I have tried to blog numerous times. I always seem to get started but never follow through. It's not as if I was not used to being online and creating. I used to run a Hepatitis C information and support website. For years I would sit up sometimes all night working on my baby.
Then I received the news that I was cured and started work and just didn't have the time to run a website and discussion forum. At the time I was the operations manager for a company that handled claims per-adjudication technology and services for the healthcare industry. I was living in Washington state and not very happy about it. I loved the scenery and summer. I had good friends, mostly male that were friends of my husband. It seemed as if I were isolated. I was never included in the "girlfriend" games. In other words in the whole time I lived there I never really developed a female friend. Women need other women friends and because I didn't have any I was really miserable. Those that I knew had their own lives and habits and I simply did not fit in. The only woman that I could have possibly developed a good friendship with lived in another part of the state. She was the one that consistently welcomed me with open arms.
I developed hip arthritis while there. I also gained weight. I just wasn't used to going out and doing things in the rain so I sat at home a lot. When I complained to my physician about the pain in my hips he x-rayed one hip. Told me I had a tad bit of arthritis and needed to lose weight. As the pain increased and my mobility decreased I continually heard "lose weight." Working 10-12 hours a day and a 45 minimum commute on a good day did not give me enough time to join the local aquatics center for water aerobics.
In 2012 the company I worked for was sold and the purchasing company made me an officer that I could refuse. By this time the stress of the commute and the job was getting to me. I was tired and needed a break so I "retired" in July 2012. At the end of May 2013 we made plans for my husband to retire early too and put our house on the market. Within a week we were under contract and on my husband's 59th birthday he officially retired from The Boeing Company and we began a move to Texas.
I'm a Texan born and bred so it was moving home for me. We had the option of moving anywhere we wanted within the state. I wanted to be somewhat close to my son and daughter in law. Well, we got close. My husband likes to say we're a good 9 iron away. The town we live in is close enough to Fort Worth that we can easily go into the city but it is big enough that we don't really have to.
Moving our furniture into our home I felt a pop in my shoulder. When pain didn't go away after a few weeks I went to a doctor and while there mentioned the hip pain. A MRI was performed and my arthritis in the hips was significantly worse, and I had a torn rotator cuff. It was also discovered that I had spinal stinosis. Ouch. Surgery was performed on the shoulder, and I went through the accompanying physical therapy. Unfortunately I was unable to get a handle on the hip issue. We tried steroid injections, physical therapy and even rooster comb injections that we paid for out of pocket as they are not approved for use in the United States on hips, only knees. Bottom line is my hips need to be replaced. I am no longer ambulatory. I can barely stand without pain.
In order for me to have the most positive hip replacement outcome I need to lose weight. How can you lose weight if you can't walk or exercise. I have a pool but even water aerobics causes me excruciating pain. So I have made the drastic decision to have bariatric surgery.
And so this blog begins.....
