My sister....

found out today that she received a grade on a paper that will allow her to receive her Masters degree! She went back to school 6 years ago to get her teaching degree and has been teaching H.S. Italian for the past 3 years. I am so proud of her!

She called me up to tell me and she was crying. My brother-in-law would have been so proud of her and because someone was texting when they should have been paying attention while they were driving, he isn't here to celebrate this huge accomplishment with her. Will I ever be able to move past the anger that I feel whenever I think about my Dad and BIL?

My sister has come so far these past three months but everywhere she turns she is reminded that her husband will never be coming home again. I am so blessed that my husband came home from that trip and I keep asking myself "why am I the lucky one?" I know I have to just accept what is and move on but it is so damn hard! So many questions and "what ifs" keep playing in my head. Sometimes I feel like it will never end. You want to hear something "funny"? A week before the accident, I actually signed Oprah's "no phone zone" contract. Very out of character for me.

Life really does go on....my sister, my husband and myself are living proof of that!

2.5 lbs up and does anyone have a Kindle?

At least I knew this would happen when I started to eat and drink again. No worries....I have increased my working out to 5 60 hour sessions a week so this should get the scale moving down again. Thank you Draz for the latest exercise challenge! I need this.

On Tuesday I am going for my upper GI series test. What can I expect? I have no idea how they do the test although I do know that I have to drink barium. They told me it takes about an hour. Am I nekkid during the test? Am I laying down? Any help or advice is appreciated!

Providing that all is well with my band, I think I will be getting a little of the unfill put back in on 8/25 when I go back to the doctor. I understand why we took so much out but I would think that in 3 weeks, all the swelling will have gone down to the point where he can put in a little of the fill, yes? I am hopeful because right now, I can eat EVERYTHING. I did feel a little restriction at dinner last night and it was such a good feeling! Thankfully, I am measuring and keeping my calories under 1200.

I cannot believe that Chicago is in about 5 weeks! I remember when it was first mentioned thinking that it would never get here! Well, here we all come. I cannot wait to go shopping for something to wear to the dinner on Saturday. I figure I will be about 38- 40 lbs down by then and will need a new dress! I also need to go shopping for jeans. Nothing fits! I am not complaining though!

Any advice on Kindles? I just ordered one from Amazon. I've been kicking it around in my head for a while. We just booked 4 nights in Vegas where Steve will attend the SEMA Car show and 7 nights at Sandals Exhuma resort in the Bahamas for November and I will be needing a lot of reading material as we plan on doing NOTHING in the Bahama's except laying on the beach or at the pool reading. After these past few months, we are just going to relax!

So far, so good!

I went to my doctor yesterday and he does not think that I have any damage to my band considering the tightness I was experiencing. However, he did schedule me for an upper GI to put my mind at rest! He also took out 1 cc which brings me to 1.8 cc's in my 4 cc band. I am very happy to say that I was able to eat solid food yesterday for the first time in almost 2 weeks! The bad part is that I had virtually no restriction but I don't care, I so needed to eat again and to give all the swelling a rest. He wants me to wait at least 2 weeks before he puts back any of the fill and when he does, he is going to do it in tiny increments!

I'll be back later when I am more awake.

Ticker Update!

As of this morning, I have lost a total of 32.6 lbs.! I have another 30.2 lbs. to go so this brings me more than half way to goal! Wow! I am also officially Overweight...no longer obese. I never thought I'd be so happy to be overweight, but I am now.

I was 180.2 this morning and my first mini-goal, if you will, is 178. Why 178 you ask? Well, I'll tell you. Don't ask me why I remember this but, the morning after my daughter Mallory's Sweet 16 party that is what I weighed. I was slowly losing weight due to the fact that I was in the early stages of filing for divorce (Nov. 2002) and I just know that I had not seen that number in a long time. If my memory serves me correctly, I didn't see it ever again either as before long, I steadily gained until I hit an all-time high of 234! I lost about 30 lbs. on WW but I was never able to get out of the 200's until now. What a great feeling!

As most of you know, I have been having major problems with tightness/PB'ing for a few weeks now. Due to my doctor being out of the country and my not wanting to see his standby guy coupled with the fact that the tightness was coming and going for the first 2 weeks, I chose to stick it out. Well, of course when I went to NY for a week all hell broke loose and it is at the point where I can only drink liquids and very slowly at that! No wonder I've lost weight this past week, right?

My appt. is tomorrow morning and I am praying that a slight unfill or maybe more than slight is all that is needed. Of course I am thinking worst case scenario's but that is me...you know the type...I get a headache and it has to be a brain tumor?

I will let you all know the outcome of my appt. tomorrow.

On the road again...

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift. that's why its called the present." -taken from a friends post.

Brutus has begun his nap marathon and we are not even off Long Island yet . I miss everyone already! But I will see my sister in 2 weeks and will be back on LI in Oct. for a wedding so I shouldn't be too upset right?

My official weight loss from my week of band tightness hell is 5 lbs. Wednesday cannot get here fast enough. I am praying that my band is fine and all I need is a bit of fill taken out. Time will tell. All I know is I can barely eat anything solid.

Have a great Sunday!

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Still in New York....

with my family. We have decided to leave early afternoon on Sunday and make the trip back to FL in two days instead of one like we did coming here! Thank you Stephen! The last 4 hours of last weeks trip nearly did our marriage in! 18 hours in the car is way too long!

I was on the phone with my doctors office yesterday and I have made an appt. for an unfill next Wednesday! I hope I can make it. I am really scared that something is wrong with my band as it makes no sense to me why after all this time, I am so much tighter! I had a fill on 7/1 and .15 cc's taken out on 7/8. About 2 weeks ago I noticed that I was tighter. My doc was in China and I kept putting off going to see his back-up. One day I was fine, the next day I was pb'ing. Then my doc came home but I was here in NY when all hell broke out! I am so tight in the a.m. I cannot even drink coffee or water until at least 10 a.m. Crazy. By lunch time, I can usually manage to get a protein drink down and dinner is soup. My current fave is Egg Drop soup as I have had this for the past 4 nights! I am mixing it up tonight with a Strachettella (I can only imagine how wrong the spelling is for this) which is an Italian Egg Drop with spinach. We'll see.

I was so upset 2 nights ago that I actually started to cry. I told Steve I was so hungry and frustrated and I just know something is wrong. When I spoke to my docs assistant, I flat out asked her if, God forbid, I have a slipped band or band dilation, would it make it worse if I waited 6 days to see him. She checked with him and he said no. I was that upset, and I would have gone to the ER if he said to. I was a little relieve at least to hear that. If there is anything seriously wrong, I would want my doc to take care of me. Hopefully, I am just being overly dramatic and all I am is too tight! I wish I could even get excited over what I am seeing on the scale...183.0 today and I was 186.8 on this past Sunday for the Challenge.

Anyway, I only have a few more days left of this and then one way or the other I will feel relief. Please pray for my Husband, he has been a saint during this period and we have another 18 hours a head of us in the car on Sun and Mon!

Lovin' New York but can't eat!

I don't know if it was the stress of the 19 hour car ride on Friday into Saturday, but man am I tight! Nothing goes down without a struggle. I am so frustrated that I even called my doc today. I have had issues with reflux and I am getting nervous that I could do serious damage with all the PB'ing going on. He told me to do liquids for 2 days to let the swelling subside and than to move onto mushies. Also, he wants me taking 2 Prilosec tabs a day for 2 weeks. He wants to see me as soon as I get back next week if I am still having a problem.

It is great being with my family and seeing some old friends. The only problem is, my mom and step-dad have literally kidnapped Brutus! We were over their house Saturday and they asked if he could sleep there and they'd bring him back to my sisters house on Sunday. No problem except we didn't bring any food for him. Mom said, not to worry, I will make him scrambled eggs in the morning! Ok, fine. Morning comes and she calls to tell me she went to Walmart, bought food, snacks and a BED! There is no need to bring him to my sisters house...they'll just keep him!

On the one hand, I really miss the little guy but on the other, this is so good for my mom and step-dad. They really love him and I know that they miss him a lot since we moved to FL. He would always be with them whenever we went away so I know they are very attached to him. My sister and I always talk about getting them a small dog from the shelter but we are afraid to just show up with one. We are going to talk to them about it more this week as we both think it would be great for them.

Tomorrow I am going to Macy's with my girls to order my younger daughter her maid-of-honor dress for her sisters wedding in March. It will be nice to have some mommy/daughter time. Steve will have a scheduled visitation session with Brutus at my moms and we'll all meet for lunch later in the day. Can't wait to see what liquid lunch I will be having tomorrow. Actually, tonight we went to a restaurant and I had the lobster bisque and it was truly delish...the fact that it didn't come up was a major plus!

TaTa for now my lovelies...