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Please confirm meeting details before heading out – while every effort is made to provide correct information, mistakes are possible! To add new meetings & events to the next update, please just put your info in a reply to this post.

JULY

7/14, Saturday, Birmingham. STARS of WLS, Noon-2PM at Norwood Clinic by Carraway Hospital. Sponsored by Drs. DeWitt & Fischer, this support group is open to all. For more info, contact coordinator Stefanie Dutton, [email protected].

**CANCELED FOR JULY** 7/14, Saturday (every second Saturday), Montgomery. HOW (Help Overcoming Weight) Gastric Bypass Support Group Meeting - CANCELED FOR JULY. Meeting will resume in August.

7/17, Tuesday (every third Tuesday), Mobile. A SLIMCHANCE Weight Loss Support Group meets the Providence Hospital at 7:00 p.m. We will be meeting in a different room, NOT THE DE PAUL CENTER. The meeting room is Conference room C thru the cafeteria on the right past the condiments! For more info, contact Connie ("Teal Rose").

7/17, Tuesday (every third Tuesday), Anniston. New Beginnings Support Group, 6PM at the Tyler Center. Contact Louise A for more info.

7/17, Tuesday (every third Tuesday), Sheffield/Shoals area. Thinner's Circle, 6:30PM (NOTE TIME CHANGE FROM 7pm) in the River Room (basement) at Helen Keller Hospital. More info here: ttp://www.bariatricservicesllc.com/forums/calendar.php

7/19, Thursday, Tuscaloosa. GENESIS, 6PM at DCH (Druid City Hospital) Tuscaloosa in the Willard Auditorium.

7/21, Saturday, Birmingham. MCE WLS Support Meeting, 1:00 PM. Location: Classrooms 1-4, Medical Center East, 50 Medical Park East Drive, Birmingham, AL 35235. Hosted by Bariatric Coordinator Veronica Patterson, RN. Call or email for more info: 205-838-6299, [email protected].

7/21, Saturday, Alabaster. Community WLS Support Group, 1-4PM. Baptist Shelby Hospital Administration Building, Room 2B. Directions & details here: http://www.wlsgirl.com/supportmeetings.html.

7/23, Monday (every 4th Monday), Decatur. New Beginnings Support Group, 6PM at Parkway Medical Center in the Baugh Wiley Smith classroom @ 6:00. Everyone is welcome...including pre-ops and post-ops from other doctors. You can contact Rhonda C at [email protected] for more info.

7/23, (2nd and 4th Mondays), Toney. "It's A Onederful Life" Meeting. 6:30PM at the Wooley Springs Baptist Church on the corner of Hwy 251 and Bethel Rd., Toney, AL. Contact Cindy Ferrell 256-457-2974 for more questions or directions.

7/28, Saturday, Gadsden. Dinner Gathering at Top of the River. 4PM. Click HERE for a yahoo map. Click HERE for the message thread where you can RSVP if you plan to attend.

7/30, Monday, Birmingham. MCE WLS Support Meeting, 6:00 PM. Location: Classrooms 1-4, Medical Center East, 50 Medical Park East Drive, Birmingham, AL 35235. Hosted by Bariatric Coordinator Veronica Patterson, RN. Call or email for more info: 205-838-6299, [email protected].

AUGUST

8/2, Thursday (every first Thursday) Huntsville. HH Wellness Center Support Meeting, 6-7:30 PM. Held  at Corporate University at Huntsville Hospital.  Linda Steakly and Anna Holland, the dieticians from the HH Wellness Center are the moderators. Info taken from a post by Sapphirest HERE.

8/11, Saturday, Birmingham. STARS of WLS, Noon-2PM at Norwood Clinic by Carraway Hospital. Sponsored by Drs. DeWitt & Fischer, this support group is open to all. For more info, contact coordinator Stefanie Dutton, [email protected].

8/11, Saturday (every second Saturday), Montgomery. HOW (Help Overcoming Weight) Gastric Bypass Support Group Meeting, 2-4PM, North Montgomery Volunteer Fire Department, 3670 Coosada Ferry Road, Montgomery. Contact Gail ("Dakota Mom") for more info

8/13 & 8/27, (2nd and 4th Mondays), Toney. "It's A Onederful Life" Meeting. 6:30PM at the Wooley Springs Baptist Church on the corner of Hwy 251 and Bethel Rd., Toney, AL. Contact Cindy Ferrell 256-457-2974 for more questions or directions.

8/14, Tuesday (every second Tuesday), Dothan. Southeast Alabama Medical Center support group. Speaker, and dinner. The meeting is held on the 7th floor of the doctor's building in the conference/meeting room. If you need more information, you can contact the Physical Therapy Department at the hospital as they are the ones that host the meeting. . Info taken from a post by Tommy Deese here: http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/AL/postdetail/237936.html?vc=0

8/16, Thursday (every 3rd Thursday), Tuscaloosa. GENESIS, 6PM at DCH (Druid City Hospital) Tuscaloosa in the Willard Auditorium. Moderated by Beverly Childers, Bariatric Coordinator for Dr. Bradley Bilton. All are welcome!

8/21, Tuesday (every third Tuesday), Anniston. New Beginnings Support Group, 6PM at the Tyler Center. Contact Carmen Griffen for more info.

8/21, Tuesday (every third Tuesday), Sheffield/Shoals area. Thinner's Circle, 6:30PM (NOTE TIME CHANGE FROM 7pm) in the River Room (basement) at Helen Keller Hospital. More info here: ttp://www.bariatricservicesllc.com/forums/calendar.php

8/21, Tuesday (every third Tuesday), Mobile. A SLIMCHANCE Weight Loss Support Group meets the Providence Hospital at 7:00 p.m. We will be meeting in a different room, NOT THE DE PAUL CENTER. The meeting room is Conference room C thru the cafeteria on the right past the condiments! For more info, contact Connie ("Teal Rose").

8/27, Monday (every 4th Monday), Decatur. New Beginnings Support Group, 6PM at Parkway Medical Center in the Baugh Wiley Smith classroom @ 6:00. Everyone is welcome...including pre-ops and post-ops from other doctors. You can contact Rhonda C at [email protected] for more info.

8/13 & 8/27, (2nd and 4th Mondays), Toney. "It's A Onederful Life" Meeting. 6:30PM at the Wooley Springs Baptist Church on the corner of Hwy 251 and Bethel Rd., Toney, AL. Contact Cindy Ferrell 256-457-2974 for more questions or directions.

LOOKING AHEAD...

SEPTEMBER
9/8, Saturday, Atlanta, GA. OBESITY HELP REGIONAL CONFERENCE. Mark your calendars! Details right here.

9/29 Saturday, Luverne. LUVERNE BAMA BOARD REUNION - 10AM until??? The Reunion will take place at 153 Jeffcoat Street, Luverne, AL. We'll be in a nice air-conditioned facility. Paper goods & ice supplied. Bring your favorite covered dish, enough to share. All are welcome, Bama Board and Beyond! Families & Friends! Pre-, Post-, Non-ops! BRING YOUR MUSICAL INSTRUMENT if you play one! Special hotel rate - hotel info and more in Randall's post HERE.

OCTOBER
10/13, Saturday, Gulf Shores, Shrimp-Fest Campout at Julie's. Stay tuned for details. Being discussed in a thread here.

JANUARY 2008
1/31, Thursday, Jacksonville, FL departure point. 2nd Annual WLS Celebration Cruise to the Bahamas! Organized by TheMerchantGirl (Beth). Great rates for early sign-up! Details HERE.

* * * * *

Thanks for your contributions! If you know of a meeting or event that's not listed, or if you have any corrections, please just post the info in a reply to this message. Keep it comin!

REGULAR MEETING NOTES:
4th Monday, Decatur, New Beginnings
2nd & 4th Monday, Toney, It's A Onederful Life
2nd Tuesday, Dothan, SE Alabama Medical Center Support Group
3rd Tuesday, Anniston, New Beginnings
3rd Tuesday, Sheffield, Thinner's Circle
3rd Tuesday, Mobile, A SlimChance
1st Thursday, Huntsville, HH Wellness Center
3rd Thursday, Tuscaloosa, Genesis (?)
2nd Saturday, Montgomery, HOW

NW Alabama support group calendar has lots of other meetings listed here:
http://www.bariatricservicesllc.com/forums/calendar.php

The treatments on my lower back are working at last. I was beginning to wonder after the first one, but it finally kicked in. I went to a spine care clinic and had some injections in the facet joints that are currently in freak-out mode. I finally had some pain-free time yesterday.

I've got to be careful not to overdo now, which will be tough, as my sister & her kids arrive tonight, and tomorrow we head out for Dauphin Island for a few days. I got another back treatment this morning, and I can't drive for 24 hours! Will have to call a friend, or more likely a taxi, to take me to the mall to get my hair done. Must get the hair done! I may actually head out early for a pedicure as well. Got to do some shopping for stuff for the animals to be cared for here while I'm away.

Got weighed at the spine clinic this morning - 170? That's not my "official" scale, but ya know what? I'LL TAKE IT :-) Updated the chart & ticker below. Two tenths of a BMI point and I'll slip from my life of obesity to merely "overweight". Wheeee!

Had an absolutely awful dumping experience at dinner earlier this week. We were at O'Charley's with some friends & I'd ordered chicken fingers or something. But before the food came the basket of ROLLS. I took a pinch of one, and another, and another, and big mistake. I ate a whole, albeit small, roll. All white bread. Took a few bites of my chicken when it came, and started to feel lousy. Then my dinner companions whipped out their cell phones to show pictures of a newborn baby of another friend, pics from the hospital. One of them started talking about the "smell" and I nearly hurled at the table at the thought of it. Even though I have no idea what smell he was talking about! Had to come home and crash for a couple of hours. No fun!

I hate it, but I am glad to know my tool is still working. White bread seems to be harder on my system than anything else! Ok so cross your fingers - perhaps when we're back from this little trip, I will have dropped that last two pounds. We shall see. Hope you're having a great summer. Whoever you are reading this, drop a note and say hi! Tell me what you've got going on for the summer!

OK well that's an overly dramatic title for this post. I posted a message to the messageboards the past few days about feeling like I'm falling apart all of a sudden. First the shoulder situation had me sidelined, and that's continued to be painful. Then a few days ago, I started having excruciating lower back pain - I had trouble standing up straight from sitting at my desk at work, and when I tried to straighten up, my legs started to cut out from under me, just went to jello.

So off to the doc, or actually a call to the doc, and I was sent for X-rays. Not unlike my shoulder, these x-rays showed severe degenerative arthritis in my lower spine. In addition, the spine doc said the x-ray shows that the base of my spine has lost its curve. This is the bottom of the S-curve that's supposed to flare back out a little, and mine has gone flat. He guessed that it got pulled straight from all the extra weight I carried (in my abdomen especially) for many years. Now that there's not pressure of weight pulling it, it's ready to go back, except calcificaton and bone spurs around the joints is preventing it from reclaiming its curve - and that's what's causing my pain, he guesses. SHRUG! Makes sense to me. Especially seeing the pictures and comparing with pics of a "normal" spine.

They gave me some cortisone shots into the joints (knocked me out a bit for that, twilight, thank God) and it's supposed to take 48 hours for those to start working their magic. I'm just coming up on 48 hours and still feeling a good bit of pain. If this doesn't work, then next step would be some kind of spinal block. I'm also supposed to start some physical therapy for my back, work on core strengthening, which I was glad to hear.

No weekly weigh-in this week. Didn't hop on any scales, and couldn't get by my PCP office to get on theirs. I still think I may get myself a scale sometimes. I would have to get my husband to hide it, I think, if I did. I'm still kind of scale-crazy and if I go into a bathroom that has one, I'm on it FIVE TIMES in five minuts, compulsively checking my weight. We shall see!

I do have to wonder about all of this bone-related stuff coming to a head at the same time. Is it WLS-related? Is there something about my post-op nutrition that has landed me in this situation? "Degenerative" means that it has degenerated over time, so I imagine the arthritic disease process was well underway in my joints by the time I had surgery in march 05. I just don't know, and I'll have to ask at my next opportunity.

I'll tell you this. It has been VERY DISCOURAGING. I was on such a good roll with the working out 6x/week!  I have not set foot in the gym in about a month. I could have done more than I did when it was just my shoulder, but with my back in such pain, the gym is off limits per the doc until I get the back pain worked out.

We leave on our little beach vacation next weekend and I just hope it's doing better by then - so much hauling of stuff, walking, everything I want to be doing - ack. Well if I have to take it easy, at least I'll have plenty of family around to help (sister & her kids are coming). We are so looking forward to the trip! Going to Dauphin Island where we've rented a big beach house & made some plans for fun excursions with the kids. I can't wait!

A new low.

What a week! And not in the best way. Work has taken the spotlight, piling up like an avalanche crashing into the last day of the month. The gubmint runs on end-of-month deadlines, and with the 4th of July coming, things seemed particularly nuts. Can't really talk about my job, except to say that I've been trying to keep my new cases current during the day, and spending my nights researching and writing various other things that have been coming due in other cases that are further along with deadlines this week. Sum total: two all-nighters and all my deadlines met.

The good news: I'm racking up lots of comp time so that when I take a week off in July to go to the beach, I'll hardly touch my vacation time. And if this keeps up, to the extent that I can keep it up, I can rack up tons of comp time to save back for when I start my plastic surgery.

The bad news: I am exhausted. We got into the car to go to dinner tonight, and I had to get hubby to drive because I started to feel a low blood sugar crash coming on. It just would not let up. We got to the place we'd decided on for dinner, and it was closed in honor of the death of one of the long-time waiters (23 years). With me in tears, we went on to the next choice, and when we got there, I realized that if I smelled anything at all, I would get sick. Smells were suddenly making me nauseous. All smells. Gah. Add to this the worst sin of all: I have eaten NOTHING all day today. No solid food. No protein shake. OK well one frozen sugar-free frozen decaf coffee-thingy at noon. Not enough by any stretch of the imagination.

So I got hubby to drop me off at home so I could get some rest, and here I am. I fell asleep on the sofa for two hours and I feel much better. But I really need to be in the bed, so I'm headed that way shortly. I figured I better shove some nutrition into me so I mixed up a protein shake.

As I walked into the doctor's building this afternoon to go hop on the scale, I felt a sense of...I don't know. Boredom. I have been driving to the doctor's office weekly for two years to weigh. I enjoy the social aspect of it. I've actually developed a friendship with my doctor, which has been neat. But I don't know. Am I ready to have a scale at home? Maybe we'll see. Anyway, I was very detached from the whole weighing thing today. See above re: exhausted.

I've been all over the place with food and exercise. Well, still no gym. Lots of walking and strenuous chores, but no daily vigorous exercise. I'll talk about that another time. My food has been on the minimal end of things this week, with more protein shakes than meals some days, the best it seemed I could do with my insane schedule.

End result: Down 2 pounds this week. A new low!

I'm too tired to get very excited about it, but I think I can manage a quiet W00t!

Yeah, it was. So what? It also happened to be the ONLY way out for me.

I keep coming back to this: I still kind of hate that I "had" to have WLS to lose weight. I still sometimes chide myself inside, thinking, "Well now that I realize that post-op life is basically livng on a low carb diet forever, I probably COULD have lost the weight on my own. DAMN! Too late! I've ruined my insides forever! And God must be so disappointed in me!

Or even worse, this: If money were no object, I could hire a chef, a personal trainer, have my own gym, even sign myself into one of those exclusive spa-like fat farms where you eat a restricted diet and exercise like crazy for a few months. Instead of buying a house, a car, knee surgery for my dog, those ridiculous 4" platform pumps, I should have put my financial resources toward taking care of myself. And anyway, there's nothing stopping me for creating my own best version of that environment for myself. Like Fred did. He wrote a book about it called From Chunk to Hunk. Hell, if it is possible for anyone, then it should have been possible for me. I have totally wimped out on myself! And God is probably so disappointed in me!

And then I come back around to this: I was a great dieter for long stretches of my life. But whatever weight I lost, up to 60 pounds at a go, I always gained back, and more.

They say that one definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I got to the point where I realized, after a lifetime of dieting, that I would be crazy to think that continuing my lifetime of dieting would result in loss of all my excess weight, and especially I'd be crazy to think I would be able to keep it off. Unless something was radically different. I needed some help.

WLS gave me that help. When my body was too debilitated by my weight to exercise, the surgery assured that the weight would melt off without strenuous exercise during the first six months. By then, with 100 pounds gone, I would be able to exercise. When I knew that I needed a deep, serious "reset" of my eating habits in order to save my life from type II diabetes related to my weight, the restriction of WLS ensured that I would be on a very low calorie diet for several months, long enough to retrain myself to a new "normal" portion size. My blood sugar has been normal (to low-normal) since the day of my surgery. I thank God for WLS.

You'll never catch me arguing with anyone who suggests that WLS is the easy way out. That idea doesn't offend me in the slightest! For me, it has been easy. Honestly, my surgery experience and the months that followed with the no compications and the drastic weight loss? It felt like total magic compared to my previous lifetime of dieting. Now all I have to do is maintain it.

To be sure, it's not all butterflies and rainbows - I've had my share of what I assume are complications beginning at about a year out - "minor" things such as constipation, kidney stones, blood sugar crashes, all of which  my 43 prior years of obesity surely contributed to just as much as my WLS in my opinion. Even so, these things are nothing compared to the constant physical pain I was in (and seven medications I was on) and looming fear of imminent death I experienced before my surgery. I'd take kidney stones once a week over my pre-op life as it was when I decided to have surgery. I say that in all seriousness. That should tell you something about how uncomfortable I was at the time I made the decision that turned my life around.

So yeah. WLS was the easy way out for me. It just so happens that it was also the ONLY way out for me.

Discovered my photo software has some editing tools. One called "stitching" allows you to stitch photos together. I'm still learning, and so far have not managed to avoid chopping off either head or feet. All the same, kinda of fun. I find it MUCH easier to accept the changes in my body when looking at pictures. So this has been a great exercise both in gaining software skills, and in gaining understanding of the process I'm going through with drastic weight loss.

Good Lord. I could not believe all the bra choices when I checked them out at Parisian over the weekend. Last summer, I bought my first three Victoria's Secret bras, the IPEX wireless style. I have loved them in some ways, hated them in others. The love is that they hold the girls up and even supplement them a bit with generous padding. The hate is that the sides and back are so narrow in a B cup size that I end up with flaps of extra me hanging over the sides of the bra under my arm, and other flaps over the back. Not pretty.

Thus, my search began for a bra with more coverage under the arms and around the back, in a 36 or 38 B or C, depending on the style and fit. In the Lilyette Full Figure section, a tag caught my eye: BACK ROLL MINIMIZER, it said. I grabbed one to try on. I was pleasantly surprised! I had to try several sizes, and ended up with a 38C. A C cup is usually too big on me, with my breasts puddling in the bottom of the cup and the top so empty it folds over under my clothing. Even B cups are often too big. But in this style, a soft-cup bra, a 38C was the ticket.

It does, in fact, minimize the back AND SIDE rolls. THUMBS UP! Now in the interest of full disclosure, I have to say that it doesn't TOTALLY minimize the rolls I have on the sides and in back. But it does an admirable job, reducing huge flap-overs to slightly lumpy spots. On a normal person, I'm sure everything would be smooth as a plank where it's meant to be, but I present a rather extreme challenge for the minimizing capacity of this or any bra, I realize.

So I wore it all day yesterday and was very comfortable. It was more restrictive than the bras I have been wearing, feeling more like a sports bra with all the underarm and back coverage. And I really prefer to stay away from underwires, but this one is as comfortable as any I've worn. Plus, it's a sweet looking bra, with a little bit of embroidery and lace. And it doesn't come up too far in the front. I prefer a plunge in front so that I can easily wear lower-cut V-neck shirts and blouses. This one is just right in the front for me.

They have several other side- and back-minimizer styles, and I'll have to try some others out and see how they do. Yeah, I was hoping to be out of the "Full Figure" stuff, but I dare not complain. I am just happy to find a bra that FITS and holds things in better than any I've tried so far.

So here it is, Lilyette Fit For You Full Support Style 966. Go forth and minimize thy back and side rolls!

Sometimes I write here, and then post excerpts or short entries out on the discussion boards to get feedback. Other times, I respond to posts, and when I'm done, I figure I should save what I just told that person as an entry in my own blog so I can refer back to it.

What follows is my response to a post whose author, a pre-op, expressed her fear that WLS would change her personality, her core self. Here is how I responded:

I [also] had this big fear that surgery would cause some kind of change at my core. And I was happy with who I was/am at my core, and I didn't want to mess with that at all!

This fear was not enough to keep me from having surgery. I guess somewhere inside, I trusted that i would evolve exactly as I was supposed to, that the surgery would not change "me" beyond the obvious surgical alterations, and the size/composition of my body.

No doubt, there are some things about me that have changed. Pre-op, I had chronic back pain. I had no idea how much of my mental and physical energy this consumed on an ongoing basis 24/7/365 until I was blessedly free of it post-op. Now I say "yes" a lot more, when asked to do things which involve intensive physical labor. I can now show up for the car-wash fundraiser on Saturday. I now can sleep on the church floor with the teens all weekend. I can now stand long enough to sing an entire song in front of a band.

I show up with lots of energy and I make myself as useful as possible. I think some in organizations in which I am a member had me pegged as distant, and as "fat and lazy" and now see me as "happy and active" simply because they see more of me. I am able to be more fully present in varoius group activites.

Since my surgery (over 2 years ago), I have had people make comments about how different my personality is. These are not people who know me all that well, really. Most of the people at church, in clubs and professional groups, coworkers. Still, their comments made me wonder at first. 

I was never more relieved than when one of my life-long friends said to me, on our first visit after my surgery, "Same old Kath!" My husband, too, assured me that I was the same old "me".  There are definitely some changes in the "me" as some people experience me, but to me it's more like I am now able to be much more the "me" I have always been, but was limited from expressing or living fully because I was so debilitated by my weight.

No, this is not a confessional about how I have been breaking all the "Pouch Rules"!  I've actually been right and tight there. No, this entry is about different rules entirely.

I am beginning to realize how very complex was the set of rules I maintained for myself when I was heavier. The photo at the top of this entry is an illustration of two of the rules.

1. No short necklaces - I couldn't find any that would fit for one thing, very rare. And anything close around my neck made me feel self-conscious about my super-fat neck. Here, I am wearing a little necklace I picked up for 75% off. I still feel self-conscious about my neck, now with extra turkey wattle! But I am OK with the necklaces anyway.

2. No light-colored lipstick - With my big round face, which ran right into my very thick neck, my lips just got lost in all that if they were not at least my natural color or darker. I hardly ever bothered with make-up over the past 20 years or so, but when I did, no light lips! Here, I am wearing a Burt's Bees tinted lip balm in a very light lavendery pink. Craaazy! Breakin the law!

A couple of others I have broken recently:

3. No tucking in/no belts - no way! Now, I'm still very self-conscious about the outline of my pendulous belly area being on display, so I hate wearing a belt with jeans & a tucked-in shirt. I have, however, done it. With a jacket. I'm fine tucking & belting with a skirt.

4. No small purses - at my largest, I felt like a clown carrying a tiny purse. It just felt so out of proportion. Now, not so much. I am amassing a small collection of small purses.

These occur to me constantly as I move through my days. I will have to do a better job of recording them as I think of them. I'm sure I'll be back with many more entries on this topic. I would love to hear from you folks about this - are there any rules you maintained for yourself as a heavier person that you are breaking now?

Dr. DeWitt and me at his office today after my check-up.

It's been totally crazy lately, but I kept my appointment with the ortho for my shoulder yesterday (more next time), and I made it to my 2-yr check-up with Dr. DeWitt today, where we took the above photo (OK the system will not reproduce my link correctly I'll come back with the pic or post it on OH to the left). He acted all bashful and everything, but I appreciate him taking a picture with me. He said he was pleased with how I'd done, and talked about everything in the past tense, as if I am DONE. I should have pinned him down, but in a way it doesn't matter.

He'd originally told me that "anything under 200" he would consider a "success" and a reasonable goal for me. At about nine months out when I asked him more about what would be the best he thought I could expect for weight loss, he said he thought 140-170 would be do-able if I really stuck with it. So I've been aiming for that 170. I think I can get another 10 lbs off before I start PS but I'm not gonna kill myself over it. I should lose that much from my plastic surgeries, most in the first one!

I was joking with Dr DeWitt about how I got on his scale, didn't like the number (180), and took off my belt to try again. This sucker I'm wearing today has a seriously heavy buckle on it, apparently. With the belt off, I was 179.5. That half pound ought not matter at all, but since this was the annual check-up where my weight would be recorded for all of posterity to document my post-op progress, I wanted it low as I could get it preferably OUT of the 180's! So there we go.

My PCP had ordered some bloodwork on me a few weeks ago, so I had copies of that with me, along with an article about post-op low blood sugar from the New England Journal of Medicine. I won't need any more blood work, and the results of what I showed him were excellent. I also brought a copy of last year's as I'd pulled it out to compare, and everything is excellent and going in good directions (cholesterol down, B12 up). 

He agreed I do not appear to have anything like the blood sugar condition in the medical article I brought him (he'd read up on the condition & mentioned the treatment in the study had been complete removal of the pancreas, pretty radical). We talked about my continuing low blood sugar incidents. He asked me if I ate meat at every meal, and I answered that I did for the most part. Sometimes more nut or bean protein, but 9 times out of 10, my protein comes from meat or fish. I told him I had the crashes as often when I was several hours between meals as within a few hours of eatng.

He said for me to get some meat protein with every single meal and I should notice an improvement. I do pretty much do that, but I will try for snacks also and see if that helps even things up.

Other than that, we talked about my plans for plastic surgery, and some other questions I had about medications. The ortho has prescribed Celebrex, saying it's better on the stomach than the Mobic DeWitt suggests. DeWitt said he was fine with Celebrex, if I also take Previcid as an extra precaution to protect my pouch. NO problem. Except I forgot to get the prescription from him! My PCP will do it for me. In fact, I think she did when she gave me the Mobic prescription. I need to check my purse, huh.

So all is well, and I'm not due back until next year. w00t!

When I first got there this morning, Dr. DeWitt's nurse walked right by me in the waiting room and went to get the sign-in list, then came back to me and said, "I didn't realize that was YOU until I saw you signed in. I did not recognize you!" They have not seen me for close to a year, and I've dropped around 50 lbs. in that time, and hell, I look different from week to week, so no surprise I looked very different to them after another year.

Maybe more later. Must end this lunch break and get back to work. Rosey's at the hospital again getting her leg checked - will pick her up & bring her back home after work. Busybusybusy.