that was interesting. had alot of things in it that i didn't hear about when i had the surgery. but you know i would still do it again even knowing all of this stuff.

I've taken my last vacation day. I was to have a doctors appointment but it was rescheduled until january so i thought well lets just still take this day to relax.
i've been painting up a storm! I had wanted to finish redoing my kitchen before christmas. I started all of this in october. Nothing real fancy only paint new curtains and some new decorations I've been picking up and putting away. Then I got hit with the low blood sugar issues. I've not had any energy and when i do alot of excersize my adreneline kicks in which pushes for a low blood sugar episode. not fun. I've not been excersing either.
well i've had 5 good days of no episodes. i did have a minor one last night because i didn't eat at my usual time. it was very minor.
i've been trying to pace myself so i dont get to over worked! up and down the ladder. geesh i feel like an old woman and i'm not. i'm only 55! last year i painted my whole downstairs this year i feel sometimes like i need a walker. geesh!
the ceiling is done. it looks great. 5 years ago the toilet in my upstairs bathroom that is over the kitchen had broken. there was a big stain on the ceiling in the kitchen. just before i got sick i had patched that and started to paint. now its finally done. its a little kitchen really just a working one 2 people in there are 2 to many! Im hoping to start the walls this afternoon.
I have a bright yellow! when i say bright I mean you will not need lights on in there hahaha. Then I have black metal stars to put up for the walls. The other decorations are a primitive country feel. For over my cabinets I have twiggs and red berrys with metal starts woven in. I've picked up some other cool pictures at different consignment shops. This is all been planned from the coolest ceramic bright yellow and red chicken that I saw in another shop. I had to have it then when I brought it home it didn't go with anythinjg in my other kitchen. So thats when I decided to redo.
the next room will be my living room but i'm waiting to do that til after the holidays when income tax comes in. Plus i'm hoping the economy picks up better. i'm alittle careful about spending too much right now. I'd like to get a new couch when i redo the living room but again....hoping the economy gets better before I do that.
i'm feeling pretty good right now. alittle shakey with all the up and down of the ladder.
with this blood sugar thing my legs have been driving me nuts. they feel sometime slike when you've sat too long how you'll get pins and needles. my electrolityes were low when i had blood work so i've been boosting my bananas intake and have found a sugar free water that has extra electorlityes in it. it seems to help.
ahhhh nice to be home today.

Hi guys, I've been back to the Revision Board lately (watching Elizabeth's back for her!!) - this thread is very interesting and some of the posts have opened my eyes to where we all might be at with our surgeries this far out - giving me some new ideas about what we're dealing with and why, which at the very least might take some of the burden off, you know, those feelings of failure so that we can figure out better strategies. Anyway, have a look see ... I will not have chocolate today!!!! I will NOT !!! Love you guys! Reenie

http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/revision/a,messageboard/ac tion,replies/board_id,5360/cat_id,4960/topic_id,3806021/

i see credibility to the concept but not sure the research proved anything!

michael appears to be hooke don sugar ..even mor ethan i am--he  also has a strong thing fo rvicodin which he had gotten off of for about 5 weeks and today took one again--i am hoping (stupidly0 it will be the only one--i know better-and his surgeon is trying to get him off totally--so we should have a problem starting back up--
sorry-sidetracked ..

reenie- i wish i could offer help to you..i do believe it is chemical with you not just emotional or mental...if that helps at all....

hugs

I'm researching my candy addiction; if I don't get some help with this I can't tell you what I'll do, I'm really going crazy. I found this - maybe it will help someone else:

Is junk food addictive?

That's not a simple question to answer, because addictions are highly variable. For example, when it comes to the king of addictions -- nicotine -- some people get hooked, while others can have a few cigarettes and never want more.

So the same is probably true of food that qualifies as junk food -- high-calorie but low-nutrient foods like sodas, chips and candy bars. Not everyone craves these foods.

However, one main ingredient of junk food -- sugar -- seems to have unique addictive properties, researchers say, at least when it comes to rats.

After being fed a sugar-rich diet, rats showed signs of chemical dependency on sugar, said Bart Hoebel, a Princeton University psychology professor.

For several years now, he and others have been studying the addictive properties of sugar on the brain in rats.

But, it's not the sugar that's addictive, it's the high it causes. Like drugs, sugar stimulates the release of dopamine, a "feel-good" neurotransmitter -- among other functions. However, eating protein or other foods doesn't cause as big a rush of happy chemicals. Sugar is somewhat unique.

The very simplified basics of his and others' research: For a one-month period, rats were fasted/starved for a long time each day, and then given a heavy dose of sugary fluids -- sort of like drinking a large Coke for breakfast. They also were given normal food later in the day.

After the sugar meal, Hoebel's team measured that the rats experienced a flood of dopamine, and that their opioid -- morphine/opium -- receptors were activated.

 

Rats Hooked on Sugar?

After a few days, the rats were "hooked" -- wanting to drink more each day. Their brains created more dopamine receptors. After a month of this schedule, when the sugar was removed, or the dopamine was chemically blocked using a drug, anxiety increased, to the point that the rats' teeth audibly chattered -- a sign of withdrawal, Hoebel said.

Rats Given High Sugar Diet Show Strong Urge to Have More and More

When given sugar again after a few days, they ingested even more -- showing the tendency to crave it, too.

"As weeks go by, the rats take in more and more and more [sugar]," Hoebel said. "Like a good addict might, the crucial next thing is step two: They learn to binge. By day 20, when they get it, they drink a lot all at once. That's our definition of a binge."

What was especially interesting was that rats got a dopamine high even if they didn't actually digest the sugar. One set of rats had drains placed in their stomachs that made all the fluid secrete out. Even in that group, the rats craved sugar.

However, Hoebel said it's too early to know how this might apply to humans. And, because sugar is a substance every mammal needs for a quick source of energy, it's hard to know whether this was something that was normal -- that the body rewards us with pleasure for eating something it naturally needs.

"Shall we call this sugar addiction? This is milder than drug addiction, I'll admit that right up front," he said. "[But] why does sugar take on addictivelike properties? Because binging on sugar can repeatedly release dopamine."