MRIs and Why I Go Home Screaming

There are a lot of reasons to hate having an MRI.  These are a few of my least favorite ones.

First of all its cold. Oh I know that they try and keep the room at a comfortable temperature, but the fact still remains that once you take off you clothing, it's not a day at the beach with the sun warming you up.  And so my little body gets chilled.

I weigh 254 pounds give or take a few ounces and so pushing me into a tube designed for someone half my weight is no easy task. The expression about there not being enough room to change your mind was probably inspired by an MRI chamber.

OK, so now they squeeze me in and the first thing that I notice is I can't scratch my nose.  Even if  I was allowed to move about inside, remember there isn't enough room to change your mind much less move an arm from wherever you manage to place it in the beginning to be able to scratch the inevitable itch.

Noisy is hardly the word for it, clang clang clang goes the machine, I know it's made louder because of the acoustics of narrow tube.  The earplugs help a bit, but that noise interferes with...

Sleep time.  Now my first thought, was maybe if I go to sleep the time will pass by quickly.  Nice thought and it would have except that every once in a while they have to move the platform you are on in and out of the tube just enough to wake the sleeping baby resting finally in the womb.

...and so after surviving the itch, then being woke from my nap the worst part begins.

Claustrophobia, yes located  mere inches away from my face is the tube I am in.  I am sure it is nowhere near as close as my mind makes it to be.  Doesn't matter though, the brain is already running at full speed reminding me that after all of this, it takes too damn long for the results.

Tale of the Scale November 7, 2012 - More or Less

Time to celebrate, I lost weight this week.

Even better news was while I was at the Dr.s office they had me put on one of those gowns and for the first time for as long as I can remember I was able to tie it up.  Even better was the fact I was able to do it without assistance   Last time I put one of those on they had to put two of them on me to keep from exposing my beautiful tush.

No on to the Dr.s visit.  The not not so good news I have severe arthritis in my right knee.  The x-rays reveled that I have bone on bone.  Doc explained it to me that whenever I get tired of the pain we can talk about doing a knee replacement.  And so I am going to have a MRI Thursday the 16th.  I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am to spend 45 minutes in a narrow tube listening to it clang, yes I have one before.  For the life of me I can't remember what mental exercise I did to get through it other that focusing on my breath.

Oh before I forget, I lost 2.8 pounds  (1.27 kg) bringing the total loss to 44 pounds (19.96 kg).  Making me a happy camper.

Tale Of The Scale Oct 31, 2012

I weighed into today 255.0 which is exactly the same as last week.  Good that I didn't gain, still I was hoping for a loss of some sort.  The thing is, I tracked what I ate, sort of, I exercised, sort of, and drank lots of liquids, well sort of.

"Half measures availed us nothing, it wasn't until we embraced the whole program with all it's implications did we begin to recover."  Something I read a long time ago.  So even though I did what  was supposed to be done, nothing was 100%. Yes I tracked my food (writing it down) however, I didn't measure or weigh anything so what I was doing, was either  eyeballing or estimating my foods.  Exercise was done but only on two days, one was legitimate.  Walking for 30 minutes, and the other was working in the backyard taking down a group of antennas in anticipation of Hurricane Sandy.  So I didn't exactly exercise everyday.  Now in my defense, the exercise part is hard to be motivated when you are awake half the night in pain (Nov 8 appointment with the Orthopedic Surgeon). Finally the water part. Yes I drink liquids, fat free milk, some water, but mostly I drink diet soda.  I have read all the arguments about it and I will say that although I have cut back I still consume way to much.

Alright enough of the self-flagellation.  This week we discussed the benefits of taking a daily assessment of where we are in our program for this day.  Good stuff, it's stuff I've used in the past, in part dealing other personal issues and some of is new.  Take five minutes and...

• Review what I did
• Review what I missed
• Review what I could have done differently
• Review long term and short term goals
• Remember tomorrow is a new day

Let you know how its going meanwhile take a few minutes and pray for the folks recovering Sandy

Forty Pounds

To begin again is always a problem, those voices that keep telling me not to bother since you started this once before and don't you know you're going to fail again.  So S H U T  U P little voices in my head.


Since April I have lost forty pounds, dropped two sizes, and lowered my medications so why am I in so much pain?  My right knee is killing me and my left leg is in so much pain that it wakes me up in the middle of the night.  At first I thought it might have something to to the cooler temperatures as fall sets in.  Then why does it throb so much during the day when its warm?  Dunno, I do have an appointment set up with an Orthopedic surgeon so I will have to wait to get the results what ever test get prescribed for my issue.

Still with the goal in the distant future I am going to continue to ignore those voices. And then maybe in about a year I will get to goal.

• Normal blood pressure 
• Off diabetes medications
• Weight somewhere around 160 lbs (72.5kg)

See you next time.

Just like NASA I'm back.  Well, I never actually let in any real sense, I merely took a break from blogging. I am also again active with Weight Watchers (WW), the highly successful weight loss program for so many people, me included, as long as I follow the program they outline.

I hope to update this on a daily basis with the purpose of keeping myself on track in two areas of my life.   The first is to keep a dairy of my successes and failures in my weight loss journey.  The other is to keep me motivated to write about anything so long as I write.   You see I want to be a writer,  I also want to be a writer without writing, and so since writers write, I need to write otherwise I am another wannabe person.

I returned to WW around 10 weeks ago and since then I have lost 29 pounds without a great amount of effort.  Although that is not an accurate statement, since I have been having bowel issues.  My issue is I am either impacted or experiencing pain.  Is that because of the diet, I don't know at this point.  I have seen my Dr. about this and he seems to be withholding judgement at this point.

What I have read on this so far is that since I am eating a lot of fruit now, a good thing, I am not drinking as much water as I need to consume, not a good thing.  It can have the reverse effect of what the desired result is, namely, more frequent and better bowel movements, and that it can cause constipation.  Anyway I am not giving up, I have too much to lose.

My ultimate goal isn't to so much to get a specific weight range as I want to get off of medications for diabetes, high blood pressure, and cholesterol within two years.  Why?  Well the obvious reason is health, but the other not so obvious one, is money.  I turn 65 on two years and in the United States that means medicare and all of its related costs.  I just as soon not have those costs then, I would much rather use that money for anything other that healthcare.

My First Lesson:
Now, this whole idea of writing isn't new to me.  I first got the bug to write when I was hired to be a copywriter for a catalog company.  Ironically I didn't know what a copy writer did.  I thought it meant I was going to get copyrights done for the products the company carried as well as do the technical support that an IT person would do.  So lesson number one, know the language you are going to work in.

That means before you answer an advertisement for employment, know what the description means.  In my case, the difference between COPYWRITER: one who writes or edits copy or written content for a living, usually of sales generating or marketing nature and COPY-RIGHTER: One prepares documentation for the exclusive legal right, given to an originator or an assignee to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or... bla bla bla.

Ring, ring a slight interruption... back from the phone.

It was enough though for me to realize how much I enjoy the written word, not so much as a consumer but as a creator.

Lesson Two:
It is not enough to have the desire, I need to improve the skill set required to get my thoughts to paper or as in this case the digital environment.  The first skill is to write.  That sums that lesson up pretty obviously.

OK that's it for today, now I just have to do steady stream of thought to fill up the last of word requirement for this page. It doesn't seem like a lot to write until you realize you have nothing to say.  I am having keyboard issues.  Don't know if it is me or the keyboard.

Ring, ring a slight interruption... back from the phone, again.

Ring, ring a slight interruption... back from the phone, again.

I know I am not the best typist in the work, but I using a laptop and I am not used to the hand placement/touch-pad.  I seem to be brushing it just enough to cause the mouse to jump.  Eureka I discover that I can turn off the touch pad while I am typing and that seems to be helping greatly.  At least now I can tell whats me and what is the machine.   That boys and girls is progress.