Sistah Pat

Sounds optimistic, doesn’t it?  Today is my day of fasting to prep for tomorrow’s colonoscopy.  I’m still blown away that I can’t have anything to eat all day.  Maybe I should call this entry “Running (pun intended) on Empty” I could understand 12 hours before or even 16 but my appointment isn’t until 8:00 o’clock tomorrow morning.  I’m supposed to fast for 24 hours but I haven’t eaten since dinner last night so it’s already been ten hours.  By tomorrow morning, it will be 34 hours. Maybe I should eat some cereal or something in the next few minutes to make it easier to avoid food all day.  I really don’t like breakfast but it may be a smart thing to do.

Weighed in at 181.5 this morning.  Missed my June 1st goal by a pound yesterday then have another .5 on this morning.  This is such a slow process.  Still, it’s 13.5 pounds, maybe 14, in 6 weeks and that’s pretty good.  I need to face reality.  The “easy” goals of 5 pounds every two weeks may not be realistic.  I thought they were but I’m eating well, keeping calories around 1,000 to 1,200 each day and working out like crazy and I’m not meeting the goals I set. I think I’ll give it to the 15th and then reassess if I need to.

Gulping down a little oatmeal then I have to get a shower and see my orthopedic surgeon about this toe.  I should be home by 10:00 at the latest and will try to hit the treadmill.

1:10 - Saw my orthopedic surgeon and was pleasantly surprised.  He still has a little of that arrogance but he was so sweet and acted like he was greeting an old friend.  I didn’t even think he would remember me.  He took x-rays and told me the toe is healing great, i don’t need to tape it anymore.  The surgery he did two years ago looks great and then he chatted with me and showed me all the before and after x-rays and talked about my upcoming vacation as if he didn’t have a room full of patients waiting.  He said I was one of the first patients he saw after moving to Louisville from California and he was really impressed by my determination and drive to do whatever I had to do to get this ankle fixed.  He said he was just as determined to do everything he could to make it happen.  I expected him to bring up the other ankle but he didn’t so I did.  I asked him if I was making it worse by not getting it fixed.  He said that I wasn’t.  It will continue to deteriorate until it gives me a lot more trouble and he said he’d be here whenever I decided I was ready.  It will be another three months in the wheelchair and I’m not ready.  A bit of the old arrogance crept in when he said, “I’ll be here whenever you’re ready to do it.  Just make sure you don’t let anyone else touch it.”  He doesn’t have to worry about that.  I had a bump on the lower knuckle on my ring finger that I thought was a little arthritis and I asked him about it.  He took x-rays and said it’s a ganglion cyst.  I asked him if he would remove it for me and he said he would.  Something I want to get done after vacation but before I go back to work.

Came home and ran upstairs.  I must have missed an increment on the workout because I wound up doing 100 minutes and it should have been 95.  Must have doubled up on one and didn’t realize it.  Anyway, I managed to chug down 20 ounces of Gatorade.  Burned 627 calories, went 4.96 miles.  I was feeling so good after chatting with Doc, I upped the speed to 3.0 so I’m back where I was before I broke my toe.  Here’s something interesting…kept track of the calories burned for 5 minutes at 1% and it was 19 calories.  At and incline of 10%, 5 minutes burns off 46 calories.  More than double.  Of course, who knows how accurate that stuff is.

4:30 - Sitting out on the patio watching the kids in the pool.  It’s nice out here.  I guess it’s too early for mosquitoes or flies.  There hasn’t been a single pesky bug bothering me.  Holly is over today.  David works from 4:00 to 10:00 today so I have Jake and Scout.  Hopefully, all the splashing will wear them all out.  Actually, he brought them over at 2:00 so he could have time to go down and reinstate Stacy’s child support order.  Not that she’ll ever pay it but, last time, she didn’t ever pay and they said they couldn’t do anything about it for the first three months and then they didn’t do anything for the next three because she wasn’t working.  At least, the countdown has begun.  Today is the 5th day and no one has heard from her.

Working on redoing the vacation plans.  We would have been in Las Vegas on the 4th of July but, now that we’re reversing the route, it looks like we’ll be in Escalante doing the Lower Calf Creek Hike on the 3rd or 4th.  I just want to get the basics done and I’ll do some fine tuning later.

5:40 - Guess I’m going to have to gather all the kiddos out of the pool and head in.  There is no way I’m going to sit out here and watch them with DH grilling hamburgers and hot dogs 20 feet away. ;-[   Guess I’ll go plop on the couch and drink my nasty Gatorade!