Surgery, Socialization, and Service

So, I had my plastic surgery consult last summer, and the plan is to wait until next summer to do my tummy tuck and breast lift because I'll (hopefully) be on sabbatical in the fall of 2013 and that will give me months of recovery time. But apparently my husband is tired of hearing me moan about my sad sacks, and has suggested maybe I should look into doing my breasts this year and the tummy tuck next summer as planned (I don't have the money for both this summer, so that's off the table). I'm torn.  My head says wait-- just go through one recovery, one battle with unfilling and then refilling my band, one anasthesia risk, and a saved $1000 by doing them both at once.  It really is the SMARTEST thing to do.  But I'm so so tempted to go ahead and do the girls this summer so I can look at myself in the mirror without shuddering in horror (a slight exaggeration, don't worry about me too much).

Has anyone had a breast lift and want to comment on the process?  Last summer my surgeon said I should be fine with a lift-- I have enough tissue left to not need an implant, but I'm not sure if that is still the case.  My body sure has changed over the year, even if my weight has been fairly stable.

In other news, I am finally being a good dog mommy and taking my 7 year old dog to a training class for socialization issues.  She is sooo anxious around other dogs that she gets anxious-aggression (snapping) and this is my fault for not ever socializing her.  We went to our first class last night and I'm so proud of her.  Man, she was not happy in the beginning, crying at me and jumping on me to try to get me to leave (she is a muscular 55-lb dog), but eventually she calmed down and by the time we got home I could tell she was super-proud of herself. We have three more weeks of classes and after that, the training place lets you come back to the same class for free "refreshers".  My hope is that by the end of the summer when we go on vacation to Florida, I won't have to shut her up in a bedroom when our friends come to our beach house for the weekend with their dog.

Today marks a full-two weeks of me actually getting up every day and going on a walk.  Sometimes I take the pups, and sometimes I go by myself.  I tried to jog yesterday and realized quickly that I'm just not mentally ready for it.  On the one hand, I'm afraid that if I push myself to run too soon (an activity I actually loathe), then I'll just quit everything in order to avoid it.  On the other hand, I just don't feel like walking is a good workout for me anymore and I need to do more to get my heart rate up.  I'm just trying to tell myself it's about the habit for now-- even if all I do is walk all summer, if I do it every day and make it a part of my routine, then who cares if it takes me a while to push myself to do more.  Walking every day is a hell of a lot more than I've done in many many many years.

Right now I'm waiting, for the second day in a row, for the air maintenance person to show up and do the summer service on our central air.  I HATE WAITING ON SERVICE CALLS.  Why the hell can't they make an appointment with me for a time?  Why do I have to sit around my house uselessly for four hours (or more) until they show up?  I understand emergency calls take precedence, but they have my freaking phone number-- would it be so hard to CALL ME???? I don't even want to go lay out by my pool, because I don't want to be in my swimsuit when the dude shows up at my house.  Argh.  *shakes fist in useless frustration*

Happy Long Weekend, U.S. Folks

It's been a while, but I've been thinking of you guys as I just got back from two work trips to Chicago this month and thought. . . . hmmm, I should see when the B.O.O.B.S convention is.  I'm thinking about coming this year-- have I missed out on everyone looking for roommates?

Updates on Me:  I got tenure and was promoted this spring at work, and other than that my life is stagnant.  I'm actually in the midst of a mini-mid-life crisis at the moment for that reason I think.  I'll just throw that out there and then leave it :)  Don't worry, I'm not a downer, just trying to figure out a new goal since my weight and career are check-boxed.

Weight is the same as it has been- steady at 158.  I've accepted it as my maintenance weight and am no longer trying to lose.  I'm not happy about it, but I'm not upset about it either-- it is what it is and it's easy.  Now that I'm not obsessing about losing anymore, I'm finally closer to a steady workout plan (for those of you who don't remember-- I never lose when I exercise--ever) to build up my strength and tone. Part of my mid-life crisis was realizing I need a hobby, so I decided exercise would be a worthwhile one. Who knows, maybe I can channel life angst into exercise fanatacism and actually become fit- ha!

Hi from Me!!!

Today we are off to Atlanta to watch the Cardinals play the Braves.  It's supposed to be hot as hell, but I plan to be a bad bandster and get a cold beer to help me through the heat :)  Hope you all are well and having a good weekend.

Bandster Blogs Are All Grown Up. . . *wipes tear of pride*

Oh Anonymous, flaming poster, you've finally arrived to bandster-blog land, officially annointing us as true Interwebs Members.  We've been accepted into the douchey, flamey, inner-circle.

In all seriousness, it seems there is a little epidemic of nasty Anonymous posters lately.  I'm sorry for those whom Anonymous has struck (I'm assuming it's more than one anonymous), but please don't let it get you down.  It comes with the territory.  Something about social communities where people can "hide" brings out the nastiness, even among people who are normally very nice, and it seems to happen in clusters.

So, keep on posting, sisters, and ignore the nasty.  And if you're considering joining the Anon fray and getting something off your chest, I'd urge you to reconsider whether that's really the person you want to be, because we may not know who you are, but you know. 

Exercise Blows

Argh!  I hate it that every time I start exercising, my scale immediately jumps up (um, like 5 lbs).  I KNOW it is water weight, but knowing it doesn't make me any happier.  It's the anti-incentive for a behavior that I NEED to see payoff to continue.

Moral of the story?  Yes, I'm not going to Body Pump tonight because my scale is a whore and my body hates exercise.  We'll see if I can do better tomorrow.

(At the very very least, I took the dogs for a walk today so I'm not a complete potato).

Doggie Trauma!

So you all know we have two dogs that are our "kids".  They are both 6 years old and have been out of their crates for over 4 years now.

Yesterday I left home for my WW meeting, and my husband got home about an hour later.  He walked in to blood EVERYWHERE-- all of the floor, smeared all over the wall and the big blonde dog. He can't find our other dog.  He's panicked and calls me.  I panic and rush home.

Well, it turns out that one of them pulled four art-pottery bowls from Fantoni off of the sofa table, and then they proceeded to EAT ONE ENTIRELY (it has disappeared), break one and gnaw the leather off of the back (this one is in shards and marked with blood-- it seems to be the source of the murder-scene), chew the ends on a third, and eat the leather off the bottom of the fourth.

This is what the bowls look like.  The one that was entirely eaten was a bit smaller- maybe 2x2 inches.

Edited to Add:  The Actual Remains (RIP)

So we find the missing dog (she was hiding, imagine that), stop the blood flow on the other (his paws and later, his mouth).  Knowing my dogs, I just KNOW that the one who is bleeding wasn't the one who ate the bowl-- it had to be the other one.  She eats things.  When she was a puppy, she ate an entire black "tough chewer" kong.  Not chewed it to pieces, I mean ingested the whole thing (the blowout when it came back up was not pretty).  So in spite of the evidence, I drive her an hour away to the nearest open vet.  She gets X-rayed and it looks clean-- like, at least she chewed it well before swallowing any large potentially hazardous shards.

The vet looks at me like I'm an idiot when I say that the other dog was bleeding from the mouth and I didn't bring HIM.  I was just so convinced because he does not and has never chewed or eaten a non-food item, ever, and Maddy is known for it (rubber kong, tree branches, a huge patch of carpet, dog beds, any piece of paper or cardboard she can get her mouth on, and recently, a brand new tampon that she took from my purse and managed to unwrap neatly, gnaw the plastic away, and then eat the cotton).  If one of my dogs is going to devour a CERAMIC BOWL, it's going to be her.

So anyway, today I'm on big blonde watch because the vet said he'd probably pass anything he ingested without a problem because of his size (he's 125lbs, giant breed), and if he had problems I would see some sign.

We have puzzled this event through.  WHY would they do this now?  They have been acting up lately-- last week an entire loaf of french bread disappeared from the counter, paper wrapping and all.  That wasn't tough to figure out-- big blonde can definitely pull things off counters and he LOVES bread.  Then yesterday we come home to a paper shredded mess in the basement, where some of our stacked bills/etc. waiting for filing had been pulled off the desk and chewed.  Again, Maddy got blamed for that given her love of paper even though she hasn't ever pulled something off a table or counter.  But POTTERY?  Old, Italian pottery (ahem, also it should be noted EXPENSIVE collector piece pottery) that I've had in that exact spot for years?

It appears we have a dog that has developed separation anxiety at age 6.  And he's a big blonde dog that is a Mama's boy.  ARGH.


Ok, in other news:  Does anyone know if you can record a video on your iPad and post it to blogger or somewhere online.  If so, how?  I can't figure it out.

Happy Friday!

Peace

Happy MLK Day.  I hope we can all remember that the struggle for equality in this world will never end, but it's an important fight.  The world today is a better place because of King and others like him.  At the very least, I hope you enjoyed a day off from work :)

I did a BodyPump class this morning and I have been exhausted all day.  I am weak as a kitten, y'all. But I liked it and I think I'll go again later this week.  I did BodyFlow on Saturday and it was ok-- I like hot yoga a lot better, but this is closer to my house, cheaper, and it will work for improving my flexibility and general stretching which is what I want it for.  I've discovered that I have weak/tight hip flexors that cause me a lot of grief when I do any moderate level of cardio, so I'm going to focus on some strength and flexibility training for a bit before trying to push the cardio.  It's so hard for me to get into an exercise routine anyway-- add in a lot of hip pain and I know I just won't ever make it happen so I'm trying to work around it.

Seriously, I am pooped.  I thought exercise was supposed to GIVE you energy.  I call foul on that one.

No New is Good News?

Saw my band doc yesterday for about 5 minutes.  No fill or unfill-- we're in "wait and see" mode.  Ugh.

He posited a guess that I've had some diaphragm adhesions develop post-surgery and that the pain will go away in time.  Apparently, nothing concerning in my abdomen came up in the CT scan and he doesn't seem inclined to follow up with other tests.  I guess that's fine with me, but I wish I had a more definite answer.  In any case, I'm happy that he wasn't alarmed by my report.  I go back in 6 weeks to check back in and (cross my fingers) get a teensy tiny fill.  I am ready to make some progress again.

Ok, now for another health concern (I swear, I am not normally a hypochondriac!)  Does anyone else have hypertension?  I have NEVER had high blood pressure, but my last three readings over the past week were all high (155/88)!  How does someone go from 293 lbs to 160 lbs and develop high blood pressure AFTER losing the weight?  It's so completely bizarre.  I don't smoke, and I weigh less and am more active than I've been since I was a teenager! Based on some reading I've done, I think I'm going to take the next 6 weeks to my next appt and see if I can lower it without medication by decreasing caffeine and alcohol and increasing my exercise.  My hope is it's just a stress-blip, but who the heck knows.  If it's not back to normal in 6 weeks, I'll go to my PCP and talk medication.  I'd love to hear from anyone who deals with this--what are the implications of managing it with medication?

The good news is that I'm in a size 8 now, wonder of wonders.  It's pretty insane how I haven't lost any weight in months, yet I'm still going down in size.  I love this band, pain or no pain!