I'm glad you are ok, I was praying for you. Did you have blood clots in your first surgery? Diane

Hi everyone. Happy New Year! It is a glorious day, and I am so glad to be alive! 2005 was a tough year, but I made it to 2006! PTL! I hope our board will continue to grow as we come here to support each other and to draw strength from one another. I "gleaned" some questions of the day from another board, but I don't think they will mind. I thought they were pretty good questions. Here they are. Peg 1. Besides continuing to lose and/or maintain weight, what goals do you have for 2006? 2. What is the greatest miracle in your life? 3. Did you ever dread a birthday? If so, which one? 4. If married or dating, how did you meet your spouse/date? 5. What year did you get your first computer? ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ My Answers: 1. Besides continuing to lose weight, what goals do you have for 2006? Get healthy. Join a support group. Travel!!! 2. What is the greatest miracle in your life? That I made it to 2006! PTL! My husband and family are also the greatest miracles in my life. You can't measure love that is poured out in such abundance. 3. Did you ever dread a birthday? If so, which one? I dreaded 25. I had married at 18 and had my first son just a month before I turned 20. By 25, I had been married almost 7 years and had 2 sons ages 5 and 2 1/2. Many of my friends had gone on to college, and I felt like I had been left behind. I am now 56, and I LOVE every birthday I have! 4. If married or dating, how did you meet your spouse/date? I met my DH at a dance. I was almost 16, and he was 20. He thought I WAS 16! I wonder how he got that idea? Of course, when I turned 16 the following month, I had to "fess up!" The only reason my folks let me date him was because our dads knew each other...plus my mom made me double date for a few times before she allowed me to go out with him alone. He is such a sweetie. He won my whole family over in no time! That was 40 years ago, and we just celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary the day after Thanksgiving. 5. What year did you get your first computer? "1985!" Can you believe that?! It was very limited, and we had to know a little bit of the language BASIC, but we made it work for some simple tasks and games. Then we moved on to the Apple Macintosh. Much better. I loved that computer. We have never been without one since then.

Hi Everyone, I wanted to pass on a discovery I made, first when I had this hernia it was huge, it started under the sternum and was about 6 inches long and stuck out A LOT. whenever I ate a meal I could actually feel my pouch through the hernia. Depending on the food, i could eat about 1 1/2 cups. WELL, now that the surgeon has repaired the hernia and did a TT, I can only eat about 1 cup or less! Now I guess this is a good thing BUT, I am going to have to learn a new method of eating to get all my protein in. I was eating three meals a day with 3 snacks. I think I will have to eat 5 meals a day but not sure yet on the snacks. My dietician wants me to also up my protein while I am healing from the double surgery I had... the surgeon had to open me back up the next day because there was a lot of dark drainage in my drains and he thought there was a leak somewhere,,, he did not find anything. So i will have to sit here and figure out how to get about 100 grams of protein in a day, at least I know the two protein drinks will help a lot. I did send hubby to do the shopping and put a huge bag of cheese stickes on it so I know that will help too. Donna 277/144

Beth, Sorry to hear about the loss. Praying you are doing as well as can be! Rachel

Hi Janice... I'm feeling tired and beat, but okay otherwise I think. I think I need to have a follow-up with the dr. though - since it lasted so long and I'm very worn out... -Beth