biehlel

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06-24-09  6:30 pm    Hello all and yes i am still alive.....Life has been busy (what's new)...AS you can see, i have reached my goal.  I have lost 1/2 of my body weight.  I still look at myself in the mirror and can't believe it.  I am now wearing size 10 pants and medium and sometimes small tops.  What  a life style change.  School is over for the summer and as usual, i am teaching summer school.  ONLY ONE MORE DAY!!!!!! Then, tomorrow after summer school, i am off to Gatlinburg for a little R and R... Chat later

Well good afternoon all.  Today is an exciting day for me.  I am having dinner with my godchild, Rachel.  We have just recently reconnected last winter.  Her mother was one of my best friends during high school and my adult life.  She has seen me and helped me go through the many ups and downs of my life (way to numerous to begin to mention). Over five years ago, we had a falling out (still not sure of the reason!)  Because of this, I lost touch with Rachel.  Last winter, Rachel "found" me at a Cyclones hockey game and we chatted for a while.  We promised to get together, but were unable to do that until this past summer.  Once again, we promised to stay in touch, but as life so often gets in the way, it did again.  So here it is a new year, and we are meeting for dinner tonight.  Since I did not have to make a resolution to lose weight this year (THANK YOU DR. SMITH AND LAP BAND AGAIN!), I resolve to make a point of seeing Rachel more often this year.  She was always more of a daughter to me than a godchild.  She would spend weeks with me during the summer and go camping with my family.  I really want this to work for us. 

I also resolve to work out this year.  My flab is getting out of control and even though I am considering plastic surgery, if I can do it with working out it will be so much better for me.

One other bit of good news, I have only 9.4 pounds to go to reach my maintaining goal of 150 pounds.  When I reach this point I will have officially lost half of me from when I was at my highest weight. 

09-07-08                   8:39 AM
Hello all...Well school is back in full swing and we have had some crazy first weeks.  I have a nice group of kids and I am able to enjoy them in my OWN classroom.  I have loved sharing a room with the other intervention specialist but it gets to hectic and loud when we are both trying to teach.

CPS has a rule that teachers are not allowed to have appliances (fridge, microwave, etc) in their classrooms(to save energy).  Our principal has allowed each team to have a designated place to keep them, so I volunteered my room (since I already have a fridge and micro).  ON our first day I told the principal and she said that was fine.  When I had brought in my old microwave (we had just bought a new one for home), my husbands' last words were "take good care of MY microwave, I have had it for a long time!"  Fast forward to last week.  We were having a team meeting during lunch in my room and one the teachers was heating up a Lean Cuisine for lunch.  All of a sudden we hear a "POP" and we see some flames shooting inside the microwave.  I jumped up and unplugged it and the first thing we all said was "Did you have metal??" of course she did not.   We still saw flames so we kept the door closed; assuming lack of oxygen would gradually put out the flames.  One of the other teachers went to the office to get a fire extinguisher, just in case.  HE was told to PULL THE FIRE ALARM!!!! (By now the flames have almost completely died down).  The whole school begins evacuating (of course this was during lunch, recess and we have never practiced during those times).  FOUR, count them 4, fire trucks show up along with ambulances and police.  By now there is no fire in the micro wave and they let everyone go back in.  Our principal gets on the intercom and says "we have had a small fire in a microwave; it was out before the fireman arrived.  The fireman said that the light bulb blew out and that was all.  The microwave is still fine!" (Yea right, like I am going to use that again!)  Anyway, the good side is that we had an unannounced fire drill during a time we would never have one and it went great...the bad news, I had to tell my hunny about the microwave and I will have to get a new one!!!

03-31-08   8:15 AM   Hello all.  As my title said, I have had a little scare.  Last week when I had my fill put back, I was nervous about it.  It felt pretty tight and I was afraid to eat.  Lucky for me it was Good Friday and being Catholic, I was fasting that day anyway.  Later that night I had a light meal of mashed potatoes, a bit of fish and some steamed vegetables.  I only ate a few bites of each because my stomach was bothering me.  I went to bed that night and woke up sick.  I had the vomit and pile in my mouth and barely made it to the bathroom.  I wanted to scream because everything I went through in October was started all over again.  I was awake almost all night vomiting.  I called the doctor in the morning and told him what went on.  Unfortunately, Dr. Smith was on vacation for the week and so after speaking to Dr. Brown, I decided to hang in there until Monday to see what happened.  I slept most of the day Saturday and only had a little soup.  I was also running a fever. On Sunday, Easter, I felt better and was able to eat a little Easter dinner.  My stomach still felt sore but I thought I was going to be ok.  I called the doctor back on Monday and even though I was sick again Sunday night, I said I was going to hang in there.  Later that day, I went with my daughter and two grandsons to spend the day at the Cincinnati Museum Center .  I had a rough day and was unable to eat again.  When I got home, I called the doctor back and they said Dr. Brown would take out my fill if I wanted.  I decided to wait one more day, (I had been running a fever again), since I thought maybe with the fever, I was just sick.  By Tuesday, I was thinking I should have the fill out. I called them back (thank goodness for their patience), and said I will try one more day.  (I was planning to go out of town with my girls this weekend and I did not want to be sick). I felt better Wednesday but only ate a little.  I decided to not have the fill out.  By Thursday, I was felling even better, I got through my weekend with no incidents, ate like normal, and I think I am on the rode to recovery.  I have been very tired, but at least I know that it was not my fill and I probably had the flu.  Thank the Lord for the flu!!!!  Next blog, I will talk about my awesome weekend.

Would you look at me now!!!  I have made a lot of personal goals in my life, especially as I have lost weight, but this is one goal that I put wwwwaaayyy back on the back burner of my mind.  

Two years ago, I went to Camp Joy with our sixth grade class.  This is an annual trip for the sixth grade to work on personal goals and to learn leadership training.  On of the activities that the students do is a high ropes course.  Teachers are also asked to volunteer to go up and assist the students moving form one place to the next.  Of course,  as heavy as I was along with  my fears of heights,  made me realize that there was nnnnoooo way my butt was going up there.  So,  I did the next best thing… I spent two days using my weight to help hold the belay rope so the students could zip down to the ground.  As I stood there I said when I lose enough weight, I would go up…Yeah Right!!!!  Later in the evening, we did an event depicting a group of slaves escaping along the underground railroad.  The first thing we were supposed to do was lay face down on the ground, of course, I had to sit on a log, I would never have gotten up.  Then as we were bought and sold and began our journey, I was beginning to stress that I would not make it.  What luck, at least for me, one of the students had a broken leg.  She had done her best, but was not able to get very far.  I quickly volunteered to take her back to the cabin, where we “played” Quaker children waiting to help t he slaves.  This I could do, since it required no more than sitting on a bed and being good.

Flash forward one year, it is Camp Joy time again and my weight has really been causing me tremendous pain.  My knees and ankles ache all the time, my breathing is difficult and I generally feel like crap….I used all this as an excuse not to go to Camp Joy . (My verbal excuse was that I did not have very many of my students going).  I was disgusted with myself, but what the heck…help was just around the corner or really just a few months away with my upcoming weight loss surgery.

Now here we are in present time and Camp Joy is just a memory. But what a memory…I will let the pictures speak for themselves…..          …and the underground railroad was an experience that  I can’t even put into words.  I truly felt the part and I made it the whole way!!!

            As an update, I seen Doctor Smith on Friday and he put ¾ of an ounce of a fill back in.  I was nervous after all the trouble I had, but I still have weight to loose.  So here I go onward to loosing more weight and achieving more goals.  The coolest part of all was that for the 3 ½ months that I had no fill, I maintained my weight, I even lost a pound!!!

03-03-08           9:15 PM 

 Ok folks, I am still alive and doing well.  A lot has happened  since the last time I have blogged.  I went back to see Dr. Smith on the 16^th of January and we decided to wait to put my fill back in.  I was hanging in there with my weight and I wanted to be sure my stomach was healed all the way.  I go back in a few weeks and I am very ready for my fill.  I have maintained my weight, but I have not lost any.  I still have at least 50 more pounds to go to reach my goal.    
     Christmas was very nice…It was such an awesome feeling to not try to hide when the camera came out.  I actually offered to have my picture taken. On New Year’s Eve, we went to the Erlanger Lions Club and I danced!!!!!!!! All night long.  It was awesome. I am so thankful for this surgery; it has given me my life back.  
    The next exciting thing about my surgery is that it has given my husband the strength to decide he wants it too.  The down side to it is that now the insurance company requires a 6-month doctor monitored weight loss program first.  I will keep you all posted.  
    Thanks to all my family, friends and web friends for all the support you have been giving me.