Catch-up Time

I have been sorely neglecting my blog for the past month – my apologies to those who faithfully read what I have to say! I love and appreciate you more than I can say! Lots of things have been happening in my life; most of them are wonderful, some not so great, and some just plain different. So this morning seems like a very good time to get caught up.

The Thanksgiving holiday has been a little hard on the old diet, but I’ve given myself permission to indulge a bit (just a bit!) while with friends and family. Tomorrow (Sunday is the “start” day of a new week on SSS), it’s back to the straight and narrow. My weight loss has continued, but has slowed somewhat due to lack of exercise. I’ve now lost a total of 68 pound on SSS (that’s since mid-April), or 137 pounds off my all-time high weight. I’m shooting for 75 lost by the end of the year – hoping I make it!

The lack of exercise is due to my knee problems kicking in again. I attended Educause early this month, in Denver at the Colorado Convention Center. As some of you may know, that place is HUGE, and the amount of walking required to get around there was enormous – my bad knee simply could not take the abuse and began hurting and swelling again. I’m now in the midst of a second set of SynVisc injections to add lubrication to the joint. This time, I’m getting them in both knees, too, since the right knee is also deteriorating. My final injections for this round will be a week from tomorrow. Within a couple weeks after that, I should have my mobility back and be able to begin my water running regimen again. For now, I have to stay out of the pool altogether to prevent infection in the injection sites. It’s very hard to do that – my body is feels heavy and achy, and of course my weight loss slows to a crawl or a dead stand-still. I am definitely looking forward to getting back to doing what I need to!

The love that I wrote about in my last post has continued to grow and flourish and has now blossomed into a fully-committed relationship. Barriers and difficulties notwithstanding, we are both moving toward being together on a permanent basis. We plan to make that happen within the next year – hopefully in even less time than that. I am excited and terrified – not terrified about the relationship itself, but the prospect of completely giving up my life and everything familiar to me to move to another country and start all over again. However, nothing is as terrifying as contemplating life without him, so I will do what needs to be done to make that happen. In another way, it is a great adventure that I look forward to and embrace. And I have never been happier in my life!

One big challenge ahead is that my son, who will be 34 in January, lives with me and does not have a job or real skill set. He has physical and emotional challenges as well, although he is an articulate, intelligent, and funny person. Now he has to figure out what to do with himself, to be able to survive on his own without me to provide for him. In some ways, this is probably a good things and overdue – but in other ways, it is heartbreaking and terrifying. However, the time has come when I must do what’s right for me, and show some tough love. It is probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, but I have to do it. He will still have family in Wisconsin who will help and support him, and I will do what I can for him as well, but he needs to have a life of his own, and this is the only way for him to get it, I’m afraid. I had long hoped that he would do this on his own, but it just didn’t happen.

And so life goes on – thank you for caring enough to read my thoughts and follow my life path. Hopefully I won’t be so tardy with my next post!