Goodbye, Grandma

Howdy, my dear friends!  I'm so sorry I haven't been blogging much this week, I just wanted to spend all available time that I could with my grandma before she departed for College Station, TX on Wednesday morning.  I had my psychological evaluation for the bariatric surgery right when her flight was due to leave, so I thank my in-laws very much for taking her to the airport and making sure she got her wheelchair in prompt enough time!! 

I said good-bye (I HATE that word!) to her before my husband and I went out to Gilbert for my appointment.  I gave her a great big hug to get me through the lonely times when I see her again.  Is there really a big enough hug for that?  All I know is, I had the time of my life with her.  Jack did, too.  He sniffed her WHOLE luggage out; I guess he is practicing to be a feline drug sniffing agent.  :0)  Frankie had fun, too.  We sure will miss her - I will miss being called my mom's name for sure....it almost made it like she was with us somehow by saying her name a lot.  I know....I'm very nostalgic!!!

Anyway, my pysch eval when OK.  It showed I am indeed SANE...in case anyone had any doubt.  :0)  I met some really nice folks over there, too who are just like me....very heavy in search of some weight loss help.  We are done with our dieting screw-ups and are hoping to find the answer under the knife.  The psychologist was very nice and she asked me all kinds of questions about my past life and we figured out right away that my stumbling blocks to keeping weight OFF was stress and my ability to cope with stress.  So that is where the support groups come in handy. And I just need to find a different comfort than food.  Easier said, than done!!!  But I will do it this time.  What is different is that I will remember the pain very well this time.  I didn't have pain when I lost weight in high school or college.  NOW I have LOTS of pain, and a lot of it due to being morbidly obese.  (Another word I HATE!!) My poor back and legs are taking a beating and I will definitely remember that for the rest of my life.    Anyway, she said at the end of the interview that I would make a good candidate for the surgery.  Her only concern was post op pain management when I got home.  Because my body is soooo used to narcotics, I need a larger amount than those that don't take narcotics.  My body is now physically dependent on them and she doesn't want me going through withdrawal on top of post op pain!!!  Nice woman.....I totally agree!!!  So I definitely will have a conversation with the doctor about that.

I hope you all are doing well.  My lower back is KILLING me.  Santa was nice and brought me a heated back massager mat, so I need to lay on that again.  Pains are shooting down my legs and I'm about to scream!!  The weather here is nasty....we had quite the storm last night with real live thunder and lightening!  And today, it's only 45 out.  I know, I know.  For my friends and family living back East, you really don't sympathize with me.  :0) I never did, either, when my grandma would call from Yuma, AZ to our snowy home in Michigan and say...."I've got my shorts on.  It's only 60 here!"  But when you live in AZ long enough, your blood thins and you get cold at anything below 60.  What can I say?!  Now I know what she meant when she said ONLY 60.......

Today is the LAST day FOR THE CHOCOLATE GIVE-AWAY.  Please see my post in the December archives that says "ANOTHER GIVEAWAY"  and enter it on that post ONLY.  I don't have a lot of people signed up for it....what, nobody likes chocolate anymore?  If I had my way, I'd sign up 5 times and win all 5 spots....but I can't do that.  So I have to live vicariously through my friends....PLEASE SIGN UP!!!  :0)

Have a great night and I will post winners tomorrow.
Stay warm, everyone!!

God bless you all

PS....In a very near future post I will tell you the story of about how I fired my Social Security Disability lawyer this past week.....so stay tuned!!