Hello dear readers, It’s the day after Thanksgiving. I am feeling grateful for my family, friends, co-workers, physicians, surgeons and nurses who are compassionate. I came through the knee surgery OK. It has been extremely painful. I was pretty miserable Wednesday and Thanksgiving day. Thankfully my mother-in-law, Betty helped me get to the hospital and brought me home. She stayed with me until Emily arrived. Emily spent the night with me and took care my every need until Fred came over to spend the holiday. Emily and Mark went to my in-laws for Thanksgiving dinner and brought leftovers to us.…

It’s official, I’ve lost 31 pounds and have permission to eat table food. I feel like I’m cheating. The nutritionist said I shouldn’t be afraid and that I would get more nutrients from the food than the supplements I’m taking. This is the hard part for me. They say they don’t want us feeling like we are on a diet, but we need to make healthy choices. If I was able to make healthy choices to start with, I wouldn’t need the lab band! My mantra right now is eat the protein first. I am doing that. I’m still not…

I’ve never liked my name, Mary Lu. My whole name is Mary Luella. Put that with the maiden name of Pester and maybe you can see why I didn’t like being Mary Lu Pester. I like the name, Mary. But that name alone seems “prissy” and that isn’t me. I love the name Luella because that was my grandmother’s name. But the Lu alone with the Mary always seemed clunky and chunky to me. I think I turned into my name. Besides Ricky Nelson putting a positive twist on the name, I still never really liked it. When I got…

I’m a very impatient person I think. Today I went to the doctor to see how I’m doing with the band. Well, five more pounds are gone. I’m disappointed. Isn’t that ridiculous? I wanted it to be 10. Logically I know it’s good to lose weight slowly. Steve, the nurse at the doctor’s office, has lost 130 pounds. He had the gastric. He said it takes longer to lose weight with the band, but it’s better for the body – and mind. His surgery was three years ago and he says he still has difficulty when he looks in the…

I got an e-mail today sweetly telling me the person couldn’t wait to see skinny me. Skinny me? Twenty pounds lighter is far, far, from skinny. A lot of people have said things like that to me. Are you skinny now? I wish surgery took it off that easily. I wish the magic wand was waving and I was suddenly skinny. When people look at me now I can see them start at the top and work their way down, or vise versa, to see what’s missing. Then I can see them surmise…..not much. Well shit. Exactly what do they…

This morning I took some new medicine and holy molely it burned my throat bad. I mean literally burned me. I gagged and coughed and poured, swirled better tasting, cooler feeling fluid down my throat – to no avail. The pain was horrendous. It took about 4 hours for it to dissipate, but the remnants remain slightly. I could hardly answer the phone at work. No fun at all. I won’t be taking that again! Gee. On top of that, I ate some real meat today. I went to LaRosas with friend CE and enjoyed 3 meatballs in sauce. Now…

Several people have asked about my husband Mike and how he died. Well, last February I worked with a group of writers, called, Voices of Grace. We each wrote monologues on a topic we thought showed grace. The monologue I wrote was about my love for Mike and how we came to be and how we had to part. We performed our monologues at the Monmouth Theater in Newport, Ky and the Frank Duveneck Arts and Culture Center in Covington, Ky. It was a life altering experience for me. I believe writing this piece helped me move through some of…

Well it happened. I let myself get too hungry before I ate breakfast. I take a pepcid and b-12 vitamin together and I put it in the food. I swallowed too big a bite. DON’T DO THAT. It does make one feel horrible. I thought if I jumped up and down, that might help. It didn’t. I took a very small sip of water (we aren’t suppose to drink when we eat). Thank goodness, it helped. I spent the next 20 minutes worried and miserable. Finally it all went down. Whew! That was scary. Since the surgery I haven’t had…

Today I am allowed to eat soft food. That means I can eat normal food and the list is really long. I’m finding myself afraid of it. I’ve gotten comfortable drinking Carnation Instant Breakfast with protein added in. I know for sure I’m getting the nutrients I need to keep my body running smoothly. It’s easy. I think two fear factors play into this. One, that I’m afraid of eating something without chewing it up enough and getting an obstruction. Second, I’m afraid that I won’t eat enough protein. I am taking two vitamins a day, so I know at…

I had an interesting day today. I’m feeling like Humpty Dumpty. King’s soldiers coming my way. I followed up with the surgeon about my knee. I can’t recall if I’ve mentioned this before, but I have a torn meniscus on the left side of my right knee. The only way to fix it is with surgery. Because of my size, I have to have surgery in the hospital. That’s fine with me. I will feel safer that way. I’ve had a lot of health issues and surgery this year, but I really feel like this is reclaiming myself. I want…