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Good morning Jeannie
In answer to your question, NO doctors do not talk to each other. A phone call by their nurse or whomever to get you passed on is about all they do. I am having vision problems because my surgeon (world class) and my glaucoma specialist did not talk to each other.
I am going back to the museum today to finish up the bill cody section. It will have taken us 8 visits to make it through each section and not minutely as I like to do. It is just too big and in a city of only 9,000. I guess its true that when you do not have to build prisons you can build parks and the arts.
Breakfast - toast with peanut butter and bananas
lunch - salad with protein probably chicken
snack - still have grapes
dinner - going out don't know where.
Friday, Yeah! Well, last night, I went to bed way too early so I got up around midnight and couldn't go back to sleep....Now I am fighting the urge to go to bed. I will not get my days and nights confused....no way.
DH went to work today. He has to do some teaching thing for the people who are learning something about something. I understand nothing about what he does. LOL
I have been on pain medication since the car wreck in the early 90s. Over the years, I have gone through times when I cut down to one or two a day and then there have been times when I took the maximum dose. My rheumatologists has maintained my pain management and when I've had surgeries or other things that required a larger dose, the doctor would contact my rheumatologists and they would make adjustments. So, since he is retiring, I have a new doctor and she is young and yesterday, she went over my last ten years of tests, MRIs, X-rays, surgeries, etc., and this morning, first thing, I get a call from her. Apparently, she is concerned about my vertebrae being so bad and why haven't I had surgery on my shoulders and when I am getting my hips and knees replaced. I told her that I was coming to her office soon and we could talk then but I get around and she said, Oh, I thought you were in a wheel chair. I laughed and she said what's so funny and I said, well, I was for a long time, but I walk pretty good but if I am not able to control the pain, I am afraid I might end up immobile again...she said, oh, do I need to get your pain med refill now. I said, no, the other doctor has me covered for two more months....now here is the deal...do they even talk to each other. Did my old doctor just send her the file without telling her a damn thing? Has he not put somewhere on my chart that I am ambulatory? **** I really hope the neurologists does a better job of flipping me over. LOL
Okay, today will be a day of rest. I spent way too much time doing piddly **** yesterday so today, I am watching crime documentaries.
Breakfast: egg, toast
Lunch: soup
Dinner: we are going out to eat...probably shrimp
Snacks: celery and cucumbers.
Ladies, talk on...it is raining here today and looks like fall.
Hello, everyone: I am bringing up the rear tonight. After nine days of painful restless nights, I hope to sleep tonight...it's about that time.
Derek had his company from Britain today, in fact he had to rescue them..they were stranded at the Toronto airport..their contact has border crossing issues. I went to his place next door to say HELLO and took over a side dish of rice and beans (corn, edamme and black beans) and a chocolate-caramel cheesecake. I told him to NOT bring leftovers back. Her BBQ'd chicken for his friend and her two teen daughters...nice girls...one had lovely PINK hair.
Then I headed up to our older son's place in the Falls and spent the afternoon with my two step grand daughters (10 and 14) making sun-catchers with glue and glass globs, glitter paint and pearls and diamonds. The trick now is to have the patience to wait until the white glue turns CLEAR when it dries. We put them all (9 sun catchers and two jars and lids) onto cookie sheets then put them up high on the top of some book shelves to dry where their six cats cannot get into them. Once dry, we can peel the plastic lids away and poke a hole in each sun catcher, and use skinny ribbons, yarn or fishing line to hang them.
I got home in time to say GOODBYE to Derek's friends, make a light supper, check my email to find another children's book to illustrate...the author is ready...egad! and then crocheted another INFINITY SCARF with some soft white yearn and a few rows of multicoloured fuzzy yarn in oranges, golds and turquoises. I did that while watching the OLYMPICS..,.what a joy to watch instead of POLITICS!
Still editing a few letters to be sent to corporations asking for sponsorship for our conference.But I am headed to bed earlier than usual..just plain worn out.
Breakfast: forgot, yup...simply got washed, dressed and headed out w/o my protein drink
Snack: stopped at a farmer's stand and bought PEACHES and ate one right there!
Lunch: meal supplement bar that I keep in the car
Snack: none
Dinner: rice and black beans, corn and edamme but topped with cheese for more protein
Bedtime Snack: better have a protein drink
VERY HOT here...
Hi Ladies,
I was sick yesterday but I'm feeling better today. I even got my walk in today.
B whites ham and cheese omelet and string cheese
L cottage cheese, baby carrots and banana
D corned beef, cabbage and baby carrots
S light and fit Greek yogurt with chia seeds and apple
Everyone have a good day
Morning All,
Nothing much on my agenda today. I need to clean and do laundry...that's all. I'm not surprised that the weight gain issues are psychological. That really goes along with the things we were told, that the surgery was a tool, but we are the ones that have to change. My brain is definitely still making some really poor decisions. I still use food to calm anxiety. I am definitely doing better and keeping 100 pounds off, but the last 50 pounds need for me to use other things to calm anxiety. I think I'm going to make myself a sign...with other things that I can do first, before I reach for food when I am feeling some anxiety. I do have other things, coloring, reading, baths, meditation. I could even make a list that I would check off.
Food Plan
Breakfast- protein drink
Lunch- chicken soup
Dinner- going out...not sure where
Snacks- apple with cheese slices, nuts
Good morning Jeannie and those to come,
I am enjoying a couple of lazy days. My body needs the break from all the riding and walking it takes to see Yellowstone. It is huge. Today I have nothing planned except the concert in the park this evening. I have to pay bills and do a few other chores.
breakfast - oatmeal with walnuts, bananas, and blueberries.
lunch - salad with field greens, romaine, grilled chicken, tomato, green onion, and a little cheese.
dinner - not sure but some sort of protein and veggies.
enjoy your day everyone
Yesterday afternoon, I got a piece of bad news. My neurologists is retiring; he has been my doctor since the drunk driver broke my back in two places and cracked my neck vertebrae in the early 90s. He and his partner both showed up in the ER that early morning and both assured me I was going to be fine but, I found out later, he told my sister that if they could keep me alive through the hours of surgery, I would never walk again. I've seen this doctor every year since then. He is also the doctor who called me a few years back and said he was looking at my MRI results and wanted to send me to a colleague, who diagnosed me with MS. So, he is retiring and a few months ago, my rheumatologists told me that he was retiring. I will be seeing my new rheumatologists next month and my new neurologists in November. Even though I only see these doctors every year or in the case of the rheumatologists every six months, they have been a part of my life for over two decades....damnit. I retired; why would I not want my doctors to retire. LOL
I am spending the day getting more organization to my organization, and I am proofreading/editing the article that I wrote for one of our local WLS surgeons. He and I met a few months ago at an MS fundraiser. When he was introduced to me, I told him that I had had WLS and told him when and he looked a little shocked. He said, wow, you've done amazingly well. Of course, I said, maintaining hasn't been easy. We continued to talk and he said he would like to know what I was doing and would I come talk to his support group and so I did both. Then, he and I had lunch a few weeks later and he mentioned that all the research pointed toward weight gain relating to mental issues and he said he would love to do research but had no time, so I offered to do it for him...I was somewhat shocked at what I have learned. He is using the article to prepare for a seminar he is giving...I will probably help him put his powerpoint presentation together too. Originally, I saw this as a collaboration but he has offered little towards the article other than giving me access to his only medical library membership, and since I am putting his presentation together too for the seminar with no contribution from him, this is more like me doing it all. In the beginning, he told me he would pay me for the research so I guess we will go that route. Anyway, I am taking some of the information and will be using it to do some little "for our information" segments. But, in all the research that I have done, and I have done a lot, I have found nothing that contributes weight gain to a faulty pouch....that sort of shocked me.
Well, today, DH is working from home. He is working on something that requires no interruptions and when he is in his office at work, he gets interrupted all day long...so, when he does certain conversions or whatever, he does it at home....I have to be quiet. Crap.
Breakfast: I egg cooked in a dab of olive oil and one toast
Snack: watermelon
Lunch: Potato soup.
Snack: carrots (my daughter's carrots have produced tons this year so I will be eating them often)
Dinner: Beans, loaded cornbread, fried okra/squash/greentomatoes (I have a little of each and will fry all of it)
Snack: watermelons and I hope we eat it all today.
Ladies, consider your food today, plan it, and follow the plan. Get out and enjoy the summer heat because from all I've read, we are going to have a cold and snowy winter.
I agree Linda. She hasn't been assertive so far. I have offered to call for her r write e mails but so far she hasn't accepted that offer.
Thanks Jeannie. In CA they just passed the euthanasia law. If my friend gets too tired she can decide on that. I think it is a really good law that can help people that are suffering. I can already see Linda's life dwindling, it's like a drip at a time, but within a month or two the loss is big. I'm already brainstorming about things that she can access to keep her brain occupied. I can see her breathing starting to change. She said it is allergies...I don't think so. Her speech is labored now and she is over articulating to be understood. I know that swallowing will be affected before too long...it is difficult to watch and I just can't imagine being in her place.
Wally and Margie Mundstock liked to explore the back roads, and they got me involved in that from the start. The second weekend I was there, they took me up in "Burby," their Suburban, along with Puff, their dog, who came everywhere with them, up into the mountains of Lost Creek State Park near Anaconda. The roads weren't great (well, I was from the Chicago area; I was used to the paved roads with potholes. Most of these roads weren't paved, and some were just snowmobile trails). But Burby could go everywhere, and so we went.
Along the way, there were some wild irises, and Margie wanted some for her garden. I don't know how legal it was to dig irises out of state park land, but we stopped to do just that. (Margie and Wally are dead now, so there can be no repercussions.) Puff stayed near; Margie made sure she didn't run off. She was a toy poodle and was older than even the Mundstocks' youngest daughter, JoNae.
From that first outing, I gained a love of exploring. I tried to get out at least once a week to go up in the mountains, try a new road, go a little higher, a little farther, and see something new. I had a Forest Service map to guide me. Sometimes it helped, sometimes ... well, I just got lost. I had no GPS, just that map and my own good sense. I always found my way home somehow.
One day I went up the mountain and came out the other side into Dillon. Don't ask me how I got there; I don't remember anymore. It was a beautiful drive and it was late spring, in May. There was still snow on the road in some places. Once I got to Dillon, I knew where I was and headed back on the interstate.
I had enjoyed fishing when I was younger and had a fishing pole and tackle box, so one weekend I bought some worms and looked for a lake at which to fish. I was not quite fishing like those in "A River Runs Through it." I was sitting there, feeding the baby fish, casting and sitting enjoying the sun when someone came behind me and touched me on my shoulder.
I almost jumped into the lake. There was Wally, laughing. I couldn't believe he went to the same lake as I did for the afternoon.
I loved going up to this place called Crystal Park. We traveled up through the Big Hole and then up a road that was little more than a snowmobile road. Along the way were big meadows of wildflowers. Occasionally, I'd see a moose or elk or deer. One time, there was a mama moose with her baby.
When we arrived at the park, there was a picnic area and then a large mountain with a big hole where all the big crystals were. Ray would go up the mountain to dig; I'd stay at the bottom and dig around the bottom because my legs didn't like climbing. I still have some crystals from there: amethysts and quartzes.
One of my favorite places to drive to was the Skalkaho Pass. It was only open when the snow melted, and that could be as late as June sometimes. It was high up in the Pintlar Mountains and at some points only a single car could pass. But when you got up to the top, a beautiful waterfall awaited the driver.
And what a waterfall it was during a season when the snowmelt was plentiful. The first time I saw it was during a drought and the runoff was low, but it was still breathtaking. But the next time ... well, that was another matter.
It was right before I was going to leave for South Dakota and my next job. I took my little brother, Ray, up with me. We wandered around many places along the road, including one place I had never seen before. On my Forest Service map, it's called the Frog Pond. I'm not sure why; we didn't see any frogs. The other times when I was there when there was a drought, I didn't see the area. I guess the recent heavy snow melt had made it more verdant.
We left that area and continued up to the top to the waterfall. The water was gushing down the side of the mountain and over the road, so much more than it had the other times I had been there. We pulled over and took photos, and Ray walked around the rocks, enjoying the water coming down.
I always remember that outing, for how green and lush Montana could be at times; contrasted with how brittle and brown it had been sometimes. The previous fall, we had wildfires in Yellowstone, with the smoke blowing over the passes into our valley. When the kids played football that fall, the smoke hung over the stadium like an unhealthy cloud.
There were so many wonderful places to explore in Montana: the Bitterroots, Glacier Park, Lost Creek, Georgetown Lake, and Yellowstone River. In five years, I got to see a lot of it, but not as much as I wanted.
But the beauty of the Frog Pond has stayed with me all these years, as some place I want to return to someday, to sit and stay and remember the glories of Big Sky Country.
