WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR FEBRUARY 2014

Isn't that much snow unusual for the pacific north west? I figured you would have more rain than snow. We once had an ice storm and all of our loblolly pines were bent all the way over and the tops touched the ground. We went out and broke off the ice. They straightened up but later died anyway. We were told we should have left them alone. They were such pretty trees.

We spent the night at the lake cabin. When we turned the water on, it barely trickled out of the faucet. After a few minutes we had a good flow, so it must have been frozen up somewhere. Luckily it didn't break. We spent most of the evening upstairs though, because in spite of two space heaters and a fire in the fireplace it was too cold to stay downstairs.

Katla, I mentioned locking Bruno in his crate when I leave home and hubby said "don't you dare!". We searched the pet store for toys to keep him busy but didn't find anything we thought he wouldn't immediately destroy and/or choke on the pieces. This morning I took an empty water bottle and dropped in little pieces of dog biscuits, and he was pretty excited about that. He's been working frantically on it a couple of hours now and I just noticed that the entire neck of the bottle is gone. He must have eaten it, because there are no bits anywhere. I sure hope he doesn't have any tummy troubles because of it. His little guts must be completely full of plastic, rubber, wooden furniture and fiberfill. Little brat. He certainly needs more supervision.

Tomorrow I have to drive myself to Kansas City to the cardiologist. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and the roads won't be too bad. I'm planning to do a little shopping while I'm there without hubby's watchful eyes. Should be fun.

Have a great evening everyone!

Sylvia

Hi everyone,

I've been skimming on and off but hell has broken loose in my family. I finally convinced my stepfather to get my mom to the hospital for a "medical evaluation". My hope was once she was there, he could see how bad off she is and make the hard, but best, choices for her. It is clear to every medical professional that the cancer has progressed, she is dying and needs hospice asap. My poor step father is in denial and has her on a full code!! He is fully prepared to let them put a feeding tube down her poor, frail throat if/when necessary! The only person who might be able to get through to him is her hack oncologist who convinced him her cancer "is not deadly" because the CT FROM 6 WEEKS AGO didn't show any cancer in the liver, spleen, etc. He won't believe any of the trained medical professionals who are telling him that it can and often does change very quickly, sometimes the cancer that is spreading takes longer to show in a CT and that she is not going to get better, she is going to die. I did speak with the on call oncologist from the practice, who looked at her and immediately asked if hospice has been contacted, and he assured me he would be talking with her doctor to get this straight asap. This code status is also preventing her from the pain management she so desperately needs. He also thinks if she cuts back on meds, she will wake up. It's NOT going to happen. She is suffering terribly and when he realizes what he's doing he's not going to be able to forgive himself.
In the meantime, I was only able to get to the hospital early this morning because I can't have my son there with me all day seeing this nightmare and I have no where for him to go.

Since this IS a diet and fitness forum, I do have to say I've been doing a bit of stress eating, I haven't been logging for the past few days but I DID just get off a 2 mile trot on the treadmill...hoping to get my head as straight as possible.

I saw someone asked about breakfasts, my easiest meal of the day. My fave is Fage 0% with Truvia (sometimes honey), cinnamon (lots) and either chopped walnuts or a 1/4 cup low sugar granola. I also slap some crunch PB on a slice of ww bread when I'm in a hurry. I also make no sugar added, low fat pancakes every Sunday and freeze extra for during the week. Oatmeal with chopped nuts or quinoa with a little maple syrup, nuts, etc. Oh, the possibilities....

xoxo
Gloria in Metro Detroit

I have determined that I do not make a good long term hospital visitor. I'm going crazy! It's a silly thing but in my 41 years off marriage, I have never taken the trash out!!!:huh: :laugh: So I will leave tonight in time so that I can do that while it is still light outside. It is still quite icy out there. What will be hard will be taking the bag out of our barrell in the kitchen. I know there is a lot of suction that can build up while you are pulling it out. I told Charlie that if anything ever happens to him that I will buy a much smaller trash can and just use smaller bags and take them out more often. Also Charlie thinks any box has to be taken and broken up into little 1/2 inch pieces!:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: My medicine for my MS came yesterday and it comes in a styrofoam cooler. So he breaks that thing up into piece. Do you know how many little styrofoam pieces go flying when you do that? Well there is no need to do that. The city provides us with these humongous 90 gallon curbside pickup trash barrells. It is quite big enough to handle my bag and a small cooler. But i want to have time to do that while the sun is still out.

I didn't got to church this morning. I will go tonight. I guess tomorrow will be a no show for me at the Y if this new specialist hasn't come in yet. I will not take a risk in missing him.

I sure wish there were two TVs in this room. My husband keeps Fox news on and then drifts off to sleep. if I pick the remote up he wakes up and wants it back on Fox.

Had my first orange in a long time today. They brought him a sack lunch last night when he could finally get up and it had an orange. That is to healthy for him to eat and I ate it today for a snack. He ordered a chef salad in addition to his food for lunch and I ate that. It was a might small salad. I don't like cheese on my salad and took that off so all it was was lettuce, 2 grape tomatoes, a few shreds of carrots and some egg. So that and an orange later have been my lunch.

Joyce, bored in Indiana

I received my Blair Catalog today. I marked all the items I want but I know would not look like that on me. I leave the catalog in the kitchen where I can see it. I am determined buy those nice dresses ( I haven't worn a dress in years, because I look dumpy) and capris by this summer!!!!!:happy:

Ahhhhhh......Gloria, your situation takes me back and I sure know it wasn't simple or easy; and I didn't have a stepfather in the mix. From mid-Jan to the end of Feb. the year my mom died my DD (older than your son, 12 and in 6th grade) did her homework on a nightly basis in the ER, a hospital room, or a room in a rehab center. Then I brought mom back to my home. My mom was 90 and my daughter was 12, it was a nightmare. I felt so guilty and torn---believe me, you have all my respect and long distance support in this.

yanniejannie

Sue in SD: We have digital food scales and also digital human scales. We got both from Amazon based on customer satisfaction ratings. We bought them at different times and I never noticed until just now that they’re from the same company: EatSmart. One is the Eatsmart Precision Pro Digital Kitchen Scale, and the other is a Eatsmart Digital Scale (for weighing yourself.) They can work in English, Metric, and so on. We like both products just fine.:flowerforyou:

Sylvia: Good luck with tomorrow’s drive. If your DH won’t let you put Bruno in the crate, he must be volunteering to supervise. Right?:devil:

Gloria: My heart breaks for you, your mom, and your step dad. I hope her doctor’s colleague gets the necessary changes made for her comfort. Be kind to yourself during this process. :flowerforyou:

Joyce: I’m keeping you and your DH in my prayers. Smwert is right, you also need to take care of yourself.:flowerforyou:



“Oh, the weather outside is frightful… “ I’ve been knitting and watching TV. We got our errands done yesterday and haven’t left home today, although a kind neighbor stopped by to ask if we needed anything. Now that the fun part is over, I want the mess to go away quickly and safely. And while I’m wishing for things, I might as well include health, wealth, and three more wishes. :laugh:

Katla in beautiful NW Oregon

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” Thomas A. Edison


February goals:

1. Log every bite and swallow.
2. Move more: cardio at least 3 days a week and strength training as soon as I am able.
3. Water: According to an article I saw on facebook, drinking water at certain times maximizes its effectiveness for the body. I’ll work toward following these guidelines:
* 2 glasses of water after waking up - helps activate internal organs
* 1 glass of water 30 minutes before a meal - helps digestion
* 1 glass of water before taking a bath - helps lower blood pressure
* 1 glass of water before going to bed - avoids stroke or heart attack

Well my fair ladies, I left the hospital today around 4:30. I have never, ever had to take the trash out!!! We have been married for 42 years and Charlie has always taken care of those things. With just the two of us there isn't as much trash of course but sometimes we have a full trash bag. We buy those big 55 gallon bags. Problem is the suction as you pull this bag out of the trash can. My dear husband seems to think if you have a box, even a box as tiny as a cereal box, it has to be personally torn up in 1/2 inch pieces. Maybe it helps him get his agressions out. I just throw them in the bag. Plus it was going to start snowing again. I had to miss going to church this morning so I wanted to go this evening. I wanted to get the trash put in the big huge 90 gallon city provided barrell before it got dark since the yard is still a sheet of ice with new snow fall on top of it. So I left, got the trash taken care of, piece of cake by the way, pet the cat, warmed my feet up after walking in the snow and decided I was to tired to go back out in even heavier snow to go to church. So I have sat here on the couch and enjoyed my cat and the peace and solitude.

I don't know what is going to happen tomorrow. Who knows, maybe he will go back into a normal rhythm on his own overnight. I doubt it but maybe. One can always hope. But this new doctor will see him, his own cardiologist will see him. The on call guy saw him over the weekend. His doctor, Dr Tat, knows that he had this rhythm after his heart attack and went back in regular rhythm on his own. But this has been 3 days he has been in this instead of just one day the last time. It will still be good to see Dr Tat though. One option is do to a cardioversion which is an electric shock to his heart. Whether they will want to do that, don't know. All I know is I do not want to see the hospital bill. I know how much it was with the heart attack and this has been more detailed this time. I'm not used to one unit being all levels of care. If he had to have open heart surgery he would be in the exact same room! Strange.

I see I am dwelling to much on this and it isn't letting me relax my brain for a good nights sleep so I will sign off for nwo and go back to the Olympics!

Joyce, Indiana

bump -- have had a lovely weekend with gym time, date night w/DH and retail therapy (shoes!) with a good friend.

Gail, metro ATL

Did an hour of Denise Austin's Abs DVD. Tomorrow I'll do a bit of yoga, hold my plank, and then take the extreme pump class.

dh needs me to go to WalMart. He needs milk (it's on sale at Walgreens so I'll take my ad in and they'll price match it). He also needs me to pick up a prescription of his.

Ruth - welcome!

DeeDee - 7 inches of snow!!! I didn't move to NC for this!!!

Alison - hope you get your bureau finished

Linda_Lou - Perdue makes this ground chicken BREAST. I make four patties out of one package and each patty is only something like 90 calories. Sometimes I'll have that for breakfast. Also, sometimes I'll make soup and have that. I know, weird breakfast, but it works. Sometimes I'll have greek yogurt (plain) with a bit of honey or fruit (depends on which I want to use up). Of course, cereal. Tomorrow I'll have cottage cheese and steel cut oats. There have been times when I've fried an egg, had some egg substitute, mixed it all up, fried it, and put it on a whole wheat tortilla.

I was getting a slight headache the past few days so I suspected that my sinuses were a bit inflamed. So I took a decongestant. And, as usual, I was up all night. I did get to see the opening ceremonies for the Olympics, some of the figure skating, 4 TV shows. I got about an hour of sleep. Then this afternoon I took a nap. That's totally normal for me. The good thing when taking this decongestant is that I have no desire to eat, just want to drink like crazy, I get so dry.

Joyce - does your hubby know when he's going into AFib? I would think so. Hope they are able to control this real soon. The times when I've had to go to the hosp. with Vince, I usually take something with me to read, I've even taken my lunchbox with me! It can get soooooo boring just sitting there, waiting, waiting, waiting

julsmil - welcome! You are so right, food logging is so very important

Sylvia - good luck at the cardiologist's. Have fun shopping. Vince refuses to go shopping with me because he knows that I look at everything, try on everything and it just takes so long. He's the kind of person who just walks in the store, gets what he wants, and walks out.

Gloria - what a terrible situation you have. My heart goes out to you. No wonder you're doing stress eating! Good for you exercising. That's a GREAT stress reliever, and you sure can use the relief

ladygw - welcome! I miss my father, too. When he got real sick, we had a lady who would stay with him. She was FANTASTIC, she would cook, even wash his underwear out by hand when he lost control of his bowels, washind all his walls. I did have to go there on the weekends so she could have time with her family, but that was OK.

Carol in NC - you know, since you don't do that very much (fall off the wagon) sometimes it's actually a good thing. I know, that sounds weird. But it actually confuses your body, it doesn't know if it's going to get a lot of calories or not. Don't be surprised if you see a loss.

Michele in NC

Hi ladies - not sure what happened but the weekend has come and gone (again) and I haven't logged in for a few days :embarassed:

Won't have a lot of time this week, I'm working full time as my colleague is on holiday. She's taken lots of books to read because the weather forecast is horrible.

Just realised it's my turn to hold the weekly meeting too, how I hate having to do this - I wish I could either retire or change jobs.

Just wanted to pop in and say Hi

Love to those who are struggling with family life etc. it's not easy.

Take care

Love Viv xx