Kimberley: I'm 40--will be 41 in April. I've always had wacky cycles until a few years ago, when I dropped 70 lbs. I became like clockwork then. Since I started gaining weight, they have become more iffy. The solution is obvious....

Glad you had fun with the family...although I have no clue how to play dominoes!!

Morning gals!

Jill, that's awful about your ovarian cysts! I can imagine how painful that must have been!

I didn't get much sleep last night--we watched the movie "Sideways" (kind of weird, but good) and got to bed late last night.

Alan had a telephone interview with a company in (GULP) Butte, Montana! I do NOT want to go there!!! He doesn't think they will offer him the position anyway. Secretly I hope they don't! I want to stay in Florida!

Jen, for me weight loss, exercise and stress all affect my TOM. I'm sure I skip periods (still have symptoms) because I'm in that peri state too. If you're really nervous about it, you could go to your gyn and have it checked out, never hurts.

I would like to see it be ok to say Christmas again, it is a religious holiday. I'm not a very religious, but that is what it is. I'd like to see it be less of buying frenzy too. Why should we feel so pressured to buy things to enjoy it?
That's my 1.5 cents, heh heh.

A cyst farm, boy, that's nice. I guess that's what they call a bedside manner.... That does sound like it was really painful.

I think the problem with Christmas isn't just that it's religious, but that it excludes other religions. If you advertise for Christmas, what about those who buy gifts for Hannukah (or whatever of 20 different spellings)? I think "Happy Holidays" is best for retailers because it doesn't exclude anyone. Almost every religion celebrates something this time of year, or even just to include New Year's, it's a total holiday season, not only Christmas. I do celebrate Christmas, but I have also worked retail where those who do not celebrate Christmas get very offended at the commercial world assuming that Christmas is the only important holiday of the season, which I think is understandable.

Although I bet there are plenty of kids out there who have no idea what Christmas really supposedly represents in Christianity besides decorated trees and wrapped gifts, so I definitely agree that it has been over-commercialized. Then again, that's how retailers stay in business, right?

I always thought I'd like to be Jewish and celebrate Hannukah--eight days of presents! LOL

Yeah, but remember Hannuka Harry on Saturday Night Live...Might be 8 days of presents, but they're things like socks and underwear. LOL

OMG Kimberley I forgot about that! LOL

Hey girl, just wanna say how awesome you are for standing up for your man. I'd do the same if I were in your shoes! You guys are a perfect match!

I'm very grateful for him. He wasn't real happy that I wrote his cousin - Didn't know I had done it until he replied to Howie. He never replied to me, however. I agree, we are the perfect match. I've got his back and he's got mine.

Tomorrow at Noon I see a chiropractor for a consultation and x-rays. If he thinks this junk with my shoulder and arm is nerve/alignment-related I'll go to him. If he doesn't, I guess I'll see the orthopedic specialist who diagnosed the bursitis in my hips. All I know is, tomorrow's good timing because tonight while scrapbooking, my arm was not only tingly, but also started hurting again. It's the pits and I want to get better. Like right now! Think that's doable?

Hey Kimberley...

I know how the arm thing hurts. I had a rotator cuff injury a couple of months ago.

How much will your insurance cover for chiropractic care? Most of them have a very limited budget for chiropractic. You may end up at the ortho anyway. I hope you figure out what it is soon!

I guess how I see it is that it's not a retail holiday, it's been made into a retail holiday. So for retail to embrace other religious holidays to make them equally as lucrative for retail seems to me not that great an answer either. I don't mean to argue for non-inclusion, my feelings run more along the lines of the spirit that I see this time of year to have (whether you're talking about Ramadan, Hannukah, or Kwanzaa), which to me should outweigh materialism and shopping, stress and debt.

They've been playing the Hannukah song all week on the radio, so funny. What happened with your cousin, Kimberley? Good luck with the treatment, hopefully you'll get relief asap.

Regarding the cousin, see this thread.

Just got back from the chiro - looks like there are some vertebrae out of alignment in my neck, and the nerves which come down from that area go over the shoulders and down the arms. He took x-rays and I'll know more after I see him at 4:45pm, when I go back to his office to go over the x-rays and get an adjustment.

OH man....I miss going to my chiropractor in Indiana....he gave the BEST adjustments! Let us know what your line of treatment will be, Kimberley!

LOVE the Hannukah song, Marge! "Put on your yamulka, it's time for Hannukah...!"

Yes! He can help.

When I went back to see him, I brought in Howie's films because I knew he'd be interested in seeing them. He couldn't believe Howie's still working. He did find the back x-rays and CT scans particularly engrossing -- I kinda figured he would since they're the backbone of his business (snicker).

He showed me the x-rays of my back and said my lumbar spine is too straight, and there's some subluxation of the vertebrae in my neck. There's also some arthritis in a couple of the vertebrae. The numbness and tingling in my right arm comes from the neck vertebrae being all whopper-jawed and he started adjustments on that and the other two problem areas today.

I'll see him two more times this week, then 3x/week for the next two weeks. He's confident I'll find a good bit of relief in the amount of time we have to work with. Thank GOD.

He also was flexible on his fee -- normally he gets $35 a session (yie, 3x/week?), but because of our extenuating circumstances and that I'm self-pay, we worked out a discounted rate. He asked what my co-pay would have been were he on my plan ($25). We worked it out with him offering to take only 2 copays for every 3 adjustments. That's doable, I think. I have to do *something* and this seems like it will help. God bless the guy for working with me on this, I tell ya.

My neck feels much looser after the adjustment, but my mid-back needs some convincing. Owie. I know from previous chiropractic care that it's always darkest before the dawn when it comes to adjustments, and I'm looking forward to getting past the ouchie point and feeling better.

In other news...Still trying to be positive about the whole "lifestyle change" thing. It's been rough going on the weekends and I've not felt very motivated to eat right after the weekend's over. I've not caved the last couple weeks, but the maintains have me bummed. I want ONEderland...But how badly? Tonight I stocked up on a bunch of veggies both cannned, fresh and frozen. I know I'll eat 'em and I know that'll get me back in the mindset I need. It was just easy to get lazy during the busy weeks of entertaining and not feel like doing much food prep.

I might not reach the 15 pounds by Christmas goal, but this train is not derailing!

Good for you! My train has derailed wildly, and I know I need to get back on track, but this honestly seems like the absolute worst time of year to try! Our TOPS meeting for tonight has already been cancelled due to inclement weather--it's supposed to be a messy mix of snow, sleet, and freezing rain for most of the day, and since it's been extremely cold these past couple days, it's expected to freeze on contact with the roads. It's supposed to start around 7-9am (luckily, it's 6:20am now, and I'm already at work), so I'll head home at 3 as usual and just STAY home!

Point being, no TOPS tonight, no TOPS last week, and no TOPS next week since I will be in CT. I considered going to a TOPS group in CT while I was up there, but the closest one meets on Wednesdays, and I won't be there till Thursday, so so much for that!

It's actually surprising me how much the accountability of TOPS has really been helping me, and I guess I didn't know how important it was until it was gone. I had been considering not renewing my membership come March when it expires, but maybe I will just go check out some other area groups to see if I can find a better fit. The ladies in my group are nice, but most only have a few (20 or fewer) pounds to lose, and I'm the youngest member by a landslide (last meeting I went to, I had a lovely conversation with a few ladies about their osteoporosis medications).

In any case, there's no way I'm meeting my 15 pounds by Christmas, but at least I'm still down a bit overall since we started that challenge, so it wasn't for nothing!