Sunday, October 7, 2012

Gaining Weight

Remember when you were younger and you saw overweight middle-aged people and you said to yourself, "That will never happen to me," - hah!

How did that happen?

It's been a year now that I've been retired.  I have had three surgeries, and my activity level has been limited.  I've taken up cooking  and haven't really worried about dieting.

So I went to my cardiologist for my annual check-up.  He was upset about my cholesterol levels.  I told him I'd tried an experiment and stopped my cholesterol medicine and started taking red yeast rice instead.  Well, my cholesterol is higher than it's ever been.  So much for that experiment. I told my doctor I'd gotten a dog, but since the surgery, I hadn't been able to walk him that much, but Wayne had been walking the dog and lost 15 lbs.  Then my doctor said, "And you found them!"  I was shocked because he's never said anything about my weight before.

When I told him I started cooking since I've been retired, he asked, "Are you watching those cooking shows?"  I said, Yes!"  He said, "Are you trying to kill yourself?"  Now my doctor is a very unassuming man, and I never expected him to be so upset about my results.

OK, so I'm back on Crestor, just 5 mg a day.  I've been able to do more minutes on the recumbent exercise bike at physical therapy, so I'm getting more activity.  I go back in a few weeks to see if my cholesterol levels have decreased.

The same week, I went back to my orthopedic surgeon to follow-up on my knee arthroscopy.  I was concerned because there's more swelling around the knee.  He comes in and looks at my knee, listens to what I have to say, and then he says, pointing to one side of my knee "This is fluid," and then pinching the other side of my knee, he says, "but this is fat!"  Oy vey! Two doctors in one week giving me grief about fat!

I tell very few people how much I weigh.  I told one friend, and she said, "you don't look like you weigh that much!"

I remember when we were going to take a helicopter to fly to Havasu Falls, in the western part of the Grand Canyon.  The helicopter people asked each of us how much we weighed.  I made Wayne go far away so he couldn't hear me tell them my weight.

I never get on the scale at the doctor's office.  The scale is right out in the open, and everyone can hear how much you weigh.  I don't know how medical personnel don't realize this is as confidential as all the other information they collect.  When they try to get me on the scale, I just tell them, "I don't weigh."  I figured out a long time ago, that if getting on the scale at the doctor's office was something I hated so much that it would prevent me from going to the doctor, then I would not get on the scale.  I'll tell them how much I weigh if I'm in the examination room, but not in front of everyone.  I've gotten better about it, especially because the nurses asking me my weight look like they weight the same as I do, if not more.

It's the same reason I don't have a problem getting in a swimsuit at the health club.  I figure there are people there who are bigger than I am, so if it's not a problem for them, it's not an issue for me.

The moral of the story:  learn to be comfortable in your own skin, no matter what your weight is.






Where Do We Sleep?

You see four cats on the bed.  This is a king size bed.  I didn't put the cats there.  They did this all on their own.  They didn't leave much room for us, but I don't really think they were that concerned about us.




Walter Got Blessed!

This afternoon, our church had the second annual blessing of the animals.  We didn't have Walter last year at this time, so this was the first occasion he got to participate.  Walter is excitable by nature.  I'm wondering how old he will have to be to become a good visiting pet therapy dog.  I got him to sit down in front of me, and I stroked his ears over and over.  It seems to work in calming him.  The whole experience only lasted half an hour.  I told Walter that now he had to be good because he was blessed and didn't have any choice in the matter.  We'll see...
Walter's First Boat Ride

For years now, we try to do at least one fun thing every week.  I told my students to do one fun thing every week so often, that the first thing they'd ask me on Monday morning was "What fun thing did you do this weekend?"  It's a good plan, right?

So yesterday, Wayne suggested taking a boat ride at the Bonnet Carre Spillway.  I said, "Let's bring Walter!"  I wish I'd brought my camera and taken a picture of Walter on the boat.  It was unlike anything he's experienced before - I'm guessing, since we didn't have him the first six months of his life.

It took a bit of coaxing to get Walter to jump from the pier to the boat.  He sat in front of me while Wayne was behind us at the steering wheel of the boat.  Walter was taking everything in as we motored slowly away from the dock.  Then Wayne gave the boat gas, and away we flew!  Walter didn't know which way to look.  He finally settled on looking toward the back of the boat, letting the wind part his fur.

Wayne cut the motor so we could drift and get close enough to see an alligator.  All we could see of him was his snout and his eyes. Just from that, Wayne could tell that the alligator was probably about four feet.  We saw three kinds of birds: egrets, anhingas,  and great blue herons.

At the end of the boat ride, Walter was ready to get all four paws on steady ground.  It took more coaxing to get him to jump from the bow of the boat onto the pier.  This may be the start of Walter's going out fishing with Wayne.  I guess that now we need a life jacket for Walter...