Good Morning, I got on the scale this morning and was pleasantly surprised by the 181 staring back at me!!! This weekend should be a breeze with getting moving, I've got yard work planned and maybe a garden for saturday already. So by Monday...that number should stay the same or be lower. Overall yesterday was good, I had some jelly beans, but that didn't put me over my limits. Today: Breakfast Turkey Sausage Blueberry Waffle Lunch Pasta Salad w/ Ground Chicken Dinner ? Snacks Bannana Frozen Fruit Protein Smoothie Have a great weekend!!!

Monna, I'm really sorry that you're having this trouble. Go easy on yourself, and take care. I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers that this passes quickly. I'm sure you must be exhausted and worried. Hang in there. Irene

Hi girls! I'm so sorry I haven't been here in a few days. My boss has been in the office every day this week, and I haven't had a minute to myself. I've been going home after work and raking the yard for an hour and then getting dinner on and before I know it, it's time for a shower and bed. I've been doing really well with controlling my eating. I snuck on the scale this morning and I was 167 - down from 172 on Sunday!! I'm definitely back on the train!1 Exercise wise, I'm doing well too. I walk for 40 minutes every day at lunch time, do my hour of raking, and on Tuesday and Wednesday did the WATP WalkBlaster as well. I haven't been on fitday today, but I'm mostly drinking protein drinks for breakfast and lunch, then eating a high protein dinner. Hopefully things will quiet down next week and I'll be able to get on more. I just don't want you all to think I've forgotten about you!! Hugs, Nancy 280/167/155 mini-goal: 162 by 5/1

Thanks, Irene. I'm just really struggling with whether or not to have the ps. I am so happy with the results of the WLS, that I really don't feel a great NEED for plastics...but with the hernia, I figure I might as well go for it! We'll see! I'll keep you all posted. BTW...you look FABULOUS! Love the new avatar! Take care, Gail D.

Good Morning Family, I had a real scare yesterday and it is not totally over yet. As many of you know, I developed atrial fibrillation after WLS and was cardio-verted in November, 2004. With my pulmonary hypertension I am never supposed to lift anything over 5 lbs. Yesterday morning I was watching my year old granddaughter and picked her up. She's quite dainty but definitely weighs more than 5 lbs. I became short of breath--this is normal for someone with PH. The shortness of breath did not go away and it felt like racehorses were charging through my chest. Like many of us, I went ahead with my daily activities, but did call my pulmonologist. He told me to go to the ER and get an EKG posthaste. Yes, the bending over and lifting my granddaughter caused me to revert to atrial fibrillation. My heart rate was 150-160 with lots of irregularities. Each beat is not pumping the blood through effectively. We have a very small hospital here and the ER doc was the same one I saw with my GI bleed who did not treat that aggressively. So naturally he did not treat this aggressively. He did not do anything, but have blood drawn for labs and have an IV started until he talked to a cardiologist (glad I wasn't having a heart attack). I'm scheduled to see my cardiologist at the end of this month, so it was decided to try to chemically cardovert me with IV Diltiazem. It lowered my heartrate for about 5 minutes, but did nothing for the irregularity. So after 6 hours in the ER I came home with a prescription for a medication to slow my heart. I am to use that until I see my regular cardiologist. This morning my heartrate is somewhat slower--down to the 90-100's, but I am still short of breath (my oxygen saturation is absolutely normal) and I can feel periods of racing. I will have to deal with this for 2 weeks. I am exhausted. I am not to exercise at all until I see my doc on the 28th and that sucks. I am retaining fluids because my heart is not working right so I have to be really careful to monitor my lungs (thank goodness I ma an RN and can listen to my lungs and tell whether the are "wet" or not). On a good note, however. I only had a banana yesterday morning and I did not get anything to eat at the hospital until 4:30, but I was not hungry and did not even think of food. Normally, that's all I would have thought about. Monna