I prefer the Bangles cover of this to the Simon and Garfunkel original. Heresy I know but still.

Ditto

No.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Hi Lounge -

Sorry for not posting sooner. Mrseagull has been in and out of the hospital a couple of times.
I wanted to say thank you to everyone for their kind words and prayers for mrseagull. It means more to me than you'll ever know! Mrseagull is feeling better, gaining more stamina each week. He's cracking jokes again, which is a relief. The first time he made a joke I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I was relieved beyond words. It's funny how you try to hold onto that moment, never wanting it to slip away.


The people at the hospital talked him into joining a research study involving stem cell therapy. Apparently they have over 100 study trials going right now related to the heart. They make it seem like you've just won the lottery. "Hey, guess what? You have a 16% scar on your heart! Oh boy! That qualifies you for the study. Yay!" I was skeptical, but he wanted to do it. I don't know what to think about these research studies. I am cautiously hopeful. There have been very exciting preliminary results from stem cell therapy. But there's always the chance that he received placebo injections instead of the real thing.

They tell him he's in heart failure and, as if that's not bad enough, they recently informed him he has a blood clot in his heart. They don't tell you in a kind way, they just say it matter-of-factly - "oh by the way, you have a blood clot in your heart." The doctors use words like heart failure, and "heart death". I can't tell you how much this bothers him. He can't stand to see it on his file. He's trying to take it with a grain of salt, but you can tell he's bummed. When he first got home from the hospital he was very weak. He could barely walk out to the mailbox and back. His voice was really strange, something I had not expected. I'd watch him as he slept, his chest quivering in a way I'd never seen before. But now, six weeks later, his breathing is normal again, his chest has stopped quivering. He has a lot more energy. We're cautiously optimistic.

His ejection fraction has gone up. It was 30%, now it's 40%. That's huge! He is finally going out in his truck and doing things, and is even going to cardio rehab, which he tells me is a place where they run old people to death. Even though he looks exhausted, he insisted on taking down a tree in our backyard, and helping the plumber dig a big hole in the yard looking for a pipe. Is this really necessary?

I try to stay positive because that was DB's advice. DB is usually right. Stay positive, be strong. It's hard because I'm scared of what lies down the road. If he dies I don't want to live in this world without him. He makes me laugh every single day. He's just so damn funny. He and I look at people the same way. He constantly reassures me there is no problem we can't solve. I'd be pretty lost without him.

But anyway, sorry for my rambling. Again, thank you to all the strangers and friends on 2+2 who took time to express concern for Mrseagull. It is so incredibly compassionate. You do not know how much it meant to me to read your words of support. Even in my sadness it brought a smile to my face. Thank you to all of my 2+2 friends.

Thanks for the update, Katy. I am sure we are all really glad mrseagull is up and improving.

GL to you and Mr. Seagull katy. Glad to hear he is doing better.

Sounds encouraging. Rooting for the Mr. and you hard, Katy.

Hi Katy. I missed you!
Very glad to hear that Mrseagull is doing better. That whole thing has to have been and likely still is scary. I agree with DB. Remain positive and strong. I understand the anxiety of worrying about what tomorrow may bring but do not forgo living today and enjoying and embracing what good things you have right now.

Katy, glad for the encouraging news. Keep the good vibes going!

Karma is on the side of Katy and Mr. Seagull. We are all hoping for the best and positive vibrations abound....

Katy - glad to hear the great news! Just make sure you realized that he's going to want to do things for himself as much as possible...this is not a bad thing. Let him.

Also, what's an ejection fraction?

Yeah, and if it's a fraction then why do they give it as a percentage?

Good luck to you, Katy.

Yay Katy!
Glad to hear the Mr is doing better.

Ejection fraction is the amount of blood that is ejected on each pump of the heart. A measure of blood flow through the heart. The higher the better. The lower, the more the heart has to work to maintain the body.

Not to be mistaken for erection fraction, which men tend to obsess over more.

Back Surgery Update!

All is going really well following surgery on my back to "clean up" and expand several opening in the Lumbar region when nerves come out. The biggest issue I had besides pain was a complete loss of the ability to move my left foot up or even wiggle my toes. I am very pleased so far with how things have gone. I am now able to not only move the foot and wiggle toes but range of motion is darn near 100%. I cannot move it as quickly as the other foot and it gets sore on my leg when I exercise it but the face that I can just move it and control it now is huge to me.

I went back to work on Monday after a month and frankly likely could have gone back earlier if I really wanted to push it, which I do not. I am not really just in maintenance mode where I have to be careful not to lift too much weight and avoid bending/twisting in ways that may hurt my back where the cutting took place. I still get a bit sore in my back but it certainly is very manageable and has not been nearly as bad as I thought it might be.

I know it will be a bit before I will be back to normal but very sure I will get there and be ready to get serious about dragging critters out of the woods come this fall!

For some reason I thought it said "erection refraction" and I thought, wait a sec, Katy wouldn't share THAT with us....

Fish, I bet if you lost a little weight, that would help the back recovery, too. I SAY IT WITH LOVE!

That is no doubt true and would help with a lot of things. It is on my very serious "ToDo" list for this upcoming year. I want to be very ready to go by this fall's hunting season. That will involve a good bit of walking and dropping a few Lbs. If only I didn't love food so much...

I know you would say it with love as well, LOL

Welcome back, Katy! Glad things are looking up. I'm not sure if doing all that stuff is good or bad. I think there is much to be said about being determined to show yourself that you are still strong, and digging holes and knocking down trees is the way he expresses it.

When I throttled my ankle really good, I refused to use a cane or an ankle brace, even though the doctor told me to do so. Considering the state of my ankle these days, I should have done it, but men are pretty stupid and prefer to "walk it off."

I can't recommend enough that you start logging what you eat. I use an app/website called LoseIt, other people like MyFitnessPal, and there are at least a half a dozen others. Even if you don't make an effort to "diet" right off the bat, simply starting to measure and log everything you eat will pay huge dividends. It's been tremendously successful for me and the missus.

fish,

Team up with diebitter. He lost a ton of weight without serious lifting. If you like srs lifting tho, sign up with Team Wookie.

Well, before lifting, I lost serious weight with a lot of biking

Katy

Hope you are feeling okay and things are as fine as can be given what's happened, and that things keep getting better.

When people are down around you, it really does help if you remain strong - even if it's only on the outside. It makes them feel better, and then you feel better, and creates a positive loop that does a ton of good. Save tears for when they need to come, and hopefully they won't have to.

As always between us oldschool Loungers and you, positive thoughts beaming your way.

This.

That book that Busto recommended, 'The Diet Fix' has some really terrific advice and reasoning behind it. combine it with an app that logs food and exercise like Wook says (I use myfitness pal) daily and you get a whole lot of reinforcement between what you eat and what you lose, and it makes you think about food, and enjoy food, in a whole new way.

Most importantly, it breaks the connection between "losing weight" and willpower, and forges a powerful connection between "losing weight" and good habits.

You don't have to feel like your depriving yourself, you feel like your actively improving yourself instead.

I'd also recommend walking as exercise (I walk a lot now, and do weights, though the weights are secondary imo for the weight loss), and if you're inclined a fitness wrist band/pedometer that records steps.

A fitbit flex works well with myfitness pal, on android phones anyway.