Numbers

Yesterday I found out my Hemoglobin A1C was a whopping 12.5 (normal is 5.5) -well. I called and moved up my seminar date to September and My initial visit to the day after and My primary care Dr to the day after that -once I find out all the consults I need to have;  I can get moving -already have an appointment with the EYE retina specialist from Wills Eye at the end of that week -that just happened to work out. He will be not so pleased with the A1C numbers. I am indeed a walking stick of sugar -not in a good way.

The Beginning

"Today is the first day of the rest of my LIFE" Remember when everyone was saying that? Well I made a big decision today to get some surgical help with my Health problem which is really my weight problem. I secured a place in a weight loss seminar and made my initial consultation with the surgeon. Hopefully, all the things I will have to do before surgery will be accomplished by the end of October.  I will keep this blog as a log for me to document my progression. Am I terrified? -YES - Am I determined? -YES To the point I am ready to take on the debt, just to be healthy.

Ten Things that make me HAPPY

7/6/2012 9:12 PM  by rl simpson

My creative writing group has a HAPPY Theme going this week –I am blocked –I have nothing – happiness endearing this is NOT. So I decided to list the things that make me HAPPY in hopes of some good prompts for the future–so here goes:

1/ A good POOP –Americans don’t really talk about poop but every living thing poops and I am happiest when I am regular. Where can we go from here, you wonder –I wonder also?

2/ The smell of pine and woody scents –I know but that and lavender are my ‘happy’ smells. I wonder why?

3/ Loosing weight –even if it is a pound or an oz. I gain weight if I breathe and wonder how people loose and keep weight off and still seem to be nice and normal and not cannibalistic which I seem to become at any given time, during a diet. See number 1 .

4/ Food –I don’t want food to make me Happy and tell myself this is a sick happiness –but I like some food and anything having to do with bread and pasta, makes me happy.

5/ Being retired –this makes me happy –to sleep in and not bother with going to bed at a decent hour –I think I am no longer decent –I do miss the money –but finding free stuff to do is sort of fun / vanity shopping however is not.

Now I am out of ideas except for number 10 –that does not make me Happy and I have to dig a little deeper.

6/ My friends make me Happy. Also my Family, well sometimes.

7/ I make me Happy –I crack myself up all the time with thoughts and crazy ideas.

8/ AFTER going to the gym makes me happy. Not going /getting ready /going there and doing the exercise –that is very difficult –but the endorphins released after a short 30 minutes workout–are ok.

9/ The five Senses make me happy /Hearing =MUSIC =music all kinds makes me very HAPPY even if the music is sad and I cry –I still love the sound of it  /Music makes me Happy// Sight (Vision) = the colors of the Earth and colors people have blended and white clouds against a blue sky or a black dog walking across a green turf farm on a sunny day= makes me Happy/// Touch =I love the feel of a new baby’s skin and whiskers on a mans face and fresh sheets on my bed and silky fabric and leather and my Mothers hands = make me Happy/// /Taste – most are foods –crunchy, smooth, chewy and doughy. I think maybe ALL are food textures –that make me happy.  Smells –ah my favorite sense, bread and coffee and tea and summer and fall and winter and spring smells make me happy.

10/ Knowing and Accepting my belief in GOD, makes me Happy –it is every part of my list, every part of what makes me…….ME.

Robin turns 60 on the Coral Princess!

Whoo Hooo -

robsept5.blogspot.com.  I turned 60 in Alaska/ Hubbard Glacier.  My creative writing group still wants to me to write about it. 600 pictures, my brother said 10 are any good and has warned everyone NOT to ask to see them. LOL I am so Happy. God has blessed me with friends and family that love me.

Turn me back Scotty

Daylight saving time is mandatory in New Jersey-I dont like either change (just decide on one and stick to it). So this weekend I dutifully changed -all (I thought) of my clocks.
.
My alarm clock was first. I have been sick for 5 weeks with an ear and sinsus and cold -lots of courses of anti-biotics but still............it feels like I have water in my one ear. I even told people I think I may have gone deaf in that ear. I can not even hear my radio in the morning -because I am sleeping on my 'good" ear.

Tonight  was a good Massage class -we learned legs. My partner in class is a Chinese man about my age. I was doing his knee and asked if I was hurting him? My Dad just had his knee repalced and I am very aware of knee problems. In his broken English he said 'no hurt. all original parts"/ I started to laugh -original parts yes -but made in China. He smiled.

So I came home in a good mood -tired but happy. Then I heard music playing  when I walked in the door.. I freaked at the music. I thought maybe someone was in my crawl space playing a radio. I slowly walked to the back of the house.

  -It was my radio -the ALARM was set to PM..................... not AM.

I guess the reason I couldnt hear my radio in the morning was because the alarm was not set correctly. All I could do was laugh. I am such a Phoebe.

Hold the ear drops, Doc . Turn back the alarm and beam me up Scotty -I crack myself up.

Why didn't anyone Tell me?

Mammogram Machine

The Squisher

                                                                                                              Today was my annual mammogram -Yuck- a modern age torture of my breasts -Ok so it is a life saving test but still it is VERY uncomfortable -a little funny -you have to step out of your body to get the humor - so it is necessary to be squeezed and handled by a woman stranger -BUT it is only once a year.

 

I also had a Pelvic Ultra sound. Last year when they were trying to find out why I was having pain in my right chest -I had a series of tests that started with a colonoscopy and ended with an ultra sound of my gall bladder that was filled with stones. Long story short I ran out of co-pay money and patience for tests and never had the last ultra sound. A pelvic ultra sound that was recommended as a result of the last test. 

So today over a year later, I had the test. First the Doctor never even hinted as to what this test entailed. I had had an ultra sound before -with the slimy stuff they smear on you and then the thing that sends sonar waves thru the layers of fat -and I have alot - it hurt because the technician pushed so hard into my fat. Now 22 lbs lighter I am back. I had to drink 32 oz of water and not use the bathroom until after the test was completed. Ha I would drink the water forget and use the bathroom then remember and have to drink all over again. 

I get to the Imaging office and wait about 15 min and they call me -a nice woman tech has me lie on the table -lower my pants and underwear to the pubic line and she slimes me to take picures of my kidneys etc. Then she says to empty my bladder /whipe off the slime and return for the internal test.

Did she say IN ternal? Why didnt I know this? Strange. I come back to be asked to remove my pants and underwear/ lay on a table with a square under my hips and cover myself with a sheet. 

Then she hands me a long -12 inches / about 1 &1/3 finger wide cylinder like probe -attached to a cord. She says insert this into the vaginal opening -HELLO? say WHAT?

How come no one told me what to expect. It is uncomfortable and hurts a bit -she the puts her hand under the sheet and takes control -very professional -very young female stranger.

I start to laugh -and say i am writting about this in my blog -no one will believe it. I asked her if women talk -she said usually older woman who give her TMI (to much info) like : "no one has stuck anything in me since my husband died";& " I am so dry" etc... 

I said they should at least buy you dinner first -but really both my GP and the GYN should have prepared me about what this test entailed -she smiled and shrugged -and said it is just a test-ok I was a little nervous. Then it was over and I then I had the mammogram.

Internal Ultra Sound Probe

Both Tech's said we would have the results in 5 days. I really dont care -it IS, what it is ..................I want an hour HOT shower -I have been slimmed.

Pudgy Pelican .Avalon NJ and Me -2010

Do I only Blog once a month now? I am trying to write my Christmas letter and re-reading my blog journals and trying to condense them. Two Family deaths; beloved Aunt and Uncle. Four new cousins -all Grandchildren to my first cousins. One girl and three boys (our first set of twins)/a new friend turned one/ My little sister turned 50, our Mother 80. ( I was with them for both celebrations)/ my BFF turned 40, without me/ My Writers Group published our second book, I learned how to re bind a book? or I took the class anyway/ I participated in the 2010 Historic Census -it was a eye opening experience -IRS taxpayers were angels compared to the citizens I met doing the Census and I include the Census administrators and neighbors. I also met some wonderful, interesting Census workers -all ages and backgrounds. Wrecked my car by allowing a deer to hit it/I am fine, she is not. Learned a dear friend lost her husband and two High School friends, each, a son. I continue to declutter my house/spoke with a Realtor / found time is not right to market house/ had some trees removed from the front and the back partially cleared and some work done on the house-spent all the Census money so still saving for the big 60 birthday Land /Sea cruise to Alaska/ Nutrisystem helped me loose 22 lbs and I am down to my college weight-feel pretty good off the Insulin -would like to loose about 50 more lbs and off the majority of my meds but that is for the next Christmas Letter...........

Oliver (1) and Robin (59)

So that is it 2010 include some pictures and we are ready to turn 60 in 2011 -WOW I can not wait!