Category: health

Getting Close

It seems contrary to everything else, but during this period of preparing myself for weight loss surgery I have avoided weighing myself too often. At my first consultation appointment they gave me a goal weight. They wanted me to drop 5% of my tonnage in order to make the surgery a little easier to perform. I have my second appointment with the dietician tomorrow so I figured today would be a good day to step on the scale.

If the rudimentary math skills I acquired during my days earning my Bachelors Degree are correct, I have lost about 4.2% of my initial bulk. I don’t feel any different, but my jeans do feel a smidge looser. I haven’t been doing a very good job with all of the things the dietician asked me to do during our first meeting. I have been trying to implement new things one at a time so that I don’t drive myself nuts and lash out against it by eating the whole town. Unfortunately, one of the things I started working on was really difficult and took me a while to get used to. Then we spent two weeks without a kitchen. I’m trying to track my meals but I’ve failed the last few days.

I don’t expect that tomorrow’s meeting with the dietician will clear me for surgical take off, but I am hoping it won’t be too long before I get the okay. I am thinking another month, but not being a dietician and never having been through this before, how the hell would I know? It doesn’t really matter though. The point is I am getting closer. I feel pretty good about that.

Sleepy

I stayed up really late last night. I didn’t want to, but I was so busy all day that I never had a chance to do some of the things I wanted to do (laundry) and I ended up doing it all after Jen fell asleep. I finally fell asleep around 1:00am and given that I can say without any hesitation that I am ridiculously tired right now.

While I was up last night Harry sent me a text saying that he listened to a Rush album and really liked it. It was Moving Pictures, of course. It was one of the happiest moments of my life. Harry could be a Rush fan, oh glorious day!

He sent me a text a few minutes ago asking me which Rush records to listen to next.

My response was a 100,000,000 word essay.

As I said earlier, oh glorious day!

Here’s a summary of what I told him:

  • You’ve listened to Moving Pictures, now go to Permanent Waves. They both had a similar focus on trying to shorten their songs without sacrificing any musical craziness.
  • Most people who don’t think Moving Pictures is the best album think that 2112 is. It’s heavy and Geddy screams a lot, but it’s pretty much perfect.
  • For 80’s synth Rush go with Power Windows. I wish I could say Hold Your Fire, but the last two songs don’t really cut it.
  • For the 90’s they got heavy again. Go with Counterparts.
  • Clockwork Angels might be my favorite of all Rush albums.
  • Fly By Night is mostly a straight ahead rock record.
  • Hemispheres is amazing end to end, but it’s worth it just for La Villa Strangiato.

Tough Weekend

Going back to Friday, my mother went back into the hospital again, though she was discharged quickly. I put new blinds and curtains onto the dining room window. Saturday included a trip to IKEA at the crack of dawn and a whole entire day of assembling and hanging a big ass cabinet/counter thing in the kitchen. Sunday saw us putting another, smaller, piece of IKEA furniture together along with a little time at my parents place. My mother was having a tough time and I was able to help a little. At least I hope I was helpful.

I’m a big, fat, severely out of shape, hurtin’ red head today.

This week is going to be nuts too. We have some organizing in the kitchen to do before the contractor comes back for the next step in the project. By the weekend the kitchen should be wrapped up, but then I have to start looking to the cellar. We’re not entirely redoing the cellar, but we were talking about it while the contractor was here last week and he asked if he could give it a shot. Fine by me! He’s going to try and fix the floor first. That would be huge.

Also, work. Also, my second dietician appointment. I haven’t been the best at what I’m trying to do over the last two weeks. I need to straighten my dietary shit out.

Right. Off to work now. Have a good one, folks.

Perfect Week

With all the work around the house we did this weekend, and all the pain and soreness and exhaustion that went with it, this weekend’s exercise rings were the hardest to close I’ve done yet. Ouch.

Tonight’s episode of The Walking Dead was really excellent though. That helped a lot.

Need More Help

Remember a few days ago when I said my mother could use a little positive energy and I asked you to send any get well vibes you could spare in her direction?

I need to ask again.

I don’t have any details yet. My gut, which has no medical training beyond knowing how to apply a band-aid, tells me that it might be something with medications interacting in a weird way. Here’s hoping.

Do what you can, oh internet/universe. I appreciate the help.

19 More Minutes

After stress-filled work followed by stress-filled* hospital visit followed by stress-filled start to putting the kitchen and dining room back together, I have only managed 11 minutes of exercise today.

My back is killing me and I don’t know how I’m going to finish before I keel over…

…but I’ll get it done. Somehow. Bet on it.

*The hospital trip wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. I got there at 1:00pm and she was discharged by 3:00. Most of the time in between she was snoozing. My sister and brother both had a rough time on their days and my day was easy in comparison. It’s not fair, but I do appreciate what they did. Always.

Super Stressed

Between the weight loss stuff and work and the kitchen remodel and Covid and my mother being in the hospital, I am super stressed. I feel like a rubber band that’s stretched out as far as it can go.

I need to punch in to work at 9:00, go to 3-4 meetings until noon, then go sit with my mother. I am going to be balls to the wall all day until they kick me out of the hospital room. Then I’ll come home and see the latest in the kitchen. That will relax me a bit. The contractor could be finished today. The other contractor will be finished tomorrow. Then it’s time to get into the pre-fab stuff. The contractor/Covid/Stranger-in-my-house-during-a-global-pandemic stress will be gone, but the building and hanging kitchen stuff will replace it.

If I seem a little punch drunk over the next week or two, all that combined is why.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Mom’s Second Day

My mother’s having another rough day. She’s still in the hospital. Last time we went through this it took five days before they discharged her. My sister was with her yesterday, my brother today, and I’ll be there tomorrow. I had to juggle some things at work but everyone is being very helpful. I appreciate it. I work with good people.

The contractors are working like crazy in the kitchen. The end is in sight. At least for the stuff we contracted out. There’s stuff that we’re planning to do on our own and we haven’t been able to start yet. That should be fun and chaotic and fun.

I have two Record-Every-Month songs ready for car vocals. One of them is pretty bad. The other is really bad. I also started on volume seven of the ol’ Great Re-Recording Project of 2015 today. Bass and drums for one song. Bring on the guitar.

I learned something about the protein shakes I’ve been having for breakfast. Normally I make a shake in the morning using my little single serving electric mixer. When it’s done I put the mixer and the glass I drank it out of into the dishwasher. The next morning they are both sparkling clean. With all of the kitchen fun, we currently don’t have a hooked up dishwasher, or a hooked up kitchen sink, or a hooked up kitchen faucet. So I used the mixer on Monday and then didn’t get around to washing it until this morning. I tried washing it in the bathroom sink, but I couldn’t. The dregs of the protein powder had morphed into a cement like solid. Note to self, get that thing into the dishwasher each day, Stat.

Okay, back to work.

Admitted for the Night

My mother is still in the hospital. She’ll be there overnight. She has a UTI but she’s in a lot of pain. They are admitting her. That’s a good thing, I think, but she’s not happy about it.

Work has been stressful AF today, as the kids these days like to say. That combined with my mother’s situation has been enough to keep me from stressing over my own doctor’s appointment tomorrow. I am going to see the Cardiologist. I need Psych, Cardiology, and Dietary to sign off on my weight loss surgery. Psych is all set. Cardiology is next. Dietary will be on going for a while longer. I don’t know how much longer, I just know it’s on going.

I don’t know what they are going to do to me tomorrow. I’m assuming an EKG or something. I have my fingers crossed that it won’t involve a stress test. I need this to go well. I’m not feeling the terror I usually feel leading up to an appointment, but it’ll probably come soon enough.

The contractor is coming back this afternoon. There’s another one coming tomorrow. After that? I don’t know. My in-the-office day will be Wednesday this week instead of Thursday. That’s probably going to mess up my internal calendar in a big way. I’ll live.

Okay. Lunch break over. Back to work.

PS: It’s NHL trade deadline day today and the Bruins just picked up another defenseman. Also, I heard they extended DeBrusk? The guy who’s been asking for a trade all year. Interesting. I’m cool with that.

Okay, now back to work.