Cat Patches: I've Been Featured!

Cat Patches: I've Been Featured!

Finally...........a completed quilt

I finished this quilt this week. It is going to the Squares of Hope group at the church I attend. We make and give out quilts for members or someone they know of who is sick or grieving. The fabric was donated by someone in the church. We have received boxes and boxes of fabric. I chose these five prints that seemed to go together and made this rail fence quilt. The batting was also donated. It's a high loft polyester. Not my favorite because it's hard to sew and work with. But it is warm. And it will comfort someone who needs it and before it is given out our prayer team at the church will pray over it.

Now I have to get back to Bob's (my hubby) quilt. It's a fish quilt that he picked out the kit for at a quilt shop we went to last September. I want to get as much of it done as possible before I start another for the church.

All I have left to do is to make a label for this quilt.

I am feeling much better this week than last. I have started tracking my calories on My Daily Plate or Livestrong.com and my exercise also. Just tracking the food I eat is keeping me on track better than just trying to watch it. It's a simple program to use and it's free. It already had hundreds of foods built into it. We were busy today and when I started to fix dinner our 84 year old neighbor came by and stayed a while chatting with us. By the time she left we were both really hungry so my hubby said "lets just go get something to eat". I really didn't want the temptation of eating out but I agreed. I suggested Carl's Jr since I could get a salad there. I chose their Cranberry, Apple and Walnut Chicken Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette. It was yummy and when I got home I went to their website and checked the calorie content of the salad. It was 318 calorie and the dressing was another 160. Luckily I only used half of the dressing so my dinner was well within my calorie goal for the day. In fact I am still under my 1200 a day goal by 215 calories. I may have a glass of milk or a sugar free popsicle later on.

I watched Jennifer Hudson on Oprah today and she has lost 80 pounds. She looks amazing. She is the new Weight Watchers spokesperson. I'm sure you've all seen her commercials. She had lots of her cousins and other family members on the program with her and they've all done well. In fact I think they said they'd all lost close to 2000 pounds together. Then they gave each of the audience members 3 one year free memberships to WW so they could each give two friends or family members a membership. I thought that was pretty cool. I've never heard of Weight Watchers doing anything like that before.

Monday I took a yoga class at my gym. I usually take a chair yoga class (which is for people who have never done yoga or have limitations or don't want to get up and down off the floor). A new spinning class started during the chair yoga class and I've been taking that. I was missing yoga so I decided to take a regular yoga class. Whew!! It kicked my butt!! I was sore for two days. But I liked it. I plan to take another one tomorrow. I feel so good after the class because of the breathing you do and the gentle stretching of your muscles. You really work up a sweat too. It's strenuous but not like any other workout I've done.

I am getting ready to watch American Idol. Tonight they start in Hollywood with the elimination process.

Not yet.............

I was to go to the doctor on Tuesday for my upper G.I. to determine if my dilated esophagus had healed. The doctors office called me on Monday afternoon to tell me he wouldn't be available on Tuesday and they changed my appointment to Thursday (today). So this morning I went for my upper G.I.. Sadly, the dilation was better but not enough for him to fill my band. He said I would be in the same shape within a few weeks as I was before if he filled it. Now, I have to wait another 3 months. I am so frustrated. I asked him if I had caused this to happen by something I was doing. He said no, it was caused by my band being too tight for too long. I feel as though the last two years have been a total waste of my time with this band. I haven't lost that much weight in the two years due to this particular problem.

The original surgeon I had wasn't knowledgeable enough to take care of my problem (which I believe he caused). First, I think he should have placed a larger band than he did. I have a 4cc band. That doesn't allow much room to adjust. The most my band has had in it is 2.25cc and that was fine for about 6 months until I became so tight I vomited and then it swelled shut and I could barely drink for over a week until I got home from a vacation out of state and he unfilled me and sent me for an upper G.I. He decided to leave me unfilled a couple of weeks and then proceeded to fill me again, rapidly but now I had acid reflux and heartburn and would choke in my sleep. When I went bad to him he shrugged his shoulders and said he didn't know what was causing my problem. He implied that I just wasn't compatible with the band. Then he left the practice and moved to another town. For a few months we had no doctor on staff. A doctor from another town came in once a week and did fills and such. When I saw her she immediately removed my fill and sent me to a gastroenterologist for a scope test. So I was unfilled again. It took me three months to get my appointment. In the meantime, we got our new doctor at the bariatric center and I went back to him after the gastro doctor found no problem such as a slippage or something else. Our current surgeon is a lapband patient himself. When he filled me he wouldn't put as much as I originally had and I only had 2cc in my band. I went this way for about 8 months. I wasn't losing weight after a few months. I kept feeling no restriction plus I had killer acid reflux. I took Prilosec in the morning and at night and still had the reflux and heartburn when I drank water or any kind of drink with citrus in it. Plus, I had to sleep sitting up. I propped pillows behind me so I was almost upright and basically slept on my back.

When I went for my fill last October, my husband wanted me to tell the doctor about my sleeping situation. So, I did. If I laid down flat on the bed I had fluid or food come up into my mouth. I probably should have gone back to the doctor months before and told him what I was experiencing but I guess I was afraid that he would also say that I wasn't compatible with the band.

Now, he is saying if it isn't back to normal after another three months he may have to remove the band. I am so upset by this that I don't know what to do. I feel like a failure. Only I lost 97 pounds in my first year. I feel like now I am going to have to start counting calories again and dieting again after years of failing at that too. I pray that things go well now and I won't have to have my band removed. I am going to start really watching what I eat and continuing my exercise so at least I won't gain any more weight. Am I a failure, or did the doctors fail me? I don't know.

I apologize for going on about this but I want this documented in my blog so I can look back later and have it as my diary. Thank you all for your kind comments since I began this blog.

I am going to the church tonight with my quilt top. I am ready to place the batting and backing with it and quilting it. I am proud to have completed my first quilt top for the Squares of Hope at church.

Catching up...........

We cut our trip a little short only because we missed being at home. Can you imagine? We visited siblings and had great fun with them. Then stopped in Las Vegas on our way back home to meet with some friends from home who were there for the week. We shared dinner and the evening with them. Bob wasn't happy in Las Vegas. It has gotten so overgrown in recent years that the traffic is horrendous and almost every corner has a traffic signal which takes approximately 5 minutes to change. So, you need to plan ahead to get through town or you'll be late for whatever you have planned.



I think he was tired and maybe not feeling too well. I wasn't happy about heading for home but I went along with it for his sake. All in all we did have a good time. Getting home of course is the worst. It means unloading everything from the RV and fortunately the weather here has been wonderful since we've been home. Like spring weather. We've had no rain and sunshine every day. It took me two days to do all the laundry even though I did laundry on the trip. But I washed everything including a couple of quilts we took and rugs.

Now to get back to finishing unfinished quilting projects. I took some with me in the RV but never once touched them on our trip. We didn't have much idle time so it didn't happen. I am ready to sew the blocks together for a rail fence quilt top to be donated to the "Squares of Hope" at church. It will be tied and prayed over and then given to someone who is ill or grieving. It will be my first quilt to be donated to that group. Our group meets on Thursday night so I hope to be able to take it with me this week.

Also, I am back to my gym workouts and that feels good. Tomorrow, I have my appointment with my surgeon to see if my dilated esophagus has healed. They will do another barium swallow (or whatever they use nowadays) to determine this. Hopefully, things are healed so I can get a small fill.

Have a wonderful week everyone.

Wednesday plans

My cellphone says it's 37 degrees at home. Here it is warmer and getting even warmer as the morning progresses because the sun is shining. Yes, it was so nice yesterday and again today is to be sunny and even warmer. It got up to about 59 degrees yesterday, which to some people is cold. To use it is wonderful. We are really enjoying visiting our family. We've done a little shopping and lots of laughing. Today I am going to do a bit of laundry and show my SIL how to make the pillowcases I made. She found some really cute fabric at Walmart the other day when we were there. The Walmart here has a much nicer fabric department than our Walmart does. It should be a fun day. I don't know what my hubby is going to do though. Her hubby has golfing planned. I am sure Bob will find plenty to do. In fact his sister has a list of things she needs him to do. Her hubby isn't very handy around the house. She usually does most of the things but some she can't handle so Bob does them when he is in town. Yesterday she went to the doctor and he gave her the okay to start walking again. She is a little afraid of letting go and walking after 6 weeks of sitting down. So she is using a walker. I am hoping she will only need it for a day or two.

On Friday we are going south and meeting up with one of my brothers and his wife for a couple of days. They are full time rv'ers and he works in an RV park. He is working both days so we'll go shopping or maybe just relax in our RV until he gets off and then catch up with him. Back in September my other two brothers and their wives came to our house for a week and we had a great time reminiscing and laughing and just being together. This brother, my youngest, wasn't able to make it due to his job so I am looking forward to seeing him. It's been two years since we've seen each other.

I walked yesterday morning in the sunshine and it felt so good. I am not sure how far I walked but I walked at a pretty good pace and went around a huge block. It took me 30 minutes. I am going to walk again in a little while.

Monday, Monday

Well, it's the first Monday of 2011. The holidays are all behind us and our futures look bright. Happy New Year to you all. I appreciate all the nice comments you have made on my blog. I feel like I have lots of friends I can share with and confide in on here. So it's back to getting fit for me and no more empty calories. Fortunately, I have still been getting my workouts in.

A couple of days after Christmas we loaded up our motorhome and our cat and dog and headed south. We are going to visit family we haven't seen in a while. Since we left home 7 days ago we've only seen one day of sunshine. In fact the weather has been nicer at home than in "sunny" California. We are in San Luis Obispo now visiting SIL and BIL. It's just starting to get light in the sky and from what I can see there aren't any clouds. Yippee!! We spent New Years Day with the family and had a nice time. Yesterday we did a little shopping and went to a Thai restaurant near here. It was very good. I had a chicken and veggie stir-fry and boy was that yummy. This morning I am going to the YMCA here to get in my workout. I haven't worked out since the day after we left home because it's been raining and I didn't want to go walking in the rain.
Chloe, our pooch has been limping for a few days on her front right leg. From time to time she injures it jumping down off furniture and I didn't bring her medicine (an anti-inflammatory) so the poor thing is just feeling awful. I may take her to a vet today if she doesn't show signs of improvement.
I don't know what is on our agenda for today but whatever it is I think the sun will be shining. That is a good thing. I heard on the news last night that it snowed in Southern California in places that never get snow. Lots of school closures so the kids will be loving it. Especially since today was the first day back to school after the Christmas break.
I have been watching what I eat and am feeling much better than I did in my last post. Hubby and I celebrated our wedding anniversary last week while on the road and we went to dinner and I had a pistachio crusted salmon dish. Oh, that was so good.
I brought my little Singer Featherweight sewing machine and some quilting projects to work on while we are traveling. So far I haven't taken them out though. Well, I am going to dress and go to the Y now. Have a good day all.