About a month ago I had my very first ever urinary tract infection. I had no pain -- just a dullness in my kidney area and of course, dribble, dribble on the potty. A 10 day round of antibiotics plus trying to drink more water and all is well again. Good luck. LuvitsunnyV@goal

Diane, Thanks for you lovely quotes. ... Lorraine

Today's Quote If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it. -Jonathan Winters ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Angels are 'beings of light' and therefore travel at the speed of light... - Margaret Neylon

1)Have you guys started your Christmas Shopping yet? yes and no! tried to start the other week but directv requires you activate system in 30 days and Xmas is farther out than that now. so we have to wait. 2)Have you bought yourself some new Holiday outfits yet? nope...hubby made me promise to not go clothes shopping until the day after Thanksgiving sales!!! I got fussed at for spending XXX amt of dollars on clothing since I quit working and he requested I take a break! But it is getting cold now and I only own 3 sweaters and all of my sweatshirts are HUMONGOUS!!! I have been stealing hubby's stuff but is too big now too!!! yeah!!! I need a new Columbia winter jacket desperately!! Can't decide what color to get. Oh and my 16P jeans are getting quite LOOSE ;) I think they made need some replacing!!! I figure I will get lots of GC and Cash to spend for clothing this year...so I am not tooo worried! Plus after Xmas sales are always FUN! 3)Do you know what you are doing as far as family gatherings or travel? Everything is up in the air....I get out of classes Dec 13th. Don't go back til Jan 10th. I plan to head down south to NC, SC and GA to visit friends and relatives but a lot depends upon the football game and what everyone else has for plans around the holiday. Hubby will probably fly down to Georgia and meet up with me. 4) Will you be spending more or less this year on gifts? Probably about the same except one gift might be FF miles and that won't come out of the actual $$ pot. Planning to upgrade the In Laws directv system with a newer dish and tivo box. No clue what to get hubby...he won't divulge anything! May wait til I leave Pittsburgh and head down south to pick out things so that I can hide them from him!!! Plus we already picked up a few items on our vacation to NZ back in August for gifts. 5) Do you have any plans to go out for the New Year? YES! But it all depends upon which Bowl Game the University of Virginia Football team gets this year...chances are good it will be the Peach Bowl New Year's Eve in Atlanta...we will probably end up in Buck Head at some bar. I know hubby likes dancing with the "skinny" me!!!! 6) Do you plan to do any cooking for the holidays? Probably not...won't be home for any of them and not sure where I will be for Xmas (never eaten holiday dinner with my dad's current wife/family). 7) Have you come up with some good healthy recipes you can pass along to us? I have started using FF half and half, FF cream cheese, 75% reduced fat block cheeses (Cabot is good), try these items in your normal recipes that call for the original. I have been using the H&H instead of skim milk because it is thicker having great success and texture! 8) Do any of you guys drink alcohol occasionally? What do you drink? Yes, I tend to stick mostly with RED WINE but Mike's Hard Lemonade Low Carb with some fruit flavored Light Minute Maid or Light Cranberry(low carb/low cal) mixed in is quite good (Raspberry Passion was very yummy!!!) but since the Surgeon's office said that the carbonation could lead to KIDNEY STONES I have really backed down on anything bubbly. I just got a SENSEO indiv coffee maker and maybe I can start adding some liquers to it instead of my SF Torani syrups (Hazelnut, French Vanilla). BUT then I would just be throwing in extra calories!!!

Hi! I have experienced this prior to WLS and a good home remedy is to drink cranberry or cranapple juice. You can get reduce calorie juice like ocean spray or Walmart brand. Good luck...make sure you are not running a fever as that could be a sign of bad infection. Take care...karie