It has been a year and a couple of days since the great drama began

A year ago I went in to Kaiser and stayed for 8 days.  The great drama of A- Fib, diabetes, high blood pressure, and blood clots.  It was a scary time, and it was a life and death time.  Marty and I had to make decisions on my life.  Did I want to live a good life, or be a ticking time bomb?

We chose a good life.  We changed diet, exercise, cut back on commitments, and went through hell for about 9 months.  Lots of ER visits, midnight calls to the advice nurse, scary tests, and meds that didn't work.  Or meds that worked too well and I was a zombie. 

Around July things started meshing. I was used to eating healthy, still want bacon grease and butter.  I exercise 7 days a weeks.  I feel it is a punishment, I don't understand people who love exercising.  My meds were working together and no midnight ER visits.  Not even calls to the advice nurse. 

I have lost 95 pounds and am pretty cute if I do say so myself. 

Before

 

After with Marty, Little Brother, and Ann.

 



I feel fairly good most days.  I have learned to rest before I am exhausted.  I'm blessed with a husband who loves to shop and cook.  So a lot of routine work is off me.  I still cook, but rarely shop for anything.  Yesterday Marty came home with jeans for me.  He saw some 10 short, and knew they are rare and hard to find.   So he bought 3 pairs in different colors.  Yes, Marty is a keeper.

We understand none of my heath issues are curable.  But they are very treatable.  We know I will have flare ups and bad hard days.  But we know most days will be pretty normal.  Of course all of this depends on me following diet restrictions and exercising.  Boo hiss.  But I will do it.  I like my life and want to continue groups I am in and to continue volunteering. 

Most importantly I have learned that prayers from around the world help comfort and help with healing.  My blog friends and Facebook friends are very important to me and to Marty.  You all really helped us through a tough time.  Thank you. 

Stay tuned.  I am a drama queen so you know I will do something dramatic in the near future. 

Weight loss, how did I do it?

I am asked all the time, how did you lose so much weight. And I tell them no Cheetos for breakfast.  They think I am kidding, but I'm not.  I gave up a lot of good tasting stuff:  Cheetos, sugar, ice cream, salt, caffeine, wine, Bourbon, and on and on.

Before all the drama, I made half hearted attempts to lose weight.  But I yo-yoed for years. Now I am serious.  Diabetes, A-fib, high blood pressure, bad knees and hip, blood clots; trust me that will give you religion.  I was terrified.  Kiss the bad eating good bye.

How about a before picture.  Not that I am proud of it, but I am proud it isn't me anymore. Yes, I knew I was big as the side of a barn, I just wasn't motivated.

81 pounds ago

In September when I came home from the hospital I was too weak to walk over a couple of minutes.  Every day I added another minute or two to my exercise time.  I would walk 5 minutes and rest 30.  I was one sick chicken.  But I got up to 30 minutes, and I was walking faster and taking longer strides.  Then I added in our 20+ stairs and jogged down them and ran up them.  I was working hard.  I exercised in some form every day for at least 30 minutes.

Now to my diet.  I am not allowed salt, sugar, or many carbs or fats, also I had to watch out for cholesterol.  We read labels anytime we bought processed food.  We found low salt food doesn't mean squat, no sugar doesn't mean low calorie, low calorie. . . compared to what.  You need a Master's degree to shop at Safeway.  Thankfully Marty took over and found/made good foods I could eat.  He made soups, broths, whatever I needed he found or made.  We ate a lot of chicken and pork chops.  I ate peanut butter on a half of piece of bread with almonds on the side.  I made tomato soup and sauces from the tomatoes I had put up.  No salt in them.  I watched Marty make fudge and bourbon balls and only ate one piece.

Small portions were key to losing weight, so we used smaller plates so it looked like more food.  If we ate out I ordered the best I could and skipped the fried food, sauces, bread and cheese.  I was careful, if I ate a rich meal I had really healthy meals for the rest of the week.  Also I never said never.  I allowed myself the right to eat anything I wanted.  I just rarely did.  Knowing I could have it let me wait out the cravings for lovely bad food.  Even my doctor said one meal won't kill you.  Just don't have too many one meals.

Wine and liquor can really mess with one of my medications.  Plus alcohol is empty calories.  So I rarely drink anything except water.  No caffeine or sugar eliminated most soft drinks and fruit juice.

  

November 2013

February 2014

April 2014

June 2014

This has been a difficult process.  No one loves rich food more than I do.  And Bourbon, mother's milk to a Southern Belle.  I have succeeded because of the support from friends and Marty.  His support is huge, cooking and shopping.  And he drives me to Kaiser Emergency often.  I am not scared of A-Fib anymore.  It disrupts our life, but we know it is treatable.  The other problems are scary but controlled most of the time.  

I wrote this because Marty asked me too.  He said it might help others with similar health issues. I hope it will help others.  

A year in review, yuck

2013 was not nice to us.  We were very glad to see the end of it.  2014 we welcome with open arms.

This time in 2013 we were in the hell of moving into our lovely apartment.  Very little went right if you remember.  I am not going to put links for the move.  If you want to suffer through our hell just go to the archives and read again our troubles.  Satellite internet that didn't work, refrigerator that wouldn't fit through the door and had to be taken apart to be moved in.  And the list goes on and on.  Finally we were in our lovely apartment. 

Things were fairly normal until June.  I had a lump and in July surgery.  Yes it was benign, but another type of hell.  But I was ok, it could only be smooth sailing from there on out.  Wrong.

September the great drama of a 8 days in the hospital and 4 trips to the ER. (One trip to ER even in the ambulance. I was disappointed they just drove fast and didn't use the siren ) Triple diagnosis, heart, blood clots in the lungs, and diabetes.  I was really really sick.  I survived and I am getting healthy.

Three and a half  months later I am nearly 60 pounds lighter.  I walk every day for at least 30 minutes.  I eat healthy, which is hard for a Southern Belle.  We do love our fried food and gravy.

There were some good moments in 2013.  Being so ill I found out what great friends we had.  I found out people in the church I really didn't know well were praying for me.  My Facebook friends sent love and prayers, even people I have never met in real life, such as authors I follow.  I love my Facebook friends.  I realized I had a second chance to live.

2014 I am ready.  You have to be better than the last couple of years.  Welcome 2014.

I was brave today

Many who know me are aware I am the coward of the county.  I am afraid of more things than you can shake a stick at.  But I try to hide fear and go on with life.  I am a diagnosed agoraphobic.  That means I fear I will have a panic attack. And I have panic attacks over things that are new, flying, driving someplace the first time, the dark, storms, and on and on.  I have had group counseling and handle things better and understand I am not the only crazy person out there.  They told me they might not be able to cure me, but they could teach me how to handle my fears. (Living with me is another reason Marty is up for sainthood.) 

Many things are still very hard to do.  One reason I volunteer is I have to leave the house.  I am not going to be housebound.  I have responsibilities so I have to show up. And I do even on days I can't find that safe spot in my head.

The new health issues ( diabetes, A-Fib, blood clots) created a whole new set of fears.  What if, is the big thing a phobic does.  We write scenes in our heads of what can go wrong.  I say we are prepared, others say we are borrowing  trouble. So I have worried what if my blood pressure goes shy high ,that one happened, call 911 and ride in the ambulance.  What if my prescription refill doesn't come in the mail?  That one I handled yesterday. What if I start feeling dizzy?   What if I am alone and pass out? What if I can't find healthy food in the restaurant?  What if my pulse is too low to take my medicine, that happens a couple times a week. What if I crack and sneak a piece of candy?  And on and on. I am a walking fear machine.

To get/stay healthy I must walk every day.  I have walked in the apartment ever since I came home from the hospital.  I have gone from zero to 30 minutes of quick walking and doing the stairs several times.  BUT I would not walk outside of the apartment.  I am terrified something would go wrong.  I could be out in the neighborhood and I wouldn't be able to get home.  A couple of friends, one a doctor, asked me if I carried my phone.  Yes, of course.  The doctor said if you are in trouble at home you would call 911. If you are out, they will still come find you sitting on the curb.

So today I faced the fear and walked outside.  Marty was still home, so he would know when to start worrying.  I set my timer for 15 minutes, so I would know I was halfway and should turn around.  I put Pandora on shuffle and took off.  I did it!  Nothing bad happened, no panic attack, I was brave!