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649848 tn?1534633700

Sunday Weigh-In July 14, 2019

Good morning... how is everyone doing today?  I hope you've all had a great week.  

My  week is still up in the air.  As you know, I've had a lot of family things going on and it seems like it just doesn't stop... Last week, I mentioned my sister  who is almost sure to have breast cancer.  They had to abort her biopsy because the assisted living facility didn't take her off her blood thinning medication soon enough.  They'll have to do that this week, I think.  

I also mentioned my own mammogram, which was scheduled for last Monday.  I did go in for it - don't let anyone tell you that the 3-D is any less painful than the regular mammogram; it's not.  The only basic difference is that there's a little "camera" type thing that goes across the area and takes photos of the breast in "slices"  so they get a better look at the breast.  It does take slightly longer and they do squeeze the breast more tightly - I swear, it had to be a man the developed this test...  :-)

Anyway, I got my test done and asked to wait for the results, so they said I wasn't scheduled to get my results, but sure, keep the gown on and sit right here; it'll take about 15 minutes, so I sit down to wait... Sure enough, in about 15 minutes, the tech comes out to say:  "Ms Barb, it's a good thing you waited because we need to do an ultrasound; we've called your doctor and are waiting for them to fax  over an order for that, so you can just relax here until we get that..."  Now, if this doesn't strike fear in a person's heart, nothing will - or at least, it did mine because I know they don't do an ultrasound unless they've found something they need to take a close look at!!  So I sit and wait, and wait, and wait... Finally, another tech comes out and tells me my doctor has refused to send over an order for the ultrasound and I can go ahead and get dressed.

Okay, now I'm beside myself, because I know there's something going on and my doctor, who is, typically, very mild-mannered and easy to get along with  is refusing to order and ultrasound for "something" found in my breast... This can't be!!  So I get dressed and leave the facility.  As soon as I get outside, I call my doctor's office, and yes, I was upset... let's not forget, I have all this cancer in my family, with a sister in the very process of being diagnosed with breast cancer, no less!!  Anyway, I get the receptionist  on the phone and she explains that the doctor didn't "refuse to order" the ultrasound, he wanted to see the results of the mammogram first.  Okay, that sounds reasonable at first thought, but on second though, I wondered if he would deny the ultrasound if he decided the mammogram results didn't warrant it and who is he to overrule a radiologist??

Thus we began the cat and mouse game of  faxing the mammogram report; I'm sure many of you have been in this situation where one entity says "we faxed it" and the other says "we didn't get it", while you're sitting in the middle with your hands tied... This went on for 3 hours that day and finally just before 5:00, I explained to the gal at my doctor's office that "I'm a little sensitive" about this because of my sister and all the other cancer in the family, etc, etc... once I got that message through, things seemed to move along a little more quickly and they were much more cooperative.  The doctor's office did call me back after 5:00 to let me know they'd received the fax and the doctor would look at it as soon as he could.  They also called me back first thing the next morning to let me know the doctor had signed an order and they'd faxed it back for multiple further tests, should they be needed... Now to wait for  the imaging facility to call me back to set up an appointment for the ultrasound...

I didn't hear anything after a couple of hours so I finally called them. At first, I got the old "we didn't get it", but I urged them to  "look again", after which "oh yes, here it is" and we set up an appointment for Wed.  

The abnormality turned out to be a cyst, for which no further action is necessary, but that doesn't change the fact that I spent 3 days running on adrenaline while I waited to find this out.

I don't know how many of your go for regular mammograms, but if you don't and you're of an age at which you should, I strongly urge you not to put them off.  I've done annual mammograms for many years because I do have very dense breast tissue.  This  report  indicates quite a bit of change over the past year... I've gone from dense tissue to extremely dense, which makes me a greater risk for breast cancer and add to that, my sister (immediate family member), which ups the risk even more.

I also went on Friday for  an annual x-ray to check the cysts on my kidneys and the adenomas on my adrenals. I don't expect any surprises there. I'll see my urologist next Friday so that will all be out of the way for another year as well.

As if that wasn't enough, on top of all the other things in the past month, I got a message the other night to call another of my sisters right away, which is odd for this sister... she wanted to tell me that another SIL is in the hospital and might not survive... There was a surgery scheduled for Friday and all I really know is that the surgery went as well as can be expected and the emergency has been averted for the time being... Much as I hate to say it, this sister is not good at communicating - especially with me.  Right now, I'm assuming that "no news is good news" but I'll contact either her or other family members in the next couple of days for further info.

So, during all of this, I've somehow managed to gain another pound... I think I'm going to chalk it up to fluid retention and cortisol levels, even though my adrenal glands don't really work the way they should.  I've been trying to eat better and/or not as much, plus I did get out walking a couple of times this week.  I am bloated - Friday's x-ray should confirm that, so that's a factor as well.

I'll be going back up north for 10 days, starting the 25th of this month, so I'm on a concerted effort to drop, at least, a few  pounds, even though I know I won't get back anywhere close to what I was when we went to Iowa in May.  I'm actually still trying to figure out what happened/why I gained so much (4-5 lbs) since then...

Anyway, that's my story... I hope your week has been better than mine.  I'm beginning to feel like the "drama queen" because there's constantly something happening in my family.  One of these days, it has to stop, I'm sure.  My sister says that's what happens when we all get older...

~~Wishing you a wonderful, successful week~~
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649848 tn?1534633700
COMMUNITY LEADER
On Sunday, within 2 of posting this thread, I was down by a pound, which put me just one pound up from last week.  

Since then, I've dropped another pound, so that means I'm back even with last week. WooHoo... Now, I've only got 2 lbs to lose before my trip up north next week!!   If I happened to be lucky enough to drop an extra pound, it would be nice, but even 1 or 2 would be awesome!!  
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Delighted to hear about your loss! I haven't been watching and didn't get the scale yet, shame on me! It's been a pretty crummy week. Tomorrow I'll be at the little house, packing, all day, and so might both lose a pound in sweat and also remember to get the scale. :)
134578 tn?1693250592
Hi, I haven't done anything yet about either buying a new scale or moving my digital scale to the farm. But just from guessing and because of how distracted a week it has been, I would suspect I'm up a pound or two. My mom also had a milestone birthday yesterday, so I simply haven't been careful (cheesecake, anyone?).

In the morning I eat goat-cheese brie on these thin, hard crackers, which satisfies hunger until dinner but is probably not a "diet" meal. We *have* managed to keep it together enough to prep and eat actual meals in the evenings, the real deal with vegetables, salad, protein, but even so, it's been a mixed-up week dietarily speaking. We still have things we bought for the July 4 party that we are slowly eating up (I was surprised that a big box of pre-washed greens that had not been used for the party was still fresh as a daisy yesterday, when I made salad with it). It's a surprise the evening meals haven't been from McDonald's.

We went to the little house two days ago to sort out the kitchen in prep for the movers coming on the 18th. I hired them to pack, not just to lift, and since everything will be sent to store in the garage at the new house for over a month, I wanted to pack up things we might need sooner. I also didn't want them to pack stuff like open bags of flour and sugar. My husband needed a task that wasn't beyond him (nothing that involves choosing), and I figured he could handle packing up the pantry where we keep canned goods and bottles of wine. Just last week, at the farm, I came upon a sack of creepily grown-out potatoes in a utensils cupboard in the kitchen, and I had lectured him about his habit of buying organic potatoes and then stuffing them in any random corner he could find. In the course of packing up the pantry at the little house, what did he find? A sack of organic potatoes that he had hidden so well that it had creepy-looking sprouts at least a foot long. We did laugh. Living only part of the time at each place hasn't seemed too odd up to now, but it's clear from taking things out, that things just get shoved around and lost at both places. Which (shoved around and lost) is how I began to feel after a day's sorting! It's hard to know what we will need before the new house is ready. I don't want to wind up digging through boxes in the garage looking for the ... whatever (snorkel, bathing suit, snowshoes, sewing machine, glue gun). lol

I was also ridiculous when I called the mover, explaining I had to send things to three places and asking if they could stop at the Goodwill on the way to the new house and drop off stuff. The moving company is family-owned and local, so the lady kindly did not snicker, but even now I am going to have to phone her and change some of the instructions. At my mom's birthday party my aunt asked if we were going to leave things for staging the house. A few weeks ago, our realtor had talked me out of that approach because we will have some painting to do and of course clean-up, but now I realize it would certainly be the best place to keep at least the beds, sofa, fridge, and our cool modern dining table, until we need them in the new house or the little house sells.  We bought and rehabbed the little house only 5 years ago, so it still looks pretty fresh, and I think it could look almost professional if all the loose junk of daily living is out even with furniture left in. There is nothing old about the furniture (the family junk is all at the farm), and most of it was bought at trendy purveyors, and still looks new today.  I just wish I had gotten clear on this before talking to the movers, who will now think I am a lunatic. :)

Off to do things with the family. If I manage to see that scale at the little house today, I promise to put it in the car. :)
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1 Comments
I'm guessing that additional 1-2 pounds is/was temporary, right?

I don't think your goat-cheese brie on these thin, hard crackers sounds like such a horrible breakfast... maybe all you could add is some fruit or something, but you've got protein, fat,  a little carb with the crackers, etc.  and if it keeps you keeps you full all day - that's saying quite a bit.  

One thing about moving - you find all the things that got stuffed into a corner and forgotten about, don't you?  When we moved down here, from Iowa, I got rid of everything I hadn't used in the last 6 months, unless it was seasonal or had sentimental value.  Sure made moving a lot easier but it still seemed like we brought too much stuff with us.

Have you figured out how you're going to handle the moving so you could call the movers back again and get that all sorted out?  If they have a problem with the way things are going, they can always charge more to cover the trouble.

It seems reasonable to leave a few things at the little house since it's easier for some people looking at a house to visualize it as a home if there are a few pieces of furniture in it.  

At any rate, I hope the week is going on schedule...
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