11/10/18, Saturday

1. Within Range: Yes
2. General Wellbeing: 9 on SS
3. 10,000+ Steps: 4689
4. Fitness: walking, laundry, shopping, hauling
5. Self-Care: Meditation while knitting
6. Play/Leisure: More cuddling with DS & DA (Dear Sadie, Dear Atlas)
7. Intention: Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate Do the next right thing.

Cleaning and grocery shopping, check. Drinking water...not so much. What a difference a week makes: soaking in desert sun. then SNOW...yes, enough to coat the ground ! We pick up SS today. She has been winterized and will remain parked through March for sure. When troubleshooting the ice maker disfunction, they discovered a fried electrical board behind the refrigerator, and replaced that. Humph..

Ann, the poem you posted helped me appreciate the chasm between MO Diane and healthy Diane.

Weight: 136.6
Macros: Cals - 1,515, Carbs - 156, Fats - 35, Protein - 82, Fiber - 26
Sleep hours: 7
Vegetable/Fruit Servings: 5
Water glasses: 4
Exercise: Walking (9,500 steps)
Meditation: Yes

DianeO, whoa! Talk about the differences in weather across our beautiful country! They had snow in Kansas City yesterday, too. Nothing here ... yet.

I talked so much yesterday there's not much I have left to say. ;) Today I'm going to the next county over to my mother's old home town and a Christmas Bazaar. Today will be sunny and crisp (20 degrees outside right now!). It's a day to wear some pretty woolens and big smile of gratitude for being alive. :)

Yesterday I drank 4 glasses of water, walked 9,500 steps, and the scale was down 2 pounds. That glycogen + water stored in the liver thing is REAL, both going up and coming down! Today I'll shoot for 5 glasses of water and 10K steps.

BTW, yesterday morning I finally took an Aleve, and man oh man did it make my ribs feel better! They still do. I'll take another Aleve with breakfast. I won't make NSAIDs a habit, but they're sure nice to have around when you need 'em.

Have a wonderful day out there, everyone! Holidays are coming at us fast. :)

Today's theme: I'm grateful for this day of life.

I've done NSAIDS a few times when I seemed to really need it. Thank god we can!

But Christmas Bazaar already? I saw a Christmas Tree outside a mall yesterday and in this near 90 degree weather it just seemed so incongruous.

Weight 122.6, calories 1046. Those calories included a margarita at the Mexican restaurant we went to with friends last night. My sleeve worked though! I had a taco salad without the bowl and halfway through I did not feel good - that awful sleeve feeling when you've had too much. It's been quite a while since I've had that happen. Reassuring but also a reminder that I need to avoid eating that much that fast.

The snow is pretty, but I can't say I miss it. I wouldn't mind a dusting like that when we are home at Christmas, but that's all I want to see!

Today we have nothing on the agenda other than me making SIL's salmon burgers. They were so good when she made them - I hope I can repeat it. I think the side will be ratatouille. Don't know why, but I haven't made it in a while and it sounded good. Hopefully DH will be in a better mood - he was cranky all afternoon yesterday as if it was my fault he slept through water aerobics. Sigh...

Weight: 167. Wish I'd posted yesterday--165.4! Crazy how even pregnant I'm so hung u on that number.

Wow so much from yesterday. I'd also like an update from Bonnie if you get a chance. I know everything is probably overwhelming right now.

Re Alzheimer's care/assisted living in general. From what I've observed with my grandmothers, it's probably best to be done when people are still receptive to change. My mom's mom really would have loved assisted living. She never got to go, as my granddad was still able to take care of her and didn't want to spend money on that. And bless his heart his savings were drained so fast by the time he did (and he did have Alzheimer's). My living grandmother (dad's mom) I'm conflicted. Much like Ann suggested, her perception of senior living is based off what her mother went through 25 years ago--basically took her there to die. She is extremely resistant. I also think perhaps we've passed the time where she might have been receptive to the change. Which is too bad, because she's so isolated. I try to have breakfast with her every weekday but some days that's the only interaction she has. She's 88 and I used to think she had memory problems. And yes, so aging-related memory struggles. But in the 8 or so years that I've really been trying to observe it, I can't see any pattern. I don't think she's any better or worse than 8 years ago, at least not in any consistent pattern. She does still drive--but only to the grocery store (4 blocks away, in the neighborhood, and to my parent's house 4 blocks the other direction). I would love to get her an "assistant" to at least help and stay with her some of each day or every other day. But now we've reached the point of not knowing how long her savings will have to last. Isn't that always the difficulty. And even at my age--something to think about. I'll admit I'm totally averse to change. And that's a bummer because change is the only thing you can count on! My husband is nearly 14 years older than I am, which means I will someday likely face these decisions for him, and for myself.

Re what we want to eat/coffee houses. I definitely relate to that. I still have a hard time accepting that I cannot eat what I want all the time. I'll admit, vsg has so far given me the ability to do that more than I ever would've been able to without. Because I still have a limited volume. But I also know that if I keep pushing the envelope, as much as I hate to admit it, total regain is possible. I've seen the slow trend. That slow trend tells me I'm going in the wrong direction. I'm still hoping I can have some kind of an approach that includes all foods--just not all the time. But we'll see. In June the battle begins. (My biggest fantasy in life is to be one of those skinny people who cannot seem to gain weight and just eat whatever they want without any worries!)

Diane O-wow snow already! Actually, we are supposed to get snow here on Monday! Crrrazzy. Looks like it might be a colder/snowier winter this year.

Thinking about California today.

And Veterans. Do kids in school still have assemblies for Veteran's DAy? It's so sad to me that so many of our WWII vets are gone. Are Vietnam Veterans better recognized these days? In the future I'd really like to take Becca and baby to a veteran's parade/concert. I miss hearing the marine and army, etc. songs.

DH made it home last night late with his car packed up. Move back from Houston complete! Will spend last week there in a hotel.

Very cold here this morning. I have chicken enchilada soup in the instant pot. Today is in-state football rivalry.

Bonnie, so wonderful that your DH is coming home for good next weekend. And just in time for the holidays. :)

Yeah for your DH's return!

The assisted living change at some future point will be complicated by the fact that I won't be moving at the same time. Some older couples do move together but it would kill me time be in a place like that...

132.8 Peanuts working!(always wanted to use that).

My intention of catching up on everyone's posts before posting --ah, well. Know I am connected in spirit with each of you here---

It is cold here too, I think we set a record low last night. The big flake snow was outstanding Thursday night. A real gift.

Thursday was my last work day. Surgery Tuesday morning. The schedule has not been set in stone yet, but that's what indicated. What is on the table now (ha-pun now intended) is a resection of the head of the pancreas. I'll also loose some of my small intestine, stoma*****luding pylorus, and part of bile duct. How much is undetermined as yet. While my CA-19 tests are within range, other values are elevated- they don't think there is cancer, but cannot rule it out- not enough fat to expose a super clear picture--go figure that one. Hoping.

I'll have an epidural along with general anesthesia and the epidural will remain for sometime after to help with the pain after. Unfortunately it can't stay in as I need to move asap to help try and wake up my insides (which will be totally pissed at me and may not cooperate for a while). Good news is that the surgeon does not automatically insert a feeding tube, and there is a small chance that the tubing down my throat to tummy may be removed before I wake up--concern that the sleeve may produce too much stuff that needs to come out that way--hopeful.

I find myself falling apart every so often in the craziest places and times and have given into letting that happen. Kurt is there and I just fall into his arms. It is overwhelming at the time but vents some of whateveritis out. I am and will be ok- I will come out of this somewhere on a long spectrum and visualize that line as line positive at the left and moving on down the road from there. Guess that's because we read and write left to right. I choose to focus on the left side area of that line in visualizing the outcome of this experience.

I'll try and post sometime Monday, if not sooner. As always smiles and hugs your way, bonnie.

Bonnie, thank you for all the deets about your surgery on Tuesday and your emotions. I hope you know what a great addition you are to this group and how much we're cheering you on.

I'm a word-person, not a picture-person. So your capacity to experience life so visually, e.g., time moving from left to right and viewing life's past events as positive ones, is both fascinating and helpful to me in seeing life through the eyes of a SEE-er.

Thank you.

Praying for an optimal outcome, and healing...