MM - BBGC - Life After WLS

Someone is Trying To Tell Me Something.

But, why now?!  Yes, it's one in the morning, and I'm up.  Apparently, I fell asleep at some point with the boy - because I woke up fighting him for the Spiderman blanket.  It's hard to share a twin bed with someone.  When I woke, I truly thought it was time to get up, it felt like five or six.  I got up, threw some laundry in, folded a load of laundry, went to the kitchen for a snack and then realized with no functioning kitchen (it's been demolished to re-install a new one), I didn't see the clock on the stove which is my usual first glance in the middle of the night. 

Once I came to the computer to see why I had more than fifty emails (out of the ordinary for me lately because don't email back much), I realized of course that it's the middle of the night still.  I think I fell asleep extra early because of a few factors - chocolate being one.  Then, of course, I'm still in training (again), and the whole commuting thing is tiring. 

Finally, our house is going all Final Destination on us, and we're not sure WHO or WHAT or WHY this is happening now.  Someone is obviously trying to tell us something like; "Yes, you can pull money out of your ass to fix A, B, C, D, and NOW E, because you ain't never moving away from this house, it's going to eat you alive."  While making improvements is a good thing, especially with the risk of not being able to sell in this market, if we have to stay here potentially forever, and, why, YES, it's now got ______ much dollars more invested into it for a future owner thanks to us, We Can't Do This For Very Long.  The list of priorities has shifted, the money will run out, and now would be the time for fortune to spill from the sky, please.  On that note:  three calls and one email from real estate agents since removing my house from the www.realtor.com website and off the active MLS listings.  "Can we help you relist?"  Yeah.  Mmm-hmm.  Sure.  I really am in the mood to pull $18,000 out of my ass today to pay a home-sale commission on the House That Wants Me Dead.

This is perhaps why I am now awake at 1:32am. 

I should get back to bed, as I have more training tommorrow, and a doctors' appointment that I am going to have to skip, because I don't want to "call-in" late for my class.  I assume I'm fine, I feel fine, I'm still pregnant.  I'll try to get another appointment before an entire month passes - but that's the way my doctors' office works - you call for an appointment in March, you get one in, December!

More proof, that this child is indeed, his.

The spring season is here, and this means sports.  The coaches from last years' soccer teams have called to see if last years' players are ready to play again.  I asked the kids if they wanted to go ahead and play again, or sign up for something else.  I'm not into soccer - and I suggested that we do baseball and football or at least football.  (I don't have any interest in sports - but I can handle watching football from the sidelines and could see myself getting involved in the mom and dad stuff for football, since I'm a ex-band geek and football is what we knew.)

The response from the boy? Tears.  Absolute sadness.  "I don't WANT to play football, ever."  I turned asked my daughter, "What about you?"  Her response, "Well, I'm NOT going to be a cheerleader if that's what you think."  I asked her if she'd like to play football, and she thought about it for a minute, and then asked if they let girls on the team.  I explained to her that I'd never expect her to be a cheerleader, but if she really wanted to play football, we'd figure it out.  She'd be a freaking good defensewoman.  She's decided that she would play softball again if the sign-ups come up soon, or would like to join a non-performing (aka no recital on stage) dance class.  She'd also love voice lessons, which I am considering.

Back to the boy, "Well, is there something you want to play or do?  Let me know, I'll help you sign up for something."  (With me working full time, we have to have it planned, or it won't happen.)  He thought about it.  He finally came up with an answer.  "Mama, I'd like to play golf."  Sure he would like to play GOLF?! (Now, I'm scratching my head, because we've never even been to miniature golf?!)  Well, it is a sport, technically, but I'm thinking he just wants to drive a golf-cart.  Just remember, NO FOOTBALL.

Star Jones' Reynolds: Interview with Larry King regarding Weight Loss...

What follows is an excerpt of an interview of Star Jones Reynolds on Larry King.  I've just picked out the piece regarding her 150 lb. weight loss.

KING:  You lost 150 pounds.

REYNOLDS: Yes.

KING: In how long a period of time?

REYNOLDS: Two and a half years. I've tracked it. You know I told you that I've been on "The View" now the show's been on nine seasons. I realized that in those nine seasons I started out at about 225 pounds and I felt, you know, full figured fabulous woman but in those seasons I gained 75 pounds up to over 300 pounds all in front of the nation.

KING: Look at that. Look at that picture.

REYNOLDS: Yes, I know and then in the same time period within those nine years I lost 150 pounds.

KING: Did you make a decision one day?

REYNOLDS: I had no choice, Larry. I was killing myself. You know, I said in the book and I had to say these words in order to make the change, I went from full figured to fat, from fat to obese and from obese to morbidly obese. I felt good full figured. Morbidly obese I was unhealthy and dying.

KING: Did you ever consider like surgery?

REYNOLDS: I considered it all and that's what -- I went to my doctors. That's sort of what started the process after one of my girlfriends confronted me with the weight. She wasn't intimidated by Star. She came and said "You got to do something."

I went to every doctor that I knew. I went to a gynecologist, an internist, an endocrinologist, a cardiologist, bariatrics, I went to everything I was supposed to and for the first time in my life I shut up and I listened and I had them tell me what I was supposed to do.

KING: And what did you do?

REYNOLDS: The whole world wants to know that now right?

KING: And why? You write a book that's open. You write about a physical, emotional and spiritual journey to finding love.

REYNOLDS: And I leave that out.

KING: Why?

REYNOLDS: Because, you know, well first of all I like people to know that what you see here is the end result of two and a half years of a lot of work.

KING: But you can help them attain it by telling them how you attained it.

REYNOLDS: Not really in all honesty because until you take control of your own health and go to your own doctor and have your own doctor tell you what's going to work for you. I found that nothing that anybody else said to me would work. Remember, it was a girlfriend who came and confronted me.

KING: Let me ask some questions then. Were pills involved?

REYNOLDS: Let's say this I needed the help of doctors in all aspects of my life. I needed the doctors to do everything for me, fair enough.

KING: What was the toughest part? That's fair enough. What's the toughest part?

REYNOLDS: The toughest part was doing it in front of the world and recognizing that you had gotten to a point where if you didn't do something you were going to die.

KING: Was like the first week the hardest?

REYNOLDS: No. The first week wasn't the hardest to be honest with you. It's sort of that hump period when you know you have to change your eating habits and you have to get off your behind and exercise because no matter what you do to jumpstart it, if I didn't exercise and if I didn't change my eating habits, I would not be this size.

KING: Are there days you want to eat the wrong things?

REYNOLDS: No.

KING: No? And you want to exercise all the time?

REYNOLDS: No, I don't want to exercise all the time. I still despise it, not at all. I mean that has not changed but I do it because I need to do it. Today was a prime example. I can get whatever I want to eat and when you, you know, you forget to eat you sometimes pick up fast food.

That was me before, double Whopper with cheese, extra ketchup, extra mayonnaise, but it in half but not cut it in half because I was going to eat half, cut it in half so I could eat it with the left hand and eat the French fries with the right. No, I don't do that anymore. Today I chose a half a piece of roast chicken with rosemary and broccoli for lunch and I chose it and I felt very proud of myself.

KING: And liked it?

REYNOLDS: Loved it, absolutely.

Obesity Surgery is NOT Enough.

It's not enough.  I am proof.  The following is from CBS News...

"Some people go into this and think they're cured. They're not. There's still a battle going on."

---

Dr. Lou Arrone, an obesity expert

• A new study in the Journal of the American Medical association finds surgical procedures can result in significantly reduced weight and blood pressure but, after 18 months, many of the patients are still considered obese.
  
  Obesity expert Dr. Lou Aronne explains to co-anchor Rene Syler on The Early Show that, "Not everybody is cured of high blood pressure when they have obesity surgery. And I think a lot of people think everything is going to get better, but not everything gets better.
  
  "You definitely have a significant improvement in health, but people don't go down to their ideal body weight when they have surgery. These people went from having a body mass index, which is the way we measure overweight, from well over 40, down to 35. They were still in the category of what we call obesity, but it was much better than it was before."
  
  Aronne stresses that, "You need to focus on your diet and on exercise. People will do much better if they have surgery if they diet and they follow an exercise program. People who don't follow a diet and exercise program can lose weight and then regain a significant amount of weight."
  
  Those aren't the only post-surgery long-term concerns: "One of the problems we're seeing is people developing deficiencies of certain nutrients such as calcium, vitamin D, zinc and others. People who have surgery need to be on a lifelong program of nutritional supplementation. So, instead of taking diabetes medicine or blood pressure medicine, they're now taking vitamins. But if they do that, they can live a long and healthy life."
  
  Education about proper diet and portion control is also important, Aronne says: "A lot of people are taught that. What happens is, when you have the surgery, there is a drive by the body to regain weight. Your body wants you to regain weight. It does things that sort of play with your mind to make you start eating sweet foods, starchy foods and that seems to rev up the appetite of people who've had surgery. It's a constant battle to stay away from that kind of food. It's tougher than it looks. Some people go into this and think they're cured. They're not. There's still a battle going on."
  
  Aronne adds that obesity surgery carries significant risk and, "The risk seems to increase with age. Another paper just published shows that the older you are, the greater the risk of the surgery.
  
  "It's still worth having surgery if you have the health problems we associate with being severely obese."
  

Source:  CBS News.

Get me another Baby Bottle Pop. Unhealthy teeth now linked to obesity.

Mmm.  I'm just picturing bottle-rot.

• "Researchers at the University of Buffalo found tooth decay in children's teeth is the result of overeating, not poor growth as previously thought.  A study presented at the International association of Dental Research meeting in Orlando, Fla., looked at 2-year-olds to 5-year-olds who received aggressive dental treatment at the Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo between 2000 and 2005. They found nearly 25 percent weighed more than the recommended weight and another 10 percent to 16 percent were at risk of being overweight. This contradicts studies in the 1990s that found tooth decay was connected to underweight kids, blaming the child's inability to grow properly. Researchers said the new connection is between poor teeth and a poor diet, which leads to bigger children and unhealthy teeth."

Source:  UPI