ifyourstomachoffendsyou

Julie, happy bandiversary. Countdown to Mayo! Melissa, so glad you're making plans. Beautiful day here. 80 degrees and not humid. (For IL) We went to a place called the Shrine of Christ's Passion in Shererville IN. They had lifesize bronze representations of the stations of the cross with Bill Curtiss doing commentary. Outdoor walk. I don't find these things a spiritually powerful as many people do. Music and worship move me more. But it was still interesting and quite well done. I'm averaging 160 lbs. now so I reached my new goal. I went dancing last night with my husband for a couple of hours. Great fun. Gotta take my brother to the airport, he's flying back to CA. So, CBL. Cheri

Happy Birthday, Laura K. Hope you're enjoying your floating BD party. Exercising in the Water is a very valid option for those of you with bad backs and feet. Until you finish losing the weight and building up your strength gently in the water, it may even be a healthier option so that you don't make your injuries worse. Walking in the water is resistance training without the weight of your body injuring your joints. Treading water hits just about every muscle group. Hanging on to the side and kicking is good for strengthening the back. If I had the money and more time I'd go back to that in a heartbeat. Just a thought for those of you struggling. Cheri

Got up early this morning to walk then went to Roseland Christian to test a student. Five minutes before I got there they called to cancel the appointment, they've chosen a different school. This happens all the time. Many times they don't even call and you just sit there. So, I'm going to call the music teacher from work. She lives the next town over and does seamstress work. A lot of my clothes, especially pants, fit me OK in the waist but bag around my butt, hips, and thighs, especially since I lost a few more lbs. I always try shrinking them and frequently the waist will shrink because the band is cut differently than the rest, but the legs shrink in length not width, which is just the opposite of what I need. She'll even take in jeans and they'll look like they've never been touched. School kids come back the 25th. I want to have fun on Monday and Tuesday. Don't know what I'll do yet, but I'll think of something. Been in meetings 3 days this week. Have to write reports on the 3 kids I did IM training with this summer. We need a lot more kids to enroll at RCS. Enrollment keeps going down because of the economy. We were warned this was going to be a very slow recovery, even with the economic stimulus. Many businesses are now making large profits but not hiring people. Others overcut but are afraid to hire back. People who are hired are poorly paid, and those who are working are working for less. How can the economy recover when people aren't making enough to spend? The people in the area I work in are always the first to be hit in a downturn or recession, they are the hardest hit, and they are the last to experience recovery. The old trickle-down theory of economics never quite seems to trickle down to them. I've written an article on sponsoring a child and as a result we've had some donations come in for just that. I'm working on building that aspect of our ministry in coordination with some local churches who would like more of their kids to attend RCS. They know that the local public schools are training grounds for so much of what is wrong in this area. Three little girls shot a week ago in a drive-by 3 blocks from RCS. One dead. One just scratched. The other one recovering. I asked during summer school in June for prayer requests from the students. I asked what they were worried about over the summer. One of my first graders immediately piped up, "Gettin' shot!" I asked who else was worried about that and every child there raised their hand. The kids from these neighborhoods don't have Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, they have Ongoing Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Hyper-vigilance is a constant thing. Hard to learn academically when you've been wired by stress hormones since you were very small to monitor any and all drama occuring in your family, on the streets, and in your schools. These kids are so used to drama that when there isn't any, they create it. I spoke in our teacher's meeting yesterday about how we need to create drama-free classrooms. The second any child starts to cause drama, they need to be removed until they can leave the drama behind. Meanwhile the teacher can keep teaching. Anyway, those are the things occupying my mind right now. If you could pray for RCS that we would increase our numbers, develop more donors to help keep the tuition costs down, and give our teachers the right words and actions to keep the drama to a minimum and show these kids another way of life, I'd appreciate it. Cheri

I have always said that eating breakfast makes me hungry the rest of the day. I find that isn't so much the case with having a Protein Drink, but I've never agreed that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It starts my metabolism which starts my hunger. It doesn't matter what kind of food it is, its like an alcoholic taking that first drink. It gets me started. Now, with the band and with my need to keep my blood sugar stable, I don't feel well until I get something in me. Especially since I walk first thing. I usually take coffee with milk in it on my walk or my Protein drink because I usually walk from a half an hour to an hour and I need the liquid and to replace what I'm burning up. I have to tell you, I used to be thin because I never ate breakfast and barely ate lunch and only ate good food at supper. I was very active, drank tons of black coffee, and ate candy bars in the afternoon and a good supper at night. But I felt guilty because people said I wasn't eating right so I added more food earlier in the day. And I started gaining weight, probably because the ketosis that happens when you have a long period of time between meals, wasn't happening anymore. This is why I don't judge other people's methods of losing weight, or insist that they do it my way. But I know I never felt good after eating Cereal or oatmeal or pancakes or even eggs and bacon for breakfast when I was a kid. If I'd never listened to the "diet police" and stuck with what worked for me, I might never have gained the weight. Cheri

Hang in there Gwen. Make sure those liquids are Protein Drinks and SF liquids, jellos, etc. Watching Leverage using On Demand. I'll try to slip a word in edgewise. First meeting of the school year today at Roseland. Had a meeting at Elim yesterday. Another meeting tomorrow at Roseland. Kids come next Weds. Dr. says she doesn't think my D is too high and shouldn't be causing the Calcium increase--which is very small. Also doesn't think I was getting too much calcium. Didn't seem concerned about the laxative. She thinks I have a family disease that causes slightly high calcium levels and doesn't excrete it. Something like that. Not serious. FF something or something FF. Gotta pee into a jug for a whole day again and then have another blood test. Startin to feel like a pincushion. So, gotta try to remember what she called it. Look it up on Web MD. Bah humbug. How about an update on all my relatives? My niece Olivia has been averaging 2 seizures a week. She's supposed to start a new school next week. My sister has taken kind of a leave of absence until she knows the school has the resources to handle the situation. However, her husband has finally found a job, same job as before-different company-a lot less money but nicer people. His MS seems to be completely in remission. My sister was holding their dog in her arms in their den and all the family was saying goodbye to him because his physical condition had deteriorated (enlarged heart) and she was bringing him to the vet to be put down. Instead, he died right there in her arms, surrounded by his family. My sister the Dr.'s husband, Jim, was very close to hospice care, but has fought his way back with Cindi's close monitoring of his meds and diet, helping him lose 30# of Fluid. He is once again able to have some mobility around the house and is feeling much better. He has congestive heart failure with a greatly enlarged heart. Her RA is still acting up but is doing better. With her kids help she was able to keep working. Her back up partner came back from vacation and her PA who worked for her certain days has recovered from her treatment to eleminate a cerebral anuerysm. It was caught and treated before it killed her because her sister died from one and it runs in families so my sister made her go check it out. Now she's back at work and giving my sister breathing space at work. Cindi and Jim's son, Jimmy, is doing amazingly well. It was a year in June when the Dr. at Mayo sliced and diced and resectioned Jimmy's heart and saved his life. He was within days of dieing or having to go through a heart transplant if one was available on that short notice. Now he's getting written up for the work he's doing on teaching young people how to restore a piece of wasted land and use Water conservation techniques. Pretty cool actually. I saw my brother John from CA (Redlands) this past week. He has recovered from his shoulder surgery gone bad because of MRSA. He will never get full use of his shoulder for things like swimming and playing basketball but he's back where he was before the first of the 3 surgeries he had to first repair the damage he had from an accident, and then to repair the damage from the MRSA. My brother Scott's son, Jordan, a very talented young musician, who was about to head off to music college, required suregery on his wrist, the part that controls the thumb. He needed 5 pins to put it back together. He should regain full function and his college is willing to accommodate his temporary disability till that time. My brother Scott also sat down with my dad and explained his Alzheimers to him and why the Dr. wants to restrict his driving. My dad thanked him for talking to him but kept insisting he was a good driver. My mother is going crazy trying to have private conversations about him without him listening in. He was also following her around and giving her "helpful" suggestions about how she could do things better. She finally lost her temper and screamed at him that she couldn't live with him anymore and was going to leave. He said he would leave. She said there was no way she wanted to get stuck with the house. He's been better since then. My daughter's Hashimoto's is still not bad enough to remove her thyroid. I wish it were, her mood swings are crazy sometimes. So far the dog, Frankie, is still there. David started kindergarten. Josh started pre-school. My daughter has mornings free and David actually is in all-day Kindergarten. She was praying that he wouldn't do well enough on his prescreening that he would qualify for full-time kindergarten. He'll also receive Sp. Ed help because of his autism. Autistics notoriously test poorly on formal exams. After working with David this summer I know I've taught children with a lot less brains who are a lot less on the ball. He notices everything, asks intelligent questions, and remembers what you told him. He may have some expressive language issues, we'll see if it affects his reading. If so, I can help him with that. And he seems to be in a very good school that wants to really help him. So I haven't posted majorly about all this over the past month because there's just so much. By the way, my new endocrinologist Dr. told me I looked great after my weight loss. So, gotta go to bed. CBL, Cheri

Welcome back, Apples. Melissa, so glad you're doing better. Gwen, avoid bread if you don't want to pb. Eat small bites and wait between them. Stick to eggs and meat and protein drinks and avoid starches and sugar. You can do it. Laura, glad you're back. I rode the bus from kindergarten on. My kids lived right across the street from their school. Nels will be fine. He seems to have a winning personality. Just like his mom. Cheri

Apples back tomorrow. I better rest my eyes so I can read all the green ink. Even one-handed I'm betting we'll see lots of green. LOL Love you all, Cheri

Kurby, keep calling your Dr. until you get your answers. If the pain is too great, go in to the emergency room of the hospital where you had your surgery. They'll get ahold of them--fast. Otherwise, hang in there. It will get better. Swimming is better answered by the Dr., but usually, as long as its not strenuous, once the incisions are fully healed. You need an easy access pool and you probably need to just hang around with easy, gentle movements at first. I started with walking and just went gently. I did no house or yardwork for several weeks. Melissa, thank God you're no longer working a job you hate! Praise God you have a respite to start working on yourself. It's all in your perspective. I've been there, done that, bought the T-shirt, worn it as long as I needed it, returned it, and had it redeemed by my Lord. Change the way you look at it. Your mental and physical health were being endangered. Take a deep breath, let it out slowly, and give the whole mess to God. Check with your church. Do they have a benevolent fund to help tide you over with Cobra? I'd given to my church for years and when I needed them, they were glad to help. After my DXH left and then I lost my job, I could handle all my bills except Cobra. The church paid that. And I had no pride about asking for help. I needed neck surgery before I could even work again. Do you qualify for Medi Care or Medicaid? Aide to Dependant Children or any of the other government programs? How disabled are you by your mental, emotional and physical issues? When my daughter discovered that her son had autism she quit her job to handle all the things he needed done. Then she found all kinds of ways to save money. She's big time into couponing and shops thrift shops, garage sales, and clearance racks. She's able to cook much healthier meals for her family. She does work part-time but does a lot of the work from home. You can do this Melissa. You were strong enough to get the band and lose a significant amount of weight. You've survived a terrible first marriage. You will get through this, too, with God's help and our encouragement. We love you and we believe in you. Cheri

Just a warning. It took 2 fills before I felt restriction. Then after I lost 10-15 lbs again the fat pad under the band had shrunk leaving the band loose and me with little restriction. It's very important to keep up with your fills. Bandpal, great pics. Thanks for being willing to let it all hang out. LOL. Cheri

I saw it on Web MD. If you consistently eat too little, you will lower your metabolism. Too little is considered below 1200 calories. So Janet is right--shake up those amounts! You're more likely to lose weight.

Talked to Karen. She's in less pain. Results of MRI tomorrow. She's also traveling 70 miles this week to see a specialist. She got the teeth done too. All without pain meds other than Tylenol. Crazy Dr. got all mixed up and when she asked for non-narcotic pain pill suggestions that weren't NSAIDs got all mixed up and thought she was trying to get narcotics out of him. She'll be back on Tues. Cheri

Linda and Laura, great pics, both of you. You ladies are looking good, and so are kids and family, cakes and aprons. So sorry about Merry. Hope surgery goes well and prognosis is good. My daughter's guinea pig died. Her just-turned-3 year old was holding him inside his little sleeping bag. She was cooking and when she came to check and put him back in his cage, he was dead on the floor inside the bag with blood coming out his mouth. She has no idea what happened but she felt so guilty for not supervising (though Josh had handled the pig many times before safely and seemed to have no clue what had happened) that a few days later she adopted what appears to mostly be a male poodle but they think is also a Bijon Frisee(sp). She wanted that mix because they're not supposed to shed and she and Joshua have asthma and are allergic to dog hair or the saliva on the hair or whatever. The dog had had surgery for a salivary gland cyst. He was a stray but the doc thinks he's about 3. David named him Frankie. Great dog so far. Doesn't yip or bark, comes when called, stays right by whomever. Followed the boys out the door last night and jumped into my car right after them without an invitation. Stood on David's lap to see out the window then came to the front and stood on my husband's lap and arm to see out but didn't bother me since I was driving. Seems very smart. But he's shedding and my daughter's afraid because Josh's asthma is kicking in but it started before they got the dog and she's hoping its weather related. Dog days of August are notorious for triggering asthma in this part of the country. Hope the dog fares better than the guinea pig. Fortunately, David, who got the pig as a Christmas present, was at my house staying the night. We held the funeral the next day. David wanted a cross to mark the spot. He doesn't know that somehow his brother was responsible. He keeps asking questions about what happened and we keep saying we don't know. Mom just found him dead. He's not too good at expressing emotion because of his autism, but he fed the pig everyday and spent time petting him and holding him on his lap. His name was Possum Pete. RIP Possum Pete. A couple of days ago I saw a fawn get hit by a car and thrown across the street. When I got close enough to see what had been hit, the fawn moved and tried to get up. I flagged down a car on a side street and had them call the police. The fawn was trying to get back to the other side of the road into the forest preserve. I stood there crying until an officer came. The officer kind of walked and shoved the fawn back into the forest preserve and helped cars go around it and then shot it once it was back "home". I wish he'd done it right away. It was very hard to watch it struggle. By the way, some of the stories of things people have said to you in stores about being fat have been horrific. I do comfort myself knowing that what goes around, comes around. It's a natural law that God has somehow worked into his plans for people's lives. I am a firm believer in natural consequences. People either learn from them or they don't. But the shame is always on them. And we are no longer letting other's thoughts and opinions and assinine behavior drive us into the food. NSV. Had a great day at the Indiana State Dunes for my granddaughter's birthday yesterday. The humidity cleared out of the air and the sky was very clear. We could just see the Chicago skyline across the lake. Very tiny. The sun got to be intense, but we could cool off in the water. Laura, glad your mom and dad are doing better. I hope nothing has happened to your missing neice(?). Going off to see someone she's never met and not communicating back would have me worried. Hope she gets in touch soon and is OK. Who's the tall guy in the pics? or was he the uncle? Just looked different standing up. And the two young ladies? Beautiful day today, too, but too hot to be outside without a pool or a lake to dive into. I've got Dr.s apptmts and tests sceduled just about every free moment next week (mammogram, bone density, vein Dr., endocrinologist). Finishing up IM training with 2 students Monday, testing incoming students on Tuesday, in meetings Weds, Thurs., and Fri., and start teaching the following Weds., the 28th. Where'd my summer go? Oh yeah, I didn't have one. LOL. Sang today both morning church services for my exercise. If it cools down this evening I'll try to walk. Walked an hour Thurs, Fri, and Sat. early morning before the bad heat. Cheri

Physical problems do improve, but I will always have osteoarthritis which was worsened by the weight but was also hereditary, and my cholesterol and triglycerides are not where they should be. My cholesterol meds raised my bp but not enough to put me back on meds for that. I've had a total hysterectomy but still managed to lose the weight with the help of the band. Once you're borderline diabetic, or as my Dr. said, you probably are diabetic, you still have the disease but your blood sugar stays under control with the weight loss and the avoidance of almost all simple carbs (sugar and starches) most days. I forget about my port most of the time unless I'm wearing a belt or high-waisted tight around the waist pants. I do let the grandkids tussle with me but I've always had to protect my boobs from elbows and knees, etc., so now I just automatically stretch that to the port. I have no trouble catching balls but I haven't done contact sports in a long time. Nevertheless, I was walking around the gym (I, too, am a teacher) and a student dove after a ball and knocked my feet right out from under me. I landed on my left side, breaking a spur off my hip and jarring my whole body, especially the left side where I was partially on my stomach, so I know my band was jarred pretty good. Took months to heal up. Neck, back, hips, pelvis. I succeeded in doing a pretty good volleyball fall, arm fully extended in front of me, landing flat, distributing the impact, but I'm so full of arthritis and my lower body was twisted from the impact so that I landed right on the point of the hip. Bruise like you wouldn't believe. But my band was OK. Lots of "give" in the stomach so it just got pushed into the abdominal cushion but not injured. So, sometimes, you may avoid impact but it doesn't always avoid you. The band is pretty sturdy. Cheri

You look great! Hair is nice! I feel much better than i did yesterday thank you for asking. Amazing! Glad you're doing so well! You're doing great and you're going to look even better. What worked for you losing the weight? I haven't changed all that much. High protein, low carbs, occassional treats. I watch the scale, if it goes up 2 lbs, I go back on weight loss for a couple of days. I never let it go up more than 2 lbs. That's my clue I'm eating too much or the wrong things. Janet has a lot of food tips and recipes. Search this thread and you'll see a lot of posts on this subject. Cheri

Also, use your scale as a monitor. As soon as I'm 2 lbs over goal I immediately cut back for a few days. That's a committment I made. Never get more than 2 lbs over goal. Cheri

Eva, so sorry about your friend. What a trajedy. By the way, for two days I've been 161, so just one more lb. to my new goal. I'll probably try to get down to 158 and then make 160 my average weight with a leeway of two lbs up or down. I've started measuring my milk so I no longer get too much. I'm going to have to lower my decaf coffee drinking because I don't like coffee without a lot of milk. The milk also neutralizes the acid in coffee so I'm not going to want to drink it black. In addition, decaf does have some caffeine in it and therefore it dehydrates, which doesn't help with the dry mouth and eyes that are part of Sjogrens. So I'm drinking a ton of water instead of milk. I've already increased my fiber and am going to try to eat more veggies and fruit by having a salad with chicken in it at night sprinkled with some fruit and nuts. The veggies will be the spinach leaves or romaine and mixed spring greens. I'm finding that I like those salads. Hopefully the fiber, fruit and salad, increased water, and lower calcium will make up for getting off Miralax. I found out too much calcium contributes to constipation as does caffeine, so, just some more refinement in my diet in order to get healthier. Cutting my Vitamin D in half as well. I don't want to give up the benefits of keeping my D high. But it should still be OK at half of what I was taking. I'm thinking all this put together should lower my blood calcium. If it doesn't, then there's a problem I'll have to pursue. I'm holding off on the Plaquinelle for the Sjogrens until I see what the changes in my diet achieve. I'm increasing my fish oil and cutting out red meat. The other stuff I already don't eat or drink. Don't do wheat, or citrus, and I'm cutting back the dairy. I really love my coffee and milk. Oh well, such is life. I've made so many changes to my diet, especially quantity and sugar, I can do this too. Cheri

Thanks, Janet, for the info. I understand about Andrew. It's the assumption that we'll do for them that gets to us. And when we do for them, they don't thank us. In their mind we're just doing our jobs. May be time to assign him a night to cook. His contribution to the familiy. It's actually good for kids to feel like they're necessary. Pick a night that's usually tough for you to get to cooking. Eva, I totally understand about just walking away, even if it allowed her to go first. Sometimes, you just don't want to subject yourself to that kind of abuse. There's a verse in the Bible that says something like, "in as much as it is up to you, live in peace with those around you." There's enough drama in life without exposing yourself to more of it, or creating more of it. My health and stress levels depend on my being able to live in peace with others. In my classroom, those who want to create drama, are immediately removed. The older I get, the less I put up with it or react to it verbally. When they can live in peace, they can come back in. Even with my husband, other than raising an eyebrow if he gets pissed off, I generally ignore him and he usually apologizes within the next hour. Don't watch BB so can't comment. As far as ports, mine is just left of the midline and a couple inches below my ribs and above my waist. I sometimes find that tight waistbands push up on the port, especially when sitting, and this can cause some discomfort. Also, gas can push up on the port and I have to walk around until the gas is released before I can sit comfortably. Janet, everytime I try on one of those waiste cinchers that goes up to your bra, it takes my loose skin and pushes it up to form a highly visible roll just under my bra. Now if it pushed it up far enough to stuff inside my bra and fill my cup a little more, I might consider it. I do tuck the loose skin hanging down from my underarms into my bra. LOL. Cheri

Good for the clerk. Put your husband in his place. My daughter has not yet complimented me on my weight loss. She "advised" me against the surgery and I think she's waiting for me to gain it back. I always have in the past. It did, however, inspire her to lose some weight herself. She couldn't take it that i was looking thinner than she was. By the way, thanks for the compliment. I'd have to shower several times a day. I'd sweat and stink in no time. I'd have to spray myself with right guard. That's what my mom and I did with a papier mache volcano I made for a science project. We made it solid instead of hollow so it never dried. It stunk so bad we sprayed it with right guard to get through the science fair. Afterward we hauled it straight to the garbage. That would be me in anything like that. LOL. But you go right ahead. Most people are not afflicted with hyperhydrosis like I am. Cheri

Julie, you do such a lovely job of responding to so many people. All I can say is "ditto." Cheri

Linda, high calcium is a byproduct of kidney problems. The Sjogrens syndrome is unrelated to the calcium. However, I have been taking a lot of vitamin D because its increased my energy and mood so much. My blood levels are high and I just looked up causes of high calcium on Web MD and high D is a cause. So is drinking too much milk. So is taking laxatives and I take Miralax everyday. So, I'm cutting back on the Miralax, cutting back on the vitamin D, cutting back on the milk in my coffee, making sure I only drink one protein drink a day, and, after a couple of weeks, I'll go in for another blood test. I bet its the combination of things that's causing it. But I'll still make an apptmt with the endocrinologist. Just in case. My sister, the Dr. with RA, said the Plaquinelle is a very safe drug and to go ahead and try it for the Sjogren's Syndrome. By the way, for those of you with auto-immune diseases, she highly recommends the anti-inflammatory diet. You go off all meats except fish, and all wheat, and all dairy, and all citrus. You take fish oil. You start introducing things back in your diet one at a time to see if your symptoms get worse or better. She now eats lamb, buffalo, fish, and organic chicken. She doesn't eat beef or pork. And I don't think she eats wheat or has citrus. She highly recommends fish oil for bringing down inflammation. Since several of you are FM sufferers, and there may be some RA or Lupis people, you may want to try this. Cheri

I don't wear any underwear that covers my port. Too uncomfortable. And too hot. And everytime I try on even the "lightest" control type products, they press on the port and push my fat up into rolls at the top of them so I have boobs and an underboob. I haven't even worn control top nylons for so long that I can't stand to pull them on. Unbearably hot and uncomfortable. Don't know how you do it Janet in a desert climate. I sweat like a horse. And those products don't breathe. I wear non-binding below the bellybutton panties and just let things jiggle. LOL

So, Dr. Laura, I no longer take calcium supplements. But I do drink at least two cups of milk a day and frequently 3 in my coffee, which is 90% of my dietary needs. But, I looked at my Atkins shakes, which I have once or twice a day and they're each 50% of my dietary needs, plus the Atkins bar I've been taking is another 20% as is my multi-vitamin. So on a high calcium day I could be getting 230% of my dietary needs, and most days I'm getting more than 100%. I'm not real high on the calcium levels in my blood and blood serum is what I think the nurse said. I should start copying down these things. So I'm still taking more calcium than I need. I got a call back from the Dr. today advising me after the blood test yesterday, that I need to make an apptmt with an endocrinologist. So, I'll do that, I guess. But I'm really sick of Dr.'s appmts. I hope I just need to cut back on the calcium I'm getting.

Whoever's in contact with Karen please let her know I miss her and am totally aghast at the pain she has to be in. I'd be hooked up to something, sodium pentathol since morphine makes me throw up. Or something. There's a real powerful anti-inflammatory they put me on when I had kidney stones and after my knee surgeries but I can never remember the name. I don't believe in pain--just knock me out till its over. I'm really concerned that she doesn't lose any more weight. Pain can keep you from eating. LauraK, so sorry about your exBF. Walking got me through a lot and still does. That's often when I talk to God. Jessica, you look great. Keep it up. Lori, it is so funny when men who never noticed you "that way" suddenly start paying attention-sometimes with their wives right next to them-in church! So funny that you didn't realize you were getting hit on. You'll never be a cougar at that rate. Phyll, you know the anti-inflammatories can actually speed your recovery since you're a nurse. The muscle relaxers are important also. I find that if I'm favoring parts of my body that are in pain, other parts of my body start malfunctioning. On your journey, look for any easy access pools and start letting your body "hang" motionless. It really does help relieve the pressure on the discs. As far as dancing, I will do any dance if someone shows me how, I don't care if its the chicken dance. So, I went to the reumatologist. It looks like the antinuclear antibody I have is anti-SSA which is indicative of Sjogren's Syndrome. This can accompany Lupus and RA but can also occur by itself. I have the two main symptoms, dry eyes and dry mouth (and throat). I've had these for years. It can also cause pain and some swelling in joints even without RA. Also muscle pain (which is why I'm on the muscle relaxer) and fatigue. May explain why I sit in my chair most nights and don't move. Also may explain why my feet hurt so much when I first get up in the morning. My Dr. wants me to try Plaquinel, an anti-malarial drug, that works well for this syndrome. I'm going to talk to my sister, the Dr. with RA, first. Gotta watch my eyes and my teeth, both of which I already do. Regular apptmts. Field of vision testing. Opthamologist not optometrist. Regular teeth cleaning which I already do. Enamel building mouthwash. The medicine will take a few months to show results. I'll just generally start feeling better. We think I've been taking too much Calcium and that's why I have the high numbers on that, but we're pursuing that as well. Para-thyroid tested OK. But calcium can indicate a malignancy so gotta pursue it. My employer is changing insurances. Hope I can keep the ones I have for now while I'm going through testing. Cheri

By the way, people often lose weight on vacations. Not only are they often moving more than they realize, they're also more relaxed, which brings their cortisol (stress hormone) levels down, which makes you lose weight. Cheri