Encouragement Along the Way - Show and Tell friday with CanadaGirl Shrinking

Encouragement Along the Way

Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together.

Psalm 34:3

Sep. 19, 2008

Show and Tell friday with CanadaGirl Shrinking

I was thinking about what to share today for Show and Tell with CanadaGirl. Since I shared Tirzah's trip on Tuesday HERE, I figured I would share a LITTLE bit of me.

Over the years, I have been struggling with my weight. But none were as dofficult as when I was first diagnosised with Arthritis until my surgery. I had mentioned before that doctors would tell me I needed to exercise. In Maryland I even bought an exercise bike. I could manage about 4 minutes on it at the most. The pain was unbearable. To top it all off, I had a cough that wouldn't go away.For years doctors tried to figure out what was causing it... Medication interaction? Allergies??? You name it they discussed it and I coughed. For eight years and a number of doctors I coughed.

By my 50th Birthday I was really hurting. Still coughing, still gaining weight, and my knees were killing me. Everyone would say "if you would loose the weight your knees wouldn't hurt." But The truth is my knees were shot and the edema was so painful. Loosing the weight would not create absense of pain.

This year my doctor finally said..."you have congestive heart disease!" The cough is because you are drowning. The edema in your legs has gone to your lungs. How much water do you drink?" Well for me, water was what I did. I mean the more water you drink the less you eat the healthier you are, right??? WRONG! I was drinking my gallon of water a day and it was going to my lungs. So he doubled my lasik and cut my fluids to a quart a day. I lost 20 lbs in two weeks! Here I lost an additional 15 pounds at my sisters running around with her and doing water aerobics with her. Yet I would look in the mirror and see no change at all and no one else could either. 35 pounds and no one knew.

After I had my knee surgery I had to do all this Physical therapy to strengthen it and teach it to work. No one told me that the joy of the absence of pain, and the need to work my knee would bring about more weight loss. By the time we went away for our anniversary last month I had lost 75 pounds this year. Now they are beginning to notice.

I would add a picture from today, but my daughter has my camera. So the one above is my most current photo. So there is the tale of the Incredible Shrinking Bubbe! Loosing the weight has not stopped my other knee from hurting, it will still need replacing, but exercising has strengthen the muscles around it and I think it will help with the rehab next time. Atleast my shoulders won't hurt as bad as they did using my walker with the first knee replacement. And this week I hit the 1000 meter mark in five minutes on the rowing machine! I was so stoked!

I was "given" a Nordic Track Treadmill the other day. A friend of my daughter's had one taking up space in her garage and figured I could use it! So cool! She also gave me an elipitical but it is still to jarring on my knee, I will use the one at the therapist for now. What a blessing. I may not have to wait til spring to get my other knee replaced after all.

That is my Show and Tell this week. The Incredible Shrinking bubbe! Canada Girl hosts this every week. It is one of te best ways to see what other families are doing this week. Besides it is a wonderful way just to say HI to Canadagirl which is my favorite thing!

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Comments

Sep. 19, 2008 - I'm so glad you said something....

Posted by short

for some people it is NOT healthy to have so much liquid. It is good to watch animals sometimes. If they are thirsty they drink. If they are HOT, they pant. Too often, we drink when we are hot. Sometimes we even drink beverages with lots of sugar in them. This makes us more thirsty. So we drink more and the cycle repeats.... sigh....
I am so impressed with your progress. You are looking great!