Gone for a while...in one-der-land now!

Hello! I've been gone for a while, and wanted to check back in. Last I posted I was having my left hip replaced, and it went very well!  I am in such less pain and can walk without a cane. I'm even doing stairs. I still have arthritis in my other hip and at least one knee, but the pain reduction is remarkable. As some might remember, my main motivation for doing the gastric bypass was health--because my orthopedic doc needed me to reduce weight to make my hip replacement surgery safer--and so that goal has been firmly met!

Of course there have been many other health benefits, including increased energy and a lower dose of blood pressure meds. And I DID make it into one-der-land! I have about 16 pounds left to the conservative goal I set when I began this journey. It will leave me in the "overweight" category, and if I want to keep losing I can, but I feel comfortable with all the "gains" I have had due to my "losses."

I've been having some episodes of sharp pain at the top of my abdomen, radiating to my back (between/below my shoulder blades), and leaving me in agony for 60 to 90 minutes. No help from Gax-X (and it doesn't feel like gas) or tylenol. All I can do is curl into the fetal position with the hot bag and wait. :-( In any case, I'm not putting off my 1 year check up with my surgeon any longer so I can get that checked out. Might be gallbladder or ulcer, or maybe just something I am eating that I should avoid, although I can't track it to anything specific. I was able to get an appointment for next week.

Okay, that's it for the quick update! Hope everyone is doing well, and happy weekend!

--Karen

P.S. I set a goal for 2014 to read 100 books! I started with this series and really enjoyed it: