The Weight of my Weight: Congratulations Jessie!

This is my niece, the daughter of my brother, the cousin of my daughter, the Granddaughter of my mother and father, and the twin sister of her brother.
(I'd give a shout out to her friend in this picture, but I have no idea who that is.) While I was saving seats for the rest of the family, she sent me this picture!

So I sent her this one of me, concentrating on the proper use of my new phone!

She's a pretty kick ass kid.

Look at that sweet, sweet baby face!

This is Jessie with her twin brother Jack, and their mom, Robin.
Jack and Jessie lost their mom unexpectedly when they were 8 years old. I really don't know how, but at 8 years old, Jessie took on the roll of caretaker, hugger, lover and biggest supporter of her dad and brother, no matter what. Her kindness is reflected in that sweet little face of hers.

I truly think she is beautiful, and not just because we come from the same gene pool. :)

The twins!

This is Jessie at Prom with her friend, Dylan!

He graduated with Jessie last night too!

Jessie and I spent the 30 minutes before Graduation texting. I loved being able to chat with her and feel her excitement before her graduation! She wanted to know all the important stuff. Who's there? Where are you sitting? Will you be able to see me? Will you promise to yell really loud?

(We did our best! I might have hurt Mike's ear.)

Here, she was letting me know they were all about to come out, and I was trying to let her know who all was there. This silly new phone of mine and my fingers have not yet become one. I was trying to type fast and let her know that along with her dad and I, Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Mike were all there too! But I realized this morning that my short hand for grandpa showed up as GPS! I don't care. I am still in love with my new phone!!

I literally got there over an hour early to find seats to suit all of my moms desires. Closest to the car as possible, as few steps as possible, and close to the bathroom. This left us on the 10 yard line and as far away from the graduating class as possible! But at least we were there for her, and really, that's all that mattered.

It was a class of 344? Jessie really is in this picture you guys. :)

This girl loves her Dad! This picture was taken on Mother's Day. At breakfast, she gave him a card, and wrote on the envelope, Mr. mom.
(I had to steal her Instagram so I could show you just how cute they are together, and the sweet message she wrote about him.)

Jessie started playing soccer in grade school and continued through High School, and also was a pretty awesome Cheerleader! She actually went to my High School, so its pretty cool to see her in her Shawnee Mission North Indians Cheer uniform!

Seriously, dontcha wanna hug that kid??

This is the gigantic tattoo she got in honor of her mom. (Ouch!) The stem of the flower is her moms birthday.

This picture is included simply because I love it!

Jessie makes me smile. I've tried to be the best Aunt possible to her and to always let her know I am there for her. I hope she knows how much joy she has brought to me just by being Jessie.

Congratulations Jessie!
You truly are a Strong, Amazing, Kind and Beautiful Woman!
I Love You!

14 Weeks POST-OP

I went to see the Doc on Tuesday morning to find out if I needed the dreaded CORTOZONE shot in my shoulder to make PT move along a little faster, and in general, see how I am doing and where I am at on my mobility.

Great News! I am still improving, and at this time, the CORTOZONE shot is not necessary.

Mobility.

I can put my right hand on the top of my head, but not without discomfort. I am getting there though. I can not quite put my right hand on my hip, but I am Sooooooo much closer to being able to do that. The biggest goal now is to get to where I can put my right hand behind my back. Apparently this is the most difficult for everyone, and eventually it WILL happen. I can't quite lift my right hand straight above my head, but I have improved greatly since from weeks ago.

Stability.

I actually can move my arm further on all of the above task, with assistance. This is good. When they ask me to do certain things, I request doing them with my left arm at the same time. It's like my right arm forgot how to do certain things all by itself. I find this to be very strange, but they say its actually quite common.

Strength.

I passed all the test with flying colors. I think I have no strength at all, but apparently if you can resist the Doc trying to push your arm down, that's awesome!

Bootcamp?

Not yet. Doc wants to see me again in four more weeks and prescribed me four more weeks of physical therapy, three times a week, and physical therapy at home twice a day. At home therapy will likely continue for the next several months.

I hate feeling so flabby and weak, so I asked if I could try a plank or a push-up. Doc said I could try, but he would be surprised if I could hold a plank for more than 10 seconds!!! Urg.

Then we discussed the possibility of a CORTOZONE shot at my next appointment. I guess it really numbs things up and would allow me to push through a movement that I can't seem to push through. I asked him to explain to me in detail the shot. So he did. I then thanked him and told him I was nervous before we talked about it, and now there is pretty much no chance at all that I will want that. He said...."I just like to be honest" which is actually one of the things I like the most about this Doc!

I plan to push through the next four weeks and avoid the shot.

Okay, food and exercise.

Exercise

I did not plan my errands well yesterday, and should have gotten out of bed earlier and walked. Needless to say, I did not exercise. Feeling a little frustrated with myself about that because I know I need it to reach my goals on my timeline, and I want to make sure I figure out how to schedule my days better so that doesn't happen regularly, even after reaching goal weight.

Food

I really wanted a good weigh in at the surgeons office because, the tech that weighs me in, and I, have become buddies. I let him know that his scale is a good three to four pounds off, and he actually agreed. We talk about WW and exercise and etc. After weighing in, he looked at my chart, smiled, and said.....

"Nice job!!!"

:)

Totally worth only having coffee and milk for breakfast.

Then to Hy-Vee for a nice big salad full of veggies, kidney beans, edamame and grilled chicken.

Lots of snacks yesterday.....

Fruit, yogurt, veggies and Peanut Butter and banana toast late in the afternoon.

Then I took a ziploc bag full of leftover chicken breast to the graduation. Weird, I know. But It was all cut up in bite size pieces, and it was protein, and it was convenient. Otherwise I would have had dinner at 9:30 pm. I was simply sitting in the stands waiting on everyone anyhow, so there I sat, eating my chicken, drinking my bottles of water.

When I got on the scale this morning, I knew I had made really good food choices, no matter how dorky my chicken in the bleachers was.