Trail Blazers and Path Takers

[TerriMM]

Down 1.9 today I think yesterday was just a fluke. Or brownie anxiety Of course if I did a beef day I would have been pleased how well that worked. I guess Chocolate yogurt, fruit and egg day is pretty good too.

How you feeling today?

[dazygyrl]

woot on the loss!

not sure where i am scale-wise. i let myself be a little free-er than the last couple of days. but still better than the normal free for i have been having here in the hospital. so that is good. i'm sure i would have been up some on the scale, but i don't feel bloated like have in the past on a sat in the hospital.

neck feels better. still touchy to sudden movements and the muscles are still sore. but improved from yesterday, anyway.

[privatediva]

how is Noah doing?

[TerriMM]

Yeah! Sounds like a good morning. Maybe something to be said for relaxing a bit and just watching it for both of us.

To you and Noah!

[dazygyrl]

noah...is....i don't know...very quiet yesterday and today. quite emotional today. no appetite can't hardly get him to drink. but i get nervous about taking him home if he isn't drinking good....not too concerned about the food thing. his hemoglobin has been low. and since he is taking a break from his easy treatments for a few weeks (only will be getting big treatments till middle of april), we won't see dr coulter for 3 weeks. and since he got chemo with an already low hemoglobin, he got a unit of blood this morning, just to boost him a bit. i have been told that low hemoglobin can cause one to be irritable...so am hoping that is what is going on with him. he didn't get sick last night after chemo....but he did get sick this morning once and then the no appetite thing. so, i don't know....he'll be fine in couple days...i just would feel better if he would be drinking more. which, i'm sure will pick up too.

[privatediva]

that poor kid I know everyone will be relieved when all this stuff is done.

[TerriMM]

This is going to be a rough month Will be praying for him

[dazygyrl]

he's doing better. still no appetite, but not as emotional...thankfully. he and i stayed home from church so he could just veg. thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers.

[beachagain]

consider them on-going, Carrie

[TerriMM]

Good Morning Bud!
I'm glad our little Buckaroo is having a better day. If I had gone through what he has and still had a couple more months to go (particularly the next heavy month) I think I'd be pretty emotional too!

Hope you two have a nice kick back day!

[dazygyrl]

thank you, cristen.

actually, terri...he's taking a break from his weekly treatments and only doing the big ones every three weeks. maybe my explanation was confusing. how are you doing, btw?

he ate 2 scrambled eggs earlier and is now asking what else he could have. so seems on track with gradual increase in appetite.

[TerriMM]

I did misunderstand, not near as bad as I thought. Very happy to hear he's on the up swing.

Me? My mamma always taught me if I didn't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all. Nothing terrible, I just don't have anything nice to say.

[dazygyrl]

awww..... hope everything is ok, bud. you know we can vent here. vent away if you need....i did the other day

i did let myself be a little free'er fri-sat....think i mentioned that...never out of control, but ate more than i *needed*....undid all i lost before the hospital. back down some after jumping back on track yesterday.

[TerriMM]

Yesterday was just one of those days were everyone and everything annoyed me. And the more I smiled and tried to go with the flow, the worse it got. I even reminded myself that bad food doesn't make it any better.

I did way more jumping off than on this weekend. I didn’t eat enough calories to really be up as much as I am, just foods not making my body happy and not keeping up on my water. I need to get back on track. DH is on the road so I had planned to make my quiche tonight for dinner. He also left me extra hard boiled yolks. So.... I'm thinking of maybe putting together an egg/fat fast day.

How's our little buddy this morning?

[dazygyrl]

ah...i know how you feel....very well... it'll pass....it usually does. it's a new day, right??

noah was slow moving this morning, but got on the bus. due to my appointments for my neck today, i'm not able to take him later in the morning. but have a ride lined up for him should he need to go home early.

[TerriMM]

Yep, yep, yep! New day indeed. We do day light savings time here. Started yesterday. One more hour of sunshine, my favorite time of the year.

DH, as I mentioned, is on the road, which means I get some uninterrupted time to get some cleaning done and that always makes me feel better.

Good luck with your appointments. How's your neck today?

[privatediva]

Hope the doc has something to help you, Carrie.

I just got back from taking my kids to the airport. Will is taking Merry to NY for the spring break week. He has an amazing week planned for them (kid has been saving for this trip forever...first class all the way). They have symphony and opera tickets and a reservation at Daniel (the number 11 restaurant in the world, according to the S Pellegrino list). They're going to galleries and a dinner cruise on the Hudson. So they'll have a stinkin' blast. It must be nice to be my son's sister

I'll be sewing this week. After I recover from getting up at 4 AM the morning after the evil time change. There is not enough coffee in N. America to get me through this day!

[dazygyrl]

so cool will and merry get to hang out together! enjoy your time sewing.

neck feels better...naturally since I'm seeing a specialist <rollseyeys>

for a visual here's this

here is a normal c-spine I pulled off google for reference.


and here is my film


as you can tell, my neck clearly is not right.

the chiro was none too impressed I don't think. rattled off statistics against the medical side to make it sound like they cause way more harm than good but to be expected I guess. dh just kept saying that we merely want to gather all the info we can before deciding which route to take.

[TerriMM]

Originally Posted by dazygyrl

so cool will and merry get to hang out together! enjoy your time sewing.

neck feels better...naturally since I'm seeing a specialist <rollseyeys>

for a visual here's this

here is a normal c-spine I pulled off google for reference.


and here is my film


as you can tell, my neck clearly is not right.

the chiro was none too impressed I don't think. rattled off statistics against the medical side to make it sound like they cause way more harm than good but to be expected I guess. dh just kept saying that we merely want to gather all the info we can before deciding which route to take.

Owie!

I doubt either one will have a nice thing to say about the other. And since your neck is better, you may be following a good path. But DH is right; you do need all the info to know for sure. It will be interesting what the specialist has to say, especially in light of your improvement.

[dazygyrl]

i hate it when my pictures turn sideways like that...grrr...

anyway...all is well. the surgeon is alllll for very conservative treatment. first thing he said was..."this is not uncommon to see in skinny women." HEEHEE.... well alrighty then... he gave a Rx for physical therapy if i chose to use it, it said i could use a soft neck collar if i felt it would help discomfort. he said i could try sustained use of motrin or aleve to get good anti-inflammatory effect. really tho...he was just giving me options and leaving it all up to me. he said my MRI looked ok....no nerve or impending nerve problems. slight disc degeneration in one of them, but nothing to be worried about yet. he answered my questions. i'm just gong to see how things go, keep the Rx for PT in my pocket for now and if i have another 'attack' will think about using it then.

oh, and the chiro called last night to check up on me....dh talked to him. that was nice of him. he did say that with 6-8 weeks of therapy with him he could help to correct the curvature. so dh and i will talk more about it and decide later.

hope you had great success from your FF, bud!

[TerriMM]

You poor skinny thing you. Bet that made your neck fill a little better right off the bat. Sounds like a good level headed guy [approach]. With that advice and your improvement so far, I think I'd be inclined to stick it out with the chiropractor for a little while. It does take a few weeks of treatment with them because your muscles, sore as they might be, are formed around the incorrect alignment. After he adjusts you they automatically try to pull your neck back where it was. It takes a few weeks for them to accept the new, correct alignment and form around that.

Fat Fast went good: 1150 calories, 81% fat, 15% protein, 3% carbs. Only down .20 today. Last time I didn't see my big drop until the second day with higher calories (1357 & 85% fat) so my plan for today is 1338 calories, 85F, 12P, 3C.

Hope you have a lovely day!! How'd our little trouper do yesterday?

[dazygyrl]

yes, i have not totally ruled out the chiro. but did feel i needed to get a medical opinion as well to fully get all the info....kwim? the other thing i need to consider is cost. chiro is not covered on our insurance. BUT, dh has done a lot of work for chiro in the past, so if i choose the chiro route, that would have to be talked about with him as well.

i'm staying off the scale....i don't like where the scale is, but i also don't want to be sooooo dependent on it. i need to learn how to eat again independent of the scale. am going to see how weighing once a week works....it's what i did years ago and i lost just fine then.

he did good. i got a text from him after he had lunch..."you were right! i do feel better after i get to school."

[TerriMM]

Originally Posted by dazygyrl

he did good. i got a text from him after he had lunch..."you were right! i do feel better after i get to school."

I used to tease my mom "it's amazing how much smarter you got as I got older".

I think getting the medical opinion was very important and smart. Maybe you can work out a barter deal with him. He sounds very concerned about helping you, so I'll bet he'll be motivated to work out something.

Even though I'm still weighing every day, my "official" weigh in is Friday and that's what I base my success on. Unfortunately that's been moving up consistently for the last few weeks. So time to nip it in the bud.

[dazygyrl]

yeah...it's so discouraging that i am sitting 7-9 up from my low...i hate that so much! i felt really good...and confident, which is not normal...at the lower weight. i want so much to get back to that. but i HAVE to figure out a way to get DOWN with a woe that i can also use to maintain. simple LC won't get me there....maintain, yes, but not lose. i hate the floundering feeling...ya know? i mean what is so hard about internalizing the saying "nothing tastes as good as thin feels!" i need to tattoo that on....i don't know where...somewhere!! LOL!!

[TerriMM]

I hear ya girly, girl. I'm getting a wee bit tired of diet du jour!

[privatediva]

you guys will think I've lost my mind but anyway...I'm fessing up today. I have been seduced by the nearly full bottle of RX drops David had left after his very successful round. He barely used the second month's worth and so I thought...well, you know. Anyway...this is a vanity round, no doubt about it. There was a little bit of extra around my bra line in back that I was waiting to see whether it would "redistribute". I'd been in P4 four 5 months and even lost a few lbs below LDW and it hadn't moved, so I thought...well...I'm busty and I'd enjoy less "engineering" in my bras if I could manage that. Also...HCG makes my joints feel better. LOTS better. I'm old and arthritic and I had no pain at all...felt 30 years younger on P2. So...that's my story. It will be a short round and I may have to eat double protein pretty soon. I don't want to lose any normal fat and I have very little extra to work with at this point.

Anyway...VLCD 11- Day 13 overall. Feel great. Down 6 lbs from a start weight of 136.5, which is 4 lbs below my last round LDW. 130.5 this morning. BMI is 20.4. No more bra roll which is a very nice thing...I do feel more comfortable without it. I won't go below 128-125. I may get there before I am done dosing. I want it to stick, so I will finish the round at high calories to stop losing, do a full P3 and hope I'm as lucky with stabilization as I was after my first round. I did ask my family before I started...and they all said "go for it" so I took that as a sign it was ok.

Soooooooooo...that's what I've been up to. Didn't want to be holding out on you, but I was a little conflicted about whether doing this round was justified. I'm getting a little better adjusted about my self-centered decision not to waste my husband's extra drops

I'm doing a little rogue-ish round...no extra fat but am happy to sub in protein powder or non-fat GY for protein. Couldn't justify any reasoning not to, and those two things make my life easier and better. My only "issue" at this point is that my mother just called to tell me she is coming to visit for a week next week. The timing couldn't be worse.

[dazygyrl]

congrats, deb....sounds like you're doing great!

i so wish i had it in me to do a round to get these 7-9lbs off. i have a full, mostly new bottle of pellets...i hate for them to go to waste, but how do i keep the "mental" struggles at bay that creep in when i do VLC? and WHY did i do a 39 day first round with EASE??

[privatediva]

Carrie...I can't imagine doing ANYTHING given the other things you've faced this year. You run a business, three healthy kids to nurture and care for, and one precious little boy with extraordinary medical challenges. I expect that *ONE* of your challenges would derail me completely. It would be impossible for me to remain "focused" and would be very easy for me to tell myself I have enough to think about without the dumb diet. AND...I'd be right. So don't be hard on yourself. You're an amazement with or without those 7-9 lbs.

[dazygyrl]

how sweet are you?? your note gives me a lump in my throat...thank you for your perspective and reality check...now i should go re-read that and somehow figure out how to internalize it. there are soooo many other aspects of my life that God has blessed me with a supernatural contentment.....i need to pray for some of that contentment in this area, as well....

[privatediva]

Revisit Ecclesiastes 3...and don't stop until after verse 13 God is teaching you amazing things this year Carrie. And you are so receptive to His leading. You will learn, and you have so many years to apply what you know and demonstrate to your kids, teach them etc. I envy you that. You have a killer testimony going on there, kiddo!