Resolution #1

1.) Make my health a priority.

Remember that resolution? Yeah, well so do I and I've been making strides on that one. I'm going to be signing up for Weight Watchers either this week or next. It depends on when my buddy can join me. She just had knee replacement surgery and we're waiting on the OK from her doctor for her to drive again. She's really limited on where she can go because she's got to keep her knee up and weight off of it for a few more weeks.

She's got a lot to loose, like me, so we'll be in this for the long haul. I'm setting a 15 month goal for myself to have all of this weight lost. I'm not kidding around people! I lost 100 lbs before so I know I can do it again. We're going to attend actual meetings, not do the online thing, and I'm also signing up for Weight Watchers e-Tools too. I need all the support and help I can get with menus, recipes and being able to track my points with my Palm. I'm actually a little excited to start this!

I'm not a big fan of Dr. Phil, in fact I loathe the man. His condescending attitude makes me want to hurl, however one day I got sucked into his show about "big weight loosers". I sat and listened to one woman who sang the praises of Dr. Phil's Self Matters and Ultimate Weight Solution books after loosing over 100 lbs. Those two resources shed some light on why she ate and gave her the tools to modify her behavior.

So off to the library I went and checked them both out. I'm reading the UWS first. So far, some interesting stuff in there. I'm a self help book virgin, by the way, I'll give my review when I'm done with both. Again, I'm trying to give myself a fighting chance at this. I'm trying to arm myself with tools and knowledge.

I had "the talk" with Roman. I told him we're going to have to change our entire way of thinking about food and preparing food. Menus will be planned and we're both going to eat on plan. Little did he know, he was going on Weight Watchers too! We both know how to eat healthy, we both just choose not too and that's our biggest problem. He's on board with less red meat, more chicken and fish but he poo-poo'd the idea of eating tofu and vegetarian dishes. The man needs his meat, damn it! Ok, I can compromise on that, I'm not too fond of tofu myself, Elmer's school paste has more flavor, in my humble opinion.

This past Monday I went to see another GI doctor. For those keeping count, this is #2 in 3 years. He looked over my chart from my other doctor and agreed with her diagnosis after telling him my continued symptoms and pain. He did order a CT scan of my reproductive organs just to eliminate cancer. Evidentially, uterine and ovarian cancers can present as GI problems and by the time they are diagnosed it's too late. He said it's fairly common, so he wants to do the test just to rule out any sort of cancer causing me my pain. He didn't seem too worried but he freaked Roman out good when he uttered the word CANCER. I go in the 27th, this Friday, for the CT.

He gave me a new diet to promote GI tract motility and suggested I stay away from tomato products, onions, peppers and caffeine. He also suggested that I not eat 3 hours before bed and he put me on Prilosec OTC two times a day to deal with the reflux from the hiatal hernia. He doubts the ulcerative lesions in my stomach are worse, as I don't have the signs of a bleeding ulcer, same with the somewhat functioning gall bladder. He says my symptoms are more reflux related. Other than the CT no other tests were scheduled, which surprised me.

I have to go back in 6 weeks for a check up. He wants to see if the dietary modifications and meds are working and taking care of the pain. He said he'll contact me with the CT results as soon as they come in. So now we're in a waiting game. Waiting to see if I feel better with the modifications and the CT comes up negative.