them, I was using injured knees. And, for all but the last 3 years, I was packing around all that extra weight. Both knees were arthritic and bone on bone when I had my RNY. I was having cortisone shots in both knees every 3 mos like clockwork. Then, I stopped that in March of 2007 when I had the last set of shots. I hadn't had much problem with either knee since then. I have exercised, walked in marathon relays and other walking events. I was walking 3.5 miles every day Monday through Friday in less than 50 minutes each day. Almost all of a sudden, I started having pain in my left knee on a daily basis. It ached so badly at night. I finally gave in and sought medical attention. After xrays and an MRI, it was decided that it was primarily torn meniscus that was at fault and that the best fix was arthroscopy and trimming up the tears to get rid of the ragged edges that were probably the cause of most of the pain. They put cortisone shots in both knees and scheduled the surgery.

I had the left knee scoped on 8/18. It went fairly well. It was painful, but I was able to put weight on it after a few days and get back to normal stuff with minimal pain after a week or so. It went well enough actually that when I went for my followup appointment on 8/28, I asked about doing the right knee as well as it had begun bothering me more since the surgery on the left knee and the favoring of that knee again. One doc said "let's do an MRI and some xrays and see what we are dealing with..." His partner, who scoped the left knee, said, "Nah, let's just get in there and clean it up. It is probably just about the same as the other was..."

I had the right knee scoped on 9/1. I was told afterwards that I had "lots of tears in the cartilage..." It has been MUCH more painful and was very stiff to begin with. Since then, it has begun this lovely popping/clicking noise with each and every step I take. My brother says it is "musical, like mine" as he has the same issue in one of his knees--the clicking. The doc says it is still very inflamed and needs anti-inflammatories (such as NSAIDs...) and ice and time. I'm not patient, so the time has been hard. I am not supposed to take NSAIDs as an RNY postop, so that hasn't been easy either. Ice...well, getting back to that lack of patience, you sort of have to sit around and be patient for ice to work, right? Not happening very much! So, to get the pain and stiffness and clicking taken care of, I am going to do a hopefully short round of anti-inflammatories and see what happens. If I don't notice any improvement in a few days, we'll see what the doc says on 9/11 when I go back for followup.

Think I've found a new bariatric doc...

As some of you may know, but many may not, once you have had surgery with a bariatric doc, it can be HARD to find a new doc who will take you on as a patient. When I found out I was moving back to Florida, I contacted my surgeon. He has contacts seemingly everywhere, so I had hoped he would have a comrade here that I could use once I got moved. No Such Luck! SO, I was on my own once we got here to try and find a doc that would take me AND a support group. I think (fingers crossed) that I have done both now! I am waiting for the doc to get my surgical report from Dr. S and will see what he says! It looks good. Plus, the hospital he works out of has a support group every month. I missed it this month, but will be there with bells on next month and hope to have good things to report there. It won't be MY support group and my surgery buddies and angels, but I can work to help make it what I like a support group to be! I'll have those folks thinking marathon by next year!! LOL

Sameo, Sameo...

And, as the saying goes, life goes on... I'm still job hunting. Hubby has two job offers but can't go till he gets done with these IV antibiotics. Our older daughter is doing better now that her life is on a more even keel and people aren't messing with her on a daily basis. Verbal abuse SUCKS! Mandy, our youngest, will start school Aug 24th--her senior year. So, we'll be sucked in to the senior rush of portraits, ordering announcements, college applications, and more! But, it should be a good year anyway. She's got good grades, solid plans for the future, and is a bright kid who seems to test pretty well (great ACT and SAT scores!). Matthew, the world's greatest grandbaby, is growing so fast! He has like 9 or 10 teeth now and is always on the go now that he's walking.

He's loving life here away from the cigarette smoke and with his mom under so much less stress.


My weight? Well, that is at a standstill again... No biggie--not losing or gaining. I am not exercising either due to the knee, so not gaining is good!

And yet MORE before pics!

It is a wonder the stuff you find when you move and are in the process of packing and unpacking..... Some stuff should never see the light of day again. Some should have been trashed or donated a long time ago. And, still yet more stuff has been totally forgotten over the years. I stumbled upon a couple more "before" photos today!

This one was taken in June of 1991. I didn't yet know it, but I was just barely pregnant with my youngest (who was born Feb 92). Eliza (shown with me in the pic) was 2 and had a blast that day. We were on a road trip with my hubby in the tractor-trailer. He was hauling a load of watermelons from LaBelle, FL to Memphis, TN. We stopped along the way from time to time to be tourists--something we don't get much chance to do. This particular day, we toured the USS Alabama, a battleship from years gone by that is permanently docked at Mobile, AL. Eliza had a ball going up and down the corridors of the ship and climbing on bunks and such. There is also a submarine on site (the USS Drum I believe it was).


Then, there is this one... It was taken in the fall (Oct or Nov) of 1999 while at the CHADD conference. We were out sightseeing this particular day and, as you can see, this was taken in front of the White House. I probably weighed in the neighborhood of 350 to 370 at that time.


I am so happy to say that this is no longer me! I can't believe I waited so long to do anything about my weight.

You're Not Done Losing Till YOU Say You're Done...

There was a post on OH lately that stated that the person was 2 years postop from RNY and still 60 pounds from their goal weight. They asked what info could be shared about losing weight in the 18 mos to 2 year postop timeframe and that they really wanted to lose that last 60 pounds. One response to that post stated that you are not done till you say you're done. I really liked that attitude... If you give up, then you probably are done. If you stop really trying,then you probably are done. BUT, until YOU decide that this is it and you are not going to try anymore, then you are not necessarily done losing weight! We are told over and over that the surgery we had merely gives us a tool which we can use to lose weight. That tool is there for the rest of our lives. What we are often missing though is the motivation to USE that tool.

At any time, we can decide to utilize this weapon against fat! We can go back to what we've been taught and start using that tool/weapon again. We can eat properly, boost our protein intake, and increase our exercise. It really can be just that simple!

I post this because I am in that spot right now. I've moved, as you know already, from the hills of West Virginia (the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains) back to the flatlands of southern Florida. Walking is easier. Biking is more possible--even with my old bone-on-bone knees... I truly have no excuse for not exercising. Now, I am trying to DO it. I've gone from walking 2.5 miles per day Monday to Friday at about a 3.5 mph pace to walking almost 3.5 miles Monday to Friday at that same 3.5 mph pace. I am going to ride my bike today if the sky doesn't fall early (it rains most afternoons here). My sister and her best friend walk (at a MUCH slower pace) most evenings just before dark while their kids are riding bikes. I may start doing that too. It is just a matter of deciding that I want to do it, I am worth it, and it will help me AND make me feel better. I have made that decision. I am ready to do it. Let's just see how it goes!

Hunting....jobs, houses, peace!

Moving sucks...even when it is for good reasons! All the stress! Packing. Loading. Moving. Unloading. UnPACKing! UGH!! Then, the real stress of finding a job and finding a house to buy. It never ends! Toss in the daily stress of living with two teenage and 20-something girls and a toddler and life gets even more fun!

Did I mention that my name is now "somebody"?? "Somebody has to wash the dishes..." "Somebody come help me do ___________." "Somebody needs to wash clothes..." Yep, somehow I always end up being the one to do whatever it is that needs done. So, that makes me chief cook, bottlewasher, dishwasher, laundress, housewife/cleanup crew, and all on top of trying to find a job and look for a house to buy! Talk about someone who needs a CALGON moment!

before pictures....found a couple!

I've always made sure I was the one TAKING the pictures just so that I didn't have tons of pics with my big ole butt in them. I hated seeing pictures of myself when I was heavier. So, that made finding any full body "before" pics hard to do. As we moved though, I came across these... They ain't pretty!

This first one was from the Spring of 1997. We were at a get together for my hubby's family. It was the first time I ever met those folks in the picture and was the last time I've ever been around them. They live over in northern Ohio and we have always been somewhere else. We actually made that trip because my own grandmother had passed away and she lived in Columbus...


Then, the second picture I found was from my student teaching during the fall of 1998. I look so danged happy in this picture!

Thankfully, those are BEFORE pics and not current pics! Here's a pic of me at my current size just for perspective: