I didn’t need to have the scope after all. I told the surgeon I wanted to do it at the hospital where I work (no co-pay) and she decided to try me on medicine instead. I took Carafate for about two weeks and am still taking Prevacid. Both are for acid and ulcer type conditions, which I was sure was NOT the problem. But… my stomach has settled down and I’ve only had a couple of instances of pain in the past few weeks. I stopped taking the Carafate rather quickly though, because my blood sugar was going up for the first time since surgery. I’m not sure how that impacts the glucose, but it was doing something. I continue to take the Prevacid.

I went to Las Vegas last week for three days. I didn’t win any money, but I did get a lot of exercise. While walking through Chicago Midway airport, for the first time I noticed how much more energy I have. I was moving quickly and did not get tired. On the way home, I also pushed my friend in a wheelchair through the airport and did not get out of breath despite many inclines.

I’m down 80 lbs since surgery – to 245 - and down 87 lbs. from my highest weight. I’m looking forward to making the Century Club by my birthday at the end of June. I think it’s a doable goal since that’s six weeks away.

05/28/04

It has been a fun week. I went on a clothes-shopping spree at Kohl’s last Saturday – they were having a big sale. I appreciate all the clothes people have given me, but once in a while you just want to pick your own styles and colors. I got a dress, 4 shirts, a coat, bathing suit, and a bra. Everything was either a 24 or 2x – not bad since I started at 30/32 (34 pants) and 5x. Today I wore a top and pants that were both 22! I had to drag a woman out of house wares to measure me for a bra since no one was working in that dept. Luckily she had worked in foundations at another department store so she knew what she was doing. I had no clue where to even start trying those on and I would have been way off. I’ve dropped 5 band sizes in my bra too.

Wednesday I had a massage. My stepdaughter gave me a gift certificate for Christmas and I had been putting it off. I had a massage 20 yrs ago and it hurt from beginning to end. This time was much more pleasant. Evidently the first one was more deep muscle massage and this was more relaxing.

Monday I joined the YWCA. Unfortunately, they are losing money and were talking about maybe closing, so I only was required to join for one month until they decided on an action. The next day they announced that they are closing the pool and looking for a buyer for the building. The fitness room will remain open for now and that’s what I am interested in. I’m not big on swimming laps and I live on a lake. Tonight I had my one-hour assessment with the personal trainer. Most of what he recommended had to do with stretching muscles and gaining balance, along with 30 min of cardio. It was quite informative. Hopefully this will tone me and kick-start my weight loss again.

I weighed one day this week at 240 (without clothes) but am usually at 242. My goal is to get to -100 lbs by the end of June – my six month WLS anniversary and my birthday.