30 Day Abs!

I had some requests after my post last night from people wanting to know more about the 30-Day AB Challenge. So here it is. Feel free to join us! Just start at Day 1 and every day do just what the calendar says.

Easy as that! Let me know if you are going to participate and what your results are at the end!

Let's be done with these surgeries already!

Surgery #2 is out of the way! It was actually pretty quick and relatively low on the pain scale. The surgery center had us out the door 2 hours and 15 minutes after I went back for the procedure. And so far the pain has only been a "6" out of 10.  On a typical day my knee is about a "4-5" on the pain scale anyway, so not to much difference. (Update, I wrote most of this yesterday and since then the pain has gone to a "9" at times, especially when I woke up this morning. Thank goodness for pain meds!)

Recovery is going to be super quick I think, the hardest part is not being able to do my fair share around the house. I hate sitting on the couch looking at something that needs to be done or hearing one of the kids ask for a drink and not being able to jump up to get it for them. Even if  could jump up to get it, I wouldn't be able to carry it because of these oh-so-fun crutches! Oh well, next week the kids will be out of school for the summer and I should be better than normal. So we will be able to enjoy an active, fun filled summer break!

In related news, James talked to the orthopedic Dr after surgery and he said fingers crossed for no additional surgeries. We should know more after my post op appointment next week. And then he wants me to give it a couple weeks to walk around and see if the pain comes back. If not, then I am done! That would be amazing! I was thinking maybe 6 weeks of healing time from the next surgery would be doable. But after 2 days of not being mobile I am over it already! 6 weeks would be bad for my mental health for sure!

Moving on, in exercise news, I did a 15 minute High Intensity Interval Training video yesterday before surgery. Then I thought it would be a great idea to take a lap around the circle we live on last night, it is a 1/4 mile. Now my upper body is super sore from using the crutches in addition to my leg already being sore. (I don't think my leg was made any worse from the walk, it was really just along for the ride.) My goal for today was 1/2 a mile. I highly doubt that is happening. Oh and I am also doing a 30 day AB challenge with some girls on FB. It has a calendar with little things to do each day. Then by the end of the 30 days you are able to do 125 sit up, 200 crunches, 65 leg raise and a 120 second plank. So far so good!

Finally, my biopsy from surgery last week came back and it was bengin as we had hoped! Also the gene tests came back and I do NOT carry the cancer gene. So that is all amazing news! I could not be happier to hear both of those things! I know that it doesn't mean I have no chance of getting cancer, but a normal risk of 12% is a lot better than a cancer gene risk of 87%! Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and kid care assistance you have offered up recently. It is truly appreciated!

So ending today happy as always :)

Yours Truly,
The Pain Meds

One less problem!

Good Afternoon Everyone and thank you all for your thoughts and prayers during my surgery last week! The whole experience went really well. The Doctor said she expects the pathology report to come back negative. (So no cancer!) And hopefully that will be the last time she operates on me!

The only hiccup all day was the IV, I hate those things and the burning medicine they put through them. So that has made me a little nervous for the surgery next week. However, I am very happy that the bothersome little problem is now gone and I can feel a little more normal :-) I am sure I will be happy when my knee is taken care of as well!

So a few weeks ago I had a MRI of my knee. It showed a couple issues. Tuesday morning at 6:30 I go to the surgery center to prep for a quick knee surgery. The Doctor will be fixing something in my knee called a Discoid Meniscus. It is just a little anomaly that is causing my knee to "catch" a lot. A nuisance that will be great to not have anymore! Also he will be looking around with a scope to see how to best fix a cyst that has formed deep in my knee. Right now he is thinking that towards the end of summer I will have a second surgery. They will take a piece of cadaver bone and use that to replace the part of my knee that the cyst is taking up. The healing time from the first surgery should be just a couple of days. However, the second surgery will be more like 6 weeks on crutches. Eek! I can not imagine being off my feet that long!

I am hoping to be in better shape by the time the second surgery takes place! To prepare I am keeping up with my daily 5:30 exercise and have started using an app to track my calories. That has been eye opening to say the least. It has forced me to measure things out and actually be concerned with serving sizes. I am only on day 4, but I have already dropped a quick 6lbs just by using accurate portions! If I can keep all of this up I should be about 20lbs lighter by the time end of summer comes around. Just losing weight alone will help with my knees, but combine that with fixing the internal issues...and I will be ready to run my first 5K by next Spring!

Hope everyone is having a great 3 day weekend!

  ~Melissa

Surgery Day #1

Woke up this morning and did my 5:30am workout. Trying to pretend like it is any other day so I don't get nervous. The only thing missing so far was my big glass of water because I was told not to eat or drink after midnight. James and I have to be in Greenwood this morning at 9:45 to prep for the procedure, by the time the actual surgery starts I should be starving!

So what is being done and why?? I found a lump in the scariest of places for a women, 5 years ago when I was pregnant with Dillion. My OBGYN checked it out and said it needed further testing. I was sent for a biopsy which came back normal and I was told that unless it got really painful or larger to just ignore it. Well for about the last 6 months it has become increasingly painful. The kids are always climbing on me and it gets bumped and squished a lot. Not to mention, it is 2.7cm (about an inch) long at this point and just needs to be gone! My plan is to feel as good as I can day in and day out! This uncomfortable little lump is not fitting into that plan.

About a month ago I went to my family doctor to set my plan into motion! We discussed a few issues I am having and she set me on the path to getting them fixed. My options for the lump were to stay here in Bloomington and she would send me to a general surgeon who would just take it out and be done. Or she could send me to Greenwood to a breast specialist who would really look into it. As well as look into any possible genetic disposition I have to breast cancer. I chose the second option because I don't want any feeling of "could I have done more" in my life. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 32, which is very young. So there is a good possibility she had some kind of genetic predisposition which could have been passed onto me. If I have "the cancer gene" I want to know about it so I can be proactive and not just sit around and wait for it to be my turn. So I had the gene testing done and it was sent off nearly two weeks ago. I should have the results late this week or early next. And honestly I wouldn't say I am nervous about that either. There is so much going on right now that I don't have time to sit and think about the "what ifs" Which is a good thing! I am just getting as much done each day as I can, eating healthy and trying to get some weight off so I feel better all around.

My expectations for today...I imagine it will be very uneventful. Okay, I hope it will be uneventful! It should just be a lot of me and James sitting around waiting for things to happen. Then I will get to take a nice afternoon nap and wake up with one less problem to deal with :) It all sounds gravy to me!

Keep us in your thoughts today if you would. Little Ian has a slight fever and I hate to leave him. But I know he will be in good hand with his Grandma Marsha. Oh goodness, she is probably going to need more thoughts and prayers than the rest of us today! Two lovely little boys for 7+hours with 11 meds to give during that time. I think she will sleep well tonight :)

Have a Lovely Day Everyone!

Health for Life!

Dear Friends and Fellow Bloggers!

Time to start up the old blog again! It has been right at 3 years since I made a post here on Documentations On Life. Documenting isn't exactly something I have a lot of time for anymore...However, it is important to me to make time for this! I love looking back at the blog from years ago and remembering so clearly what things were like then, bringing back the same emotions I felt then! Plus I have recently recommitted myself to being healthy and I want to remember this journey. So I am making the time with hopes that this blog will inspire someone else to change their life for the better as well!

Over the next few months I am going to be posting about some life changing measures I am taking to improve mine and my families life's. Measures that will make us all healthier as well as happier! Currently there are 3 surgeries "on the books" for our family this year with at least one more likely to be added. I have started a new exercise program that I am very excited about! And of course I will be posting about our constant search for healthier foods and ways to live our life's!

So why am I doing all this? Why am I "voluntarily" going to the trouble and expense of doctor appointments and surgeries? Well, because as you all probably know I lost my mother 3 years and 1 month ago today. She was in failing health...well really all my life. I do not ever remember my mother without a limp, eventually going to crutches and for the last 8 years of her life a wheelchair. When I recently asked a team of doctors about how a certain disease I have would progress they told me that the best way to find out is to look to my mother's health. Well that of course scared me pretty good! She was so young when she died and was in so much pain for so many years. That is not the way I want my life to go, so I am taking matters into my own hands. I am addressing each problem I have and fixing them as quickly as possible!

The first problem I am addressing is an ongoing pain in my left knee. It has been there for at least a year and a half and I am so ready for it to be gone! Then a mass in my right breast which I found about 5 years ago when pregnant with Dillion. Then of course my weight. I have been overweight for longer than I can remember, truly. From pictures it looks like around the time I was 5 I started to really chunk up. It is time to conquer this problem and put it behind me for good!

Each of these problems will come with it's own blog or two in the coming weeks. So I hope you will stick with me and read about my journey. I could really use the help with you all keeping me accountable! Feel free to comment so we can chat about how things are progressing!

Thank you for reading!
Melissa


Disclaimer: All blogs will be written with 2 young boys pulling on my arm or at the end of the night when I am only half sane. So bear with me and any ramblings that don't quite compute  :-)