Well today was EGD procedure day before the big surgery tomorrow.
Everything went well and I got lots of sugar free liquids, jello, broths, etc to get me through the next few weeks on a liquid diet.
My todays start weight is 222. When I started my liquid diet one week ago I was at 229. That was a little nugget of motivation.
This past week I began my bariatric journey. I haven’t kept it a secret but I don’t tell anyone just in conversation either. Those closest to me of course know and have been a strong support system and I know they will continue to do so. I have been in a Facebook group for several months now and it has helped so much. Reading other peoples journey and following their success stories is good for the mind.
Of course it’s gonna be hard, I have no doubts about that, but it is a life style change that I pray every single day will help me with my over all health issues. So far, I have not been to nervous about it, I am just ready to get it done so my healing can begin. I have done my liquid diet for 7 full days now and I’ve already dropped 4 lbs so that’s encouraging leading into the days ahead. Tomorrow I go in to do an EGD, after goin in to see my Dr for pre op, then Wednesday is my gastric bypass procedure.
I am so ready to lose the weight and feel 100% better! All prayers for success are coveted and appreciated.
This is what happens for me after an evening of enjoyment.
I feel like an old lady… 😂
Met some family for dinner and I think the chair I used hates me! Back is not good today.
When I wake up feeling exhausted from a good nights sleep, I know what kinda day my body is going to have. I just want to climb back in bed and sleep it off but duty calls. I will go to work anyway with affirmation of thankfulness and joy to be alive to feel the pain.
Thank you Jesus for giving me another day to live for you and share you with others.
Having had 3 flare ups already this month, I knew when I woke up that morning it was going to be an RA/Fibro flare kinda day but this has been the worst one yet. For what ever reason, flares are happening more often than what I’m used to. My daily meds aren’t seeming to help much anymore. 🤔
When my alarm went off to begin my work day, I could barely roll over to even hit the snooze button. After snoozing a few times I managed to get myself up enough to sit up on the side of my bed to wake my body up completely. I do this every single morning but this particular morning the “stiffness” was so intense that my body felt as if it had been injected with the thickness of molasses or something. My body seemed so heavy that the movement seemed to me as if I was moving in slow motion. It was like watching a turtle cross the road and impatiently waiting as to not kill the poor thing from trying to hurry it along. The pain radiated from each movement and felt like the heat coming off of an intense fire was racing through my joints. I knew I needed a hot shower to help get me moving a bit better or I wasn’t gonna be able to even get dressed. Usually a hot shower feels good and will loosen my joints up enough to move but that morning the shower didn’t even help me like it normally does. Not wanting to allow my body to control my day, I got dressed and went off to work pushing through the intense pain. Typically putting my mind to work offsets the miserable feeling that’s happening within my body that is unexplainable to others.
We all take a day off to play hooky once in a while. Those days are enjoyable right!?! But to take a day off or have to leave early because my body is not lining up with what my mind wants it to do is down right aggravating. I don’t like having to miss work, especially for reasons beyond my control such as a stupid flare up.
Eventually I did make it to work and wasn’t late by the 8 a m standard. However, I felt late because I am always there early to get logged into my stuff and be ready to work at 8 a m. As the day progressed, I got worse. I was beginning to convince myself that I had picked up a bug or something. I just wasn’t able to function like how a “normal” RA/Fibro day goes for me. I had eaten breakfast and it didn’t bother me but by lunch time, I was afraid to even eat because of how I felt. My stomach was so queasy that I just didn’t want to take any chances. I hate to throw up!
As the day went on, my stomach felt more and more queasy and I began to get a mild headache from the nausea. Eventually, around 1:30, I ran to the bathroom and vomited. I felt some what better. So I thought okay, now I am good. Well it didn’t last long. I tried to stay at work to keep my mind occupied and off of the pain. Finally, around 3 I felt like I was gonna puke again so I decided it best to journey home and try to just sleep it off. After about 20 minutes of driving, takes me 35 minutes to get home, I wound up pulling over and got sick on the side of the road. Once I did make it home, I laid down and slept for almost two hour. When I woke up, I was fine. I was back to my “normal” every day pain levels. The nausea was gone, no headache, I had some energy, I could maneuver my body and I knew that flare up had passed. I was able to eat supper and everything.
That’s the worst flare up I’ve had to date. My first time to actually vomit from one.
Thankfully I am blessed enough to have some amazing co workers that refuse to let me allow myself to go down a “whoa is me”, staying mad at myself for such stupidity type of a rabbit hole. They can tell when I need help and I won’t even have to ask. They just help me. I couldn’t have asked for better co workers in my life.
Anyone living with Rheumatoid Arthritis, especially with the Fibromyalgia crap too, can relate to these types of flares. Being tired for us isn’t just the tired someone feels from a long sleepless night or a long hard days work, it is down right debilitating fatigue to the point of our mind is in a fog and our body just doesn’t work correctly. We forget, get confused, and totally go blank even on the easy stuff that just comes naturally to us on our “normal” days. We just want to sleep 🛌! Plus sleeping helps us to not feel the pain.
During such flare days, I won’t even recognize that I need help most times but those that I am around the most can tell when I’m just not being myself. My husband especially. He is my rock star! I could NOT make it through this disease without such help from him and those people around me that just know, especially when the brain fog is so horrible that I don’t even recognize how “off” my day is going, that I need help to make it through my day. They never ask what can they do, they just do!
I hate this disease and what’s happening to my body and mind that is beyond my control but I do love my life and those that God has placed in it. I would never want to do this life alone.
Thank you to those that just know. I am so grateful and love each of you beyond measure!
In light of the year it’s been, this Thanksgiving’s “thankful for’s” could be very different from years past. I know mine is but in everything we are to be thankful.
“Rejoice always and delight in your faith; be unceasing and persistent in prayer; in every situation [no matter what the circumstances] be thankful and continually give thanks to God; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 AMP
Scripture tells us that Jesus will have a second coming and that we should be prepared for that day, every day, because we do not know the day nor the hour of His return.
“But of that [exact] day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son [in His humanity], but the Father alone. For the coming of the Son of Man (the Messiah) will be just like the days of Noah.”
Matthew 24:36-37 AMP
So for 2020’s world changing year, I am thankful that Jesus has given me a second (multiple) chance (chances) to get my affairs in order. While I am saved, this trying year has taught me that I need to prepare more than ever for Jesus’ return. Some things I thought were important to me aren’t as important as I thought while other things I thought weren’t so important are very important. Thank you Jesus for never giving up on me!
So, what are you thankful for this year? Comment below…
Well I’ve had another rest from blogging, and other stuff, as I’m sure y’all that follow me have noticed.
I never know when I will feel good and when I will feel awful due to this chronic pain I live with. Let’s just say that I’ve had more down days than up lately for a number of reasons. I pray to be on the track to feeling good for more than a couple days at a time now. I just never know what each day holds for me until I begin it.
I have found myself cancelling things and saying no more than ever, even when I really want to. I apologize more than ever because I just can’t!! I hate the hold this autoimmune disease has over me. It isn’t just one thing. I have a number of things that taunt me daily.
So many say there “well just do this” or “have you tried…” and “I know that feeling” when really they don’t have a clue! I don’t even try to explain anymore I just say “thanks for that advice” or “I’ll try that” just to move the conversation on from even talking about it any further. Most days I just want to scream but even that’s to exhausting. 😂
Any-who, enough about that!!
Pray for me and my husband! Say a special prayer for those not even in my life these days, whether they’ve chosen to walk away or I’ve just distanced myself from them, to love me through it anyway.
Good night world! May God hold your hand through the hard times just as He does for me because without God, I probably wouldn’t even be here. 💕
Kelly Clarkson sings a song called “Broken and Beautiful” and it is so relatable for me because I feel so broken, most days, these days BUT GOD and loved ones y’all; right!?!
I live with lots of chronic pain in my entire body, due to a few medical issues, that causes me to live with so much pain around the clock. Some days it’s “hide-ably” tolerable and some days it hurts to just wake up! Lots of days, I just wanna sleep and not wake up until the pain hurts no more.
So many Dr’s!!!!! So many surgeries!!!!! So many “Let’s Try This!” So many “Lets Run This Test.” So many “Xrays and blood work!” So many unknowns but let’s keep seeking for answers until I am so sick of it all!!!!!😫
My most recent surgery, just 5 weeks ago, was for them to put in a nerve stimulator implant in my back. For those that don’t know what that is, it’s a machine that’s basically an internal Tens Unit that blocks the nerve signals that go to my brain telling my brain that I feel pain. While it has helped, it’s not as helpful as we’d hoped. I would say it’s helped by maybe 30% when it’s turned on.
As I type this, it’s 2:20 A M and I can’t sleep. And since I’m awake, I feel the aches and burns going on through out my entire body. In my shoulders, arms and hands I feel aches, throbs, burns, down to my finger bones hurting so bad at times that I just shake them off and hang them down to my sides for a few seconds of that momentary cold sensational relief. Some times I just wanna take em off and set em aside for a bit, swap em out with another pair, massage them momentarily, just something for some kind of relief! This is not what the stimulator is for, that’s for my feet, legs, lower back, and hip pain (which didn’t help my left hip much at all). To be fair though, I rarely mention my shoulders, hands, and arm pains at all because there’s so much other crap that hurts way worse.
I don’t know how to explain it, all I can say is I just HURT ALL OVER and I don’t know why. I don’t know how to explain it. I don’t want sympathy. I don’t want more freaking medicine. I don’t want another dang surgery. I rarely even want to be touched but I don’t want to be rude. I don’t want to seem mean to any one. I don’t want to hurt anyones feelings. I don’t want to hurt anymore PERIOD! So, to avoid things in this paragraph, I stay home a lot more.
So much of this unexplainable pain just makes me so danged irritable at times. I have gotten to where I just avoid being around people and certain situations all together. I rarely get out and about by myself anymore because I never know from moment to moment what I’m going to be able to tolerate because the pain changes from day to day through out each and every single day. Simply put; I just hurt and I don’t want it to become an excuse for any thing in my life but it’s very debilitating at times. Thankfully though the migraines have almost completely stopped since my neck surgery was done in December of last year. So that’s a positive praise! Thank you Jesus!
I just simply have “unexplainable chronic pain” that’s un-relatable to anyone and everyone around me therefore it’s hard for you to understand. Just know that some days are good days for me and some days are bad but more often than not I just “fake the smiles” to make it through the day with as little complaining as possible because I don’t want to be a burdensome person to anyone. However, I do love deeply and I want y’all to know that I truly appreciate ALL of the prayers and support from you all! I feel ya 🤟♥️
To those of you that do show me true genuine love and support (not just when ya want something) through all of the “maybe this’ll help” processes that I continue to go through to find relief, I love you from the depth of my being and I apologize for not being able to physically help any of you but I do pray that I’m there for you, as you are for me, to the best of my abilities because without God and y’all I don’t know how I’d cope with this life.
So thanks for just being your true selves y’all 😊 #ILYMTTYBLTT❤️
When we take our eyes off Jesus and focus on self, most of this worldly pain is unbearable.
We must continue the path that God has us on because only He knows the lessons we are to learn and the many lives that’ll be touched by our obedience to Him.
Pain hurts, no matter the reasoning! The lack of understanding that we have toward said pain is why we begin to question God and what He’s allowing to take place in our lives. It’s not until we begin to fully trust Him that the pain becomes tolerable.
Keep your eyes off the world! Stay true to who you are in Christ! While things won’t always make sense, it’ll always be worth it because there’s always life lessons to learn that’ll strengthen our trust and faith in Jesus.
My morning started off pretty good. My husband and I got up and prepared to head out for the hour and a half trip to see my Rheumatologist but we were quickly halted when my husband found that our water heater had been leaking. Thankfully he seen it before we had a complete mess on our hands. The drain pan was almost to the rim full of water. It would not have made it another week until he got back so, after a few calls, he got in touch with a plumber that could replace it TODAY! WooHoo, thank ya Lord! So we gather what info we need from the old one in order to buy a new one.
We finish getting ready to go and head out.
Next stop, Dr office.
That appointment was also a frustrating ordeal. First my husband wasn’t allowed to even go inside with me, due to this covid19 crap, then the lab tech chased a vein in my right arm for a good five minutes before deciding to try my left arm for a good vein. Of course she got it the first stick only for something goofy to happen and her wind up having to chase that vein too for some reason. BUT she was finally able to get her three tubes of blood from that arm so that’s good. The tech was very nice and apologetic during it all, which I greatly appreciated, so that was helpful in keeping my frustration at a minimal. I even told her it was fine, no need to apologize because it just happens that way some times and she appreciated my understanding.
Next stop is Lowe’s for our brand new water heater. So thankful that we had the means necessary in order to purchase a new one but this too took longer than expected. The gentleman that helped us was very nice and LOVED to chit chat. After finally getting what we needed the nice gentleman even helped my husband get it outside and into the back of our pick up.
So, off we go for our journey back home because the plumber we were able to get in touch with will have his “hands” to meet us there. Once the two gentlemen got the tank drained and outside, they began the install of the new one. BUT, you guessed it, they have some unexpected issues with the install and it is now going to take way longer than expected to complete the job.
Thankfully, once they are complete and outta here, all is well once again.
UNTIL it isn’t.
As I began to clean up the mess, not a big one, left behind from the job that has taken several hours to complete, I find that the new water heater is now leaking. I call the plumber and after a few “discussions” on a few different calls, we both agree that it’ll be fine to wait til morning for them to come back and see what’s happening now.
So my husband is back where he needs to be for work and I am off to bed to begin my morning in the morning, once more, with the water heater situation.
Moral of this story you may ask……..I just felt like sharing part of my very frustrating day with y’all and also to share that SATAN DID NOT WIN TODAY!!
I’m now off to lay my frustrations down at the feet of Jesus and have a great night of peaceful rest in spite of my frustrating day.
Hopefully y’all can do the same and have a good night!
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Another rough day of pain. Ugh!! So over this flare up.
My BFF sent me this picture and it is so true! She truly gets me and there are no words to explain how much I appreciate and love her.
After day 4 (today) of this particular flare up and struggling to even get something accomplished (read My Office post), I’m so exhausted! My body is so tired and not like a normal “oh I’m tired”, it’s like an “I’m so tired I can’t see straight nor walk right kinda tired”. I feel like every bone and muscle I have is aching and burning and my skin tingles when someone just touches me. My head feels I can feel every single strand of hair and they hurt. I hate so many things about myself, especially my body, these days. But God right!?! If I didn’t have God to lean on and carry me on the days I can’t carry my own weight around, I honestly don’t know what I’d do with myself. Also, I am so thankful for my husband y’all! He does everything he can to help me. He tries so hard to ease my pain but nothing truly helps. It just has to run its course.
It’s so hard to explain so that others can have some kind of understanding of my misery. No one sees my “behind closed doors” struggles, I make sure of that. The two people I can’t hide from are God and my husband, they see it all, and they help me more than any others could. I rely on them for everything. Thank you Lord for your strength and mercy. Thank you David for loving me through it all.
As I type this, I realize that I really am very blessed! Way to blessed to stress over all of this pain. It’s nothing compared to what Jesus went through. Thank you Lord God for giving us Your Son on that cross to take our sins and fill us with The Holy Spirit once we give our life over to You. Thank you for helping me live in this pain every single day. I look so forward to my life in Heaven with You Lord.
Good night y’all. May God bless each and every one of you as He has me.
A well explained way of my daily life with the issues I live with. Take the time to watch this and maybe it’ll help you to understand…..
Today……………………………………………it hurts to breathe.
Anyone else?
For me, my chronic pain feels like this gorgeous picture appears to me in my mind. I can see the beautiful mountain as it is so disguised by the tons of cold snow that lay at rest on it. But we know the snow will come and go with the seasons as does the enhancement of my pain.
I can disguise my body raging with pain just as the snow is disguising the mountain in the photo. I can almost feel my pain level rising just from the mass of cold air I imagine is blowing as I look at this picture. Such cold air, while the view may be beautiful, only enhances my chronic pain yet I will disguise it to others as they look upon me and my life just as this photo has disguised the dirt that lies beneath the snow.
The nerves and joints in my body are covered with mounds of pain, such as the snow in the picture. As the pain slowly goes down the insides of my body, just as the snow falls down the mountain side, it hits every angle of sharpness on its way down. It feels like I can literally feel every sharp and dull pain it encounters as it is falling.
I see the imagine come alive inside my mind as each tumble of snow breaks apart into more and more flakes of snow before it winds up into the icy cold waters below and is melted until all of the snow has completely been melted off of the mountain; such as each pain flows down my body until the next one is felt. Once it hits the “waters” it’s melted so that that particular feeling of pain is gone only to feel the weight from tons of more pain that was left behind.
When will the entire snow in this shot, that is frozen in time, fully melt? When the seasons change as each year passes until God returns to claim His possession that He created.
When will my pain be completely gone in this life? Only when God returns to claim His possession that He created.
Until then my Father…………………..
Have you ever really in truly thought about what you put into your body? Me neither! Well today I had an awakening, more than before, to pay even more attention to that very thing.
I have some health concerns that, to me, aren’t really “concerns” but rather just a daily reminder that I have issues from never having a day free from pain. I stay in pain twenty four / seven due to them, but the one I want to talk about today is the fact that I suffer from fibromyalgia.
Now, for those of you that do not know what that is: MayoClinic.org explains it this way; Fibromyalgia is a disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain accompanied by fatigue, sleep, memory and mood issues. Researchers believe that fibromyalgia amplifies painful sensations by affecting the way your brain processes pain signals. Having said that, I take medicine daily for the many different pains I live with. Occasionally though, I will have what is known as a “flare”. A flare is when symptoms intensify without warning and can last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. One just never knows when it will come on or even how long it might last.
Having said all of that, I wanted to blog about it because I watched a YouTube video today that shed some light on the subject for me that I had never seen before. It taught me that someone with fibromyalgia that consumes foods with copper should not do so. Copper, in anything if ingested, can have lots of repercussions for someone with fibromayalgia. We can receive significant pain from it.
First of all, I had no clue that copper was even found in foods, vitamins, and even in our water. What!?! So I did what anyone that had just learned something new would do, I googled it. It gave me a list of the top ten foods to avoid that contain copper and wouldn’t you know some of those foods would be my FAVORITES to eat!?! For instance, DARK CHOCOLATE contains copper…..no way! Another one of my faves is CRAB LEGS! It also stated that pork of any kind contains copper. NOT MY BACON!!!! Anything processed or containing something from the intestinal parts of an animal, such as liver, gizzard, etc., will contain copper.
I might as well just stop eating all together and just live on protein drinks, chips, and Dr. Pepper!! I mean just about everything I eat isn’t good for me now a days any way right, especially now that I know about this new found copper knowledge.
Anywho, now that I have learned to pay closer attention to things I consume for an ingredient known as copper, I will be checking all the labels as I go. But the one thing I refuse to give up is my Dr. Pepper a day. I will consume that until the day I die or I can not lift the can myself anymore. But wait, that’s when a straw will come in handy…LOL!
Life and Love 