Wednesday 29 January 2020

Well I have been awol f or ages, sorry to anyone who still checks in on me now and again!

I do still follow a few Banding blogs, tho most of the bloggers who were around 10+ yrs ago aren't blogging any more.

Catherine at Chronicles from Bandland is one of my favourite who is still blogging, and Weightloss Expedition (Bunny) and Amy at Once Upon a Time in the Land of Cheese and Sunkist.

So, what has  happened to me in the last couple of years?

Lots. My band has been fine, effective and stressfree, for years I was maintaining between 138 and 145 pounds, if I got up to 145, I'd make a brief effort to cut back and soon be back to my comfort zone.

I don't exercise, like ever. I know I should but it doesn't do much for me except to irritate me, so I have resigned myself to never being a gym bunny.  I do try to walk when I can, take the stairs rather than the lift but that is all.

I was diagnosed with autoimmune arthritis 18 months ago, and while that didn't change my band or my life, I've had to make some adjustments. I was initially put on prednisone (steroids) but my doctor took me off it quite quickly as she was scared it would lead to weight gain. It didnt, but it didn't help either.

I have low level constant pain and low level chronic fatigue. It's not the end of the world.

Last August a difficult family situation reached a head in a very traumatic way (not going to say on the world wide web :) ) and I found it hard to know how to react. Since then I have been losing weight steadily, despite my best efforts. I've lost any inclination to eat, am never hungry and feel very full very fast. It is not my band (believe me, I know, after 12 ? years, if my band was too tight, I'd get the normal complications - inability to swallow saliva, night time reflux etc); so for now I'm assuming it is stress.

I have endured a CT virtual colonoscopy scan (not very nice) to check my abdomen for signs of cancer but nothing suspect was found. (so far, still waiting on an endoscopy).

I am losing weight about 2-4 pounds a month and am down to 114 pounds which is the lowest I've been since I was 13 yrs old.  I get some "comments" from people, hinting that I have an eating disorder or cancer (I don't), the biggest concern I have is that if stress is doing this to me, it's probably going to kill me via heart disease, so I need to find a way to manage it. Easier said than done, this is significant awful family related issues.

Be good to reconnect with the Blogger family, do comment or message
Hx