(no subject)
More crazy life stuff, but mostly good this time...woo!
So, the part that started bad, but ended good. My brother started having bad stomach issues a couple months ago again. He always had a bad stomach (was diagnosed with IBS years ago), but this was more horrible pains on top of that. He was diagnosed with diverticulitis and put on special diet and meds and it got better. Then about a week ago, the pains came back. He went to the doc, who said the diverticulitis was flaring again and put him on meds again. Cue Sunday night, when the pain was so bad, the brother finally called an ambulance at 1am. After an ultrasound, they officially diagnosed him with gallstones and an inflamed gall bladder and he had surgery that day to take it out.
Two positives from that. Hopefully this fully solves the new stomach issues he'd been having and it's not actually diverticulitis. More importantly, they also had the social worker at the hospital visit him and finally sign him up for Medicaid. He already got the cards this week, so hopefully now, he'll go to the doctor more for all of his stomach issues, rather than just going when it's an emergency. The specialist told him, he's concerned that when he had the tests they used to diagnose his IBS, they missed signs of early Crohn's or colitis. This wouldn't be a good outcome, but at least he would now have insurance to handle it all.
The other awesome news...today I officially hit 100 pounds lost since surgery! It's been a long 5 and a half months, but it's been so worth it. I'm the lowest I've weighed in probably the past 20 years, feeling much healthier, off a bunch of pills, and able to actually do things again. I still have a ways to go, but it totally seems doable now.
I had a horrible stall over the holidays, with all of the stress from the parents move, as well as starting to try to eat not so good for me things. To get kick-started, I joined a weight loss program through my local running store where I buy my walking shoes. Since I started, I've lost about 13 pounds and I feel more confident in keeping on losing.
In Cooper news, he's loving his agility class. He learns most of the new apparatus the first or second time and just needs fine tuning to finish going through them and not stopping to eat all the treats left behind they use to get the other dogs in the class over or through them. Sadly, he had to miss this past week, as I forgot how much anesthesia knocks him out and it took him two days instead of one to get over being knocked out for his dental cleaning. Next week is the last class and I'll miss having this to take him too. I hope they end up doing a second level of it. It's called Fun Agility, so more laid back and not really geared toward teaching him to compete, just to have fun.
Work is still nuts, but at least I don't feel so much personal stress, so the work stress is much easier to handle now. If the weather would just cooperate and not be so freaking frigid, I'd be able to take Cooper for some walks again.
So, how are you all doing? Stay warm!
So, the part that started bad, but ended good. My brother started having bad stomach issues a couple months ago again. He always had a bad stomach (was diagnosed with IBS years ago), but this was more horrible pains on top of that. He was diagnosed with diverticulitis and put on special diet and meds and it got better. Then about a week ago, the pains came back. He went to the doc, who said the diverticulitis was flaring again and put him on meds again. Cue Sunday night, when the pain was so bad, the brother finally called an ambulance at 1am. After an ultrasound, they officially diagnosed him with gallstones and an inflamed gall bladder and he had surgery that day to take it out.
Two positives from that. Hopefully this fully solves the new stomach issues he'd been having and it's not actually diverticulitis. More importantly, they also had the social worker at the hospital visit him and finally sign him up for Medicaid. He already got the cards this week, so hopefully now, he'll go to the doctor more for all of his stomach issues, rather than just going when it's an emergency. The specialist told him, he's concerned that when he had the tests they used to diagnose his IBS, they missed signs of early Crohn's or colitis. This wouldn't be a good outcome, but at least he would now have insurance to handle it all.
The other awesome news...today I officially hit 100 pounds lost since surgery! It's been a long 5 and a half months, but it's been so worth it. I'm the lowest I've weighed in probably the past 20 years, feeling much healthier, off a bunch of pills, and able to actually do things again. I still have a ways to go, but it totally seems doable now.
I had a horrible stall over the holidays, with all of the stress from the parents move, as well as starting to try to eat not so good for me things. To get kick-started, I joined a weight loss program through my local running store where I buy my walking shoes. Since I started, I've lost about 13 pounds and I feel more confident in keeping on losing.
In Cooper news, he's loving his agility class. He learns most of the new apparatus the first or second time and just needs fine tuning to finish going through them and not stopping to eat all the treats left behind they use to get the other dogs in the class over or through them. Sadly, he had to miss this past week, as I forgot how much anesthesia knocks him out and it took him two days instead of one to get over being knocked out for his dental cleaning. Next week is the last class and I'll miss having this to take him too. I hope they end up doing a second level of it. It's called Fun Agility, so more laid back and not really geared toward teaching him to compete, just to have fun.
Work is still nuts, but at least I don't feel so much personal stress, so the work stress is much easier to handle now. If the weather would just cooperate and not be so freaking frigid, I'd be able to take Cooper for some walks again.
So, how are you all doing? Stay warm!