My Knee... Works!

Holy Cow!!! I can go up stairs and it doesn't hurt!!!

Not only is there no post-operative pain - I no longer have the original pain of my crappy knee!!! It doesn't hurt anymore. It also no longer sound like twisting bubble wrap. (Pop-pa-pop-pop-pa-pop-pop-pop)

I'm thrilled by how well my knee is doing and how quickly I'm getting better!!!! I was able to do 2 miles on my elliptical trainer the other day on the lowest resistance and incline. I went slow, and it took me about 35 minutes. I might do it again on Thursday or Friday. I don't want to do too much. :)

The success I've had with this surgery makes me look forward to getting the left knee done too... Although I might wait until after winter... Crutches + Ice & Snow.... Um, no thanks. ;) Plus, I don't have anymore time to take off work this year! ;)

SUGAR UPDATE

Oh, and speaking of work, someone brought in chocolate cake today... Evil. I am avoiding that whole side of the building today. Out of sight, out of mouth. ;) My sugar recovery is going well, but I don't want to be tempted.

For breakfast, I've been eating plain oatmeal with chopped nuts. Snacks are low-fat plain yogurt and grape-nuts, or a banana. Lunch is a south beach diet/living meal, and dinner is something healthy I cook up. :) I am reading labels like crazy to make sure I'm not getting hidden sugars. Fruits are the only sweets I have. I always ate whole grains, so I don't have any "white bread" or potatoes to avoid.

However, I plan to go out every couple of weeks to get a high quality dessert. This will keep me from feeling deprived, and more likely to stick with it! Going out also keeps the "danger foods" out of our place. I can't binge eat a whole pint of ice cream if there isn't any in our freezer.

Cheers,

Jess

You're Gonna have to Face it... You're Addicted to Sugar

Here are 10 simple questions to see if you are addicted to sugar:

1. If you don’t get your regular dose of sugar, are you irritable and cranky?

WHY ARE TO TALKING ABOUT SUGAR!!!
I AM TRYING TO KICK THE HABIT!!!
HAVE YOU NO SHAME!?!?!?
(Yes, I get cranky without my “fix.”)


2. Have you ever tried to limit yourself saying that you would only eat one a day, or one per meal, but that one always turns into two, three, four…?

Yeah. I ate so much leftover Halloween candy... Seeing the pile of wrappers afterwards made me feel so much shame.


3. Are you using more sweet foods than ever before?

When you “NEED” something sweet with every meal, even breakfast, there is something wrong. I was eating sweets like a junkie, even “free-basing” straight sugar.


4. Have you ever lied about how much sweet food you eat?

The way I “lie” about sweets is I stop using my food journal. I figure I blew it, so I don’t record my mistakes, but this just makes me less accountable! I have started keeping my food journal again.



5. Have you ever eaten sweets in secret, or hidden the evidence?

I felt so much shame when a co-worker “caught” me eating the powder out of a hot chocolate packet (basically sugar, powdered milk, & cocoa powder) last Friday. It sucked. That was really a wake-up call for me. That is when the “I really have a problem” warning bells
went off.


6. Have you ever gone out of your way to get something sweet?

Even on crutches, I still made it to the sweets.


7. Have you ever gotten upset when someone ate your special food?

I wasn't angry, but I was really depressed when I realized my husband had eaten the rest of ice cream.


8. Have you ever felt that you had a sugar hangover?

I’ve "crashed" after eating LOTS of sugar then just start jonesing for more sugar!


9. Have you ever binged on sweet or white flour foods?

This is a “no duh” question at this point, of course I have.


10. Is it impossible to “just say no” to sweet foods?

I. Just. Can’t. Say. NO!!!! I can resist for a while, but eventually I crumble like a cookie… Mmm cookies!

If you said yes to any of these questions, you might have a sugar addiction. If you answered yes to all of them, you have a sugar addiction.

So now I start down the road to recovery.

Last Friday I told Aaron how sweets were controlling me, and about the hot chocolate powder thing. We did some research and found sugar to be more damaging than and just as addictive as drugs! Sadly, sugar is in nearly everything we modern folk eat!!! It is so unfair!

Aaron (the Angel) was so concerned about my health that he had a nightmare that night! He dreamt I got diabetes because he failed to see the warning signs. He didn’t realize I had such a problem with sweets.

I have always had problems with sweets but things really started to get bad when I quit eating the cancer causing artificial sweeteners. After that I started eating more and more real sugar. Then I started NEEDING sugar. So now I am trying to kick the whole “sweets” habit altogether.

It's been said sugar addiction is hard to break than cigarettes or even heroine. I believe it. Sugar is much more pervasive and harder to avoid. This will take lots of vigilance, but I'll be alright. I have a very clear plan and I am doing fine.


Knee Update!!!

I am walking unsupported! (No crutches or a cane!!) My post operation appointment went well. I can start being mildly active again but I need to be very limited. He said I should only do about 20 minutes, twice a week because of my knees. He also told me a analogy of my knee is like a cake. (Mmmm Cake...)

The cake is the bone, and the frosting is cartilege. Well my cake was brought to the potluck by someone who did not put toothpicks in the cake, and the plastic wrap got stuck to the frosting so when it moves, the frosting peels away from the cake. Each step I take is like someone thinking, "Ooo I want some of that cake!" So she lifts up the plastic, only to see the frosting lift up too, exposing the cake, then willpower kicks in, and she decides not to have the cake, and sets the plastic & frosting back down. Step after step, that's what it was like.

So Dr. Docter basically removed all the loose frosting from my knee. ;)
Stairs are still a bit tricky but I am doing fine otherwise.

Getting better each day!

I spent the first few days after my surgery in bed. I had my leg up on pillows with an ice pack balanced over the knee. I took the medication as directed every four hours. I was never in a lot of pain, but I figured it was taking the medicine as directed was helping with that! ;)

Today I am feeling good. I'm up and about on crutches. I've stopped taking the prescription stuff, and now only use Advil as needed for pain.

I was really sick at first, because the stuff they used to knock me out always makes me puke. At least this time I was puking after knee surgery, and not gallbladder surgery...
(Vomiting + Fresh Abdominal Surgery? ...Shudder... Not. Fun.)

Anyway... if you haven't been totally grossed out yet, here's an actual picture of my knee getting "resurfaced!!"

You don't need to be a Orthopedic Doctor to see that my cartilage was "tad rough." ;)

The actual inside my formerly bad right knee.

-- UPDATE --
This image is actually the back on my knee cap, and it is all BONE. There wasn't cartilage left!!!
So much "The body has an amazing ability to naturally heal on it's own" crowd.
Waiting for nature to take it's course only made my knee worse.
The tears and fissures just continued to break and splinter until all my cartilage wore off and soon the bone too.
My knee was totally destroyed, and once I am rehabed I want to kick some All Natural Homeopathic Ass! GRRR!
-- End Update--


My post operative appointment is the 19th. Then I start any rehab/physical therapy. I am so excited to get healthy again! YEA!!! :-D I Love Dr. Docter!!!

Cheers,

Jess

A Week Until Surgery

Today was my pre-operation physical. There is nothing like the scale at the Doctor’s…

I was 66 inches tall, and my weight (fully dressed in sneakers, jeans, a long sleeve t-shirt, and a hoodie + underthings) was 166.6 lbs. The nurse joked that 6 must be my lucky number, but I was thinking more of the apocalypse.

166.6?!? Not Cool. Argh. Using that height and weight puts my BMI in the overweight category again…. :(

Later during the exam, my Doctor removed “obesity” from my problem’s list, but inside I was thinking “I still have a problem with obesity.”

This knee cannot be fixed fast enough! I am desperate to get back to my old routine, and get healthy again. My body still LOOKS healthy, but this slow weight gain needs to stop!

Having a healthy knee is part of being healthy over-all, but boy is the "downtime" brutal.

Blogging the Good and the Bad,

Jess