Shelley! Lesa! Denise! Sheri! Kathy! Melissa!

Wowsa CJ, CONGRATULATIONS ON THE 62 pounds weightloss, that is sooooooo awesome(!) As far as support groups go, I hear that there is one in Medford, tell your friend to log on to: weightforlife.com, there is a $10 co-pay for the meetings and it is with a "real"counselor. Here in Klamath Falls we have a bi-weekly meeting with Peggy Skillen, she did our psych evals...but the winter snows are here now and your friend is probably better off finding a group in Medford from the website I gave you.. HUGS and GREAT JOB~~!!!!!! Melissa

Thanks Melissa - Geez I like the idea of a meeting with a real counselor.. it would be so worth $10! I will pass that on to my new e-pal. I may even look into it myself.. Medford is an easy 2 hour hop down I-5 for me.. I am feeling the need to have live support so bad.. I just cannot pin down a local group.

Go to weightforlife.com and click on support group meetings and put Medford in there and you will have the schedule. We are lucky as this counselor does our psych evals, so she knows us and helps us through our issues, as a pre-op I really enjoyed listening to the post-ops.. it gave me a lot of comfort knowing that come what complications that may, they all seemed to work out in time... The support group meetings mean a lot to me and I really enjoy the people. The "live support" that you are talking about is very meaningful. I dont know what the Medford group is like, but I did meet quite a few post -ops at my surgeon's seminar in Medford and really liked them... I think it is really worth the $10. Hugs, Melissa

Hey CJ!!! I am so proud of you that is awesome! Pretty soon all your sons friends are gonna be saying what a hot mom they have! Are you still walking eight miles a day??? I am working out 4 days a week religiously on my elliptical trainer. My weight is finally starting to drop off. All is well on my end, was sad to see last week come and go and watch my son's very last ever high school football game. I can't believe he is a senior this year. Now on to girls basketball. Let me know when you come back up again, I'd like to be able to spend more time with you this time. Or....I will be in Eugene for the Thanksgiving weekend....I'll be dying to get out of my mother-in-laws house, so give me a call!

I know where does time go.. Kris has one more year thank goodness. I do love high school football we won our last game and it was a big rival game .. last time they beat this team I was in high school okay LOL.. MY boy had the game winning touchdown.. it was SO KEWL.. he had quite a write up in the papers down here too.. Roseburg and Eugene.. all I can say is YUP that's my boy!!! As of Monday we are into Basketball too.. but our games don't start till Dec 2nd. Kris will go from basketball to baseball.. he is good for year round entertainment.. and I am right in the middle of it.. but I love football best! Yes - I am still doing 8 miles a day most of the time.. a few days I only do 2 in the afternoon for 6 miles a day. 5 days a week. When I increased to 10 my weight stalled big time.. I had to cut back.. then I had a huge loss.. you are building muscles.. it is hard to find the right balance between not loosing muscle.. doing enough to spark your metabolism.. and not doing too much so your body shuts down to preserve the reserves.. Geez this is like Rocket Science .. hehe.. and all along I had been saying .. "This is NOT rocket science guys... " I am impressed you are using your elliptical.. those things are tough.. I was wanting one I thought till I tried one at the store.. oh my goodness... it was way too much of a work out for me LOL.. I'll stick to hammering the pavement!

CONGRATS CJ! Nice weight loss. Everyone seems to be doing well. I'm feeling better. Just home from the hospital after two days of "nasty" stuff. I had to have an ERCP because of the upper chest pain I was having. It was not reflux, or hernia, or heart problems. Finally, after many many tests and procedures it was found that my bile duct to the pancreas was blocked. The surgeon here in Eugene used the scrope and opened the duct. THe opening was about the size of a tip on a ball point pen and actually needed to be opened to the size of a actual pen. He opened the duct and he said it was a real struggle to do so. I was mostly asleep for the procedure but could feel the pulling and tugging of the scope. I was in a lot of pain after the procedure so was admitted to the hospital for pain management. I came home last nice. Took some pain pills and an Ambien and woke up this AM a whole another person. I am pain free and no chest pressure at all.Even cleaned the refrig and microwave. My surgeon wants me to wait 2 months for RNY but I called the RNY surgeon today to get his feel on this. Of course, he is off today. Yike, I don't want to change things now but may have to. Guess I'll lose some money on airfaire. CJ: I want a monkey. What kind do you have. Do you thing a monkey would both little lhasas? I've always wanted a money. Take care. Everyone seems to be doing so good. Bless you all. Kathy

Kathy, What is ERCP? I am sorry to hear that you were in so much pain, but glad that you got it taken care of.... sounds like a scarey procedure, but pretty awesome that you didnt have to be opened up for them to do it. Hugs, Melissa C

ERCP is an endoscopic procedure which uses a side viewing endoscope to gain access to the bilary and pancreatic ducts. I was diagnosed with SOD (Sphincter of Oddi Dysfunction) after a nuclear scan showed that bile wasn't flowing freely from my stomach thur the bile duct. Lots of things can cause it and it is usually associated with gallstones in the bile duct or gallbladder sludge. I had my gallbladder out many many years ago and when the scope was done on Wednesday no stones or sludge were found. Just a significant narrowing of the duct. The MD used a balloon to wide the duct and then made a small incision in the muscle so it would be open. I sure had a lot of pain and it was scarey. If they were not able to open the duct by endoscope then open sugery was needed. According to both my MD here and the RNY surgeon in LA, this problem has to be cleared up before RNY as once you have RNY it makes it pretty difficult to get to these ducts for any problems. It is a fairly rare condition. My MD has only seen one like mine in the last 3 years. Leave it to me! I do everything on a grander scale than most! I sure feel good today - absolutely no chest pain YEAH YEAH YEAH KW

Kathy - you can go see the monkeys at http://community.webtv.net/cjcody/cjsplace. The two I still have are a black and white Capuchin and a Snow Macaque. The Snow is not pictured but she is similar to the Macaques that are pictured. 4 years ago I had 14 monkeys and a Baboon. It was just too much.. I went down to about 8 and then last year I decided to throw in the towel all the way. I am down to 2 now and PRAISE the Lord I got a call on my ad today that sounds pretty serious so hopefully I will be placing them soon. I am just burnt out on it all I guess.. I have spent nearly 20 years being Noahs Ark and I am ready for a life... I have a brand new and improved life and I don't want to spend it cleaning up monkey chunks! hehe If I lived in a warmer climate it would be easier.. but we have too long of a winter for primates.. they have to be in the house and that ain't pretty. Outside we have big enclosures they are 20 feet long 10 feet wide and 10 feet tall.. I leave them out every day during the summer.. I have no clean up - I love it and they love it. But times like now they are just too much. The only good ones I have ever had were ones I raised myself from birth.. these ones I have now are rotten little suckers. Some day when my kids are up and on their own I may raise another one.. but I will never take in an older one again.... nope never.. I am glad you are feeling better.. sounds like it was a pretty tough procedure. I am sorry you have to wait longer for your surgery.. but as you know.. it is best to go in with everything in your favor.. so in the end a few months will not make that much difference.. coming from the girl who pushed every possible button to go sooner..

Sheri hasn't popped in here yet.. Has anyone been talking to her? I just wondered how she was doing.. it is easy to get depressed the first few weeks.. just the meds and the emotions.. I hope someone is keeping tabs on her. I would but I don't know where I put her number. SHELLEY - Will you be down here for the whole weekend of Thanksgiving or just the day? I will come up and steal you away for a few hours if ya want