Hi! I am Dianne

diannemcal

Last night I was looking at this and I saw all the introductions from everybody and today I can't find them for some reason ... so I will just introduce myself here.

I guess I'm the grandma of the group. I am 61 years old. 3 kids ... 7 grandchildren! I have had serious health issues since I was 15. Last year was among my toughest. For about 10 months I found I got short of breath with the slightest exertion. I finally ended up presenting with diverticulitis and went to the hospital. We found out I had to strep in my blood and it had attacked my heart. I had a large growth coming out of the aortic valve. It took them a month to get the disease under control and to get me to a place where I could go in for surgery. On September 2nd of last year I had my aortic valve removed and had a metal one put in its place. It was a very long recovery process but I am finally back at the gym. Weight loss is extremely slow for me at this point. I lost 20 pounds during the process of being sick and I have maintained that loss but I can't seem to get the scale to budge. I take 6 different medications ... morning and night and I suspect that is not helping since so many of them target keeping my heart beat slow.

I love this community and being in league with so many that are fighting the same battle. I could definitely use some encouragement as it gets somewhat discouraging when you're tracking your meals and going to the gym and working as hard as you can and the scale isn't moving. I know there are other health benefits other than that number and I'm going to keep at it but I sure appreciate all of you and being a part of this community. Have a great day everyone.