Update.....

I have officially lost over 20 pounds!!  I am at 21.5 pounds lost with 8.5 pounds left to reach my first weight loss goal!  Man, that feels good to type!

from tears to smiles

We have survived week one of middle school.  I am emotionally and physically exhausted.  So is Kaitlyn!!

Sunday night, Kaitlyn started crying when I went in to tell her goodnight.  She was so nervous about going to middle school.  When I dropped her off Monday, she started crying again.  Monday afternoon was the same thing.  I covered that first day in my last post.

So, Tuesday comes around.  She rode the bus that morning, and teared up a little when I dropped her off at the bus stop.  I prayed all day that she would have a good day.  At 4:15, my cell phone rings and it's Kaitlyn, in tears.  She wasn't able to get her locker open all day so she carried her stuff around with her to every class.  I asked her if she asked a teacher for help and she said she asked one.  They told her she was "going too fast" and walked away.  I finally got her to tell me that the teachers were telling them if they are tardy to class they will get detention, so she was speeding through trying to open her locker so she wouldn't get in trouble.

So, I told her that her main concern right now was getting her locker open.  If a teacher sent her to the office because she was late, and she got in trouble, got detention, got a tardy mark on her report card, whatever, that would be my concern and I would fight that battle.  I told her that she did not need to be concerned with getting in trouble right now.  I also called Keith that night and told him that I needed some help from him.  Not in the uncle capacity, but in the youth leader capacity. 

Keith called her Wednesday morning before school and reassured her that we wouldn't let her get in trouble for having issues with her locker. He told her to work on getting her locker open and not worry about anything else.  He also told her that if she couldn't get it open, he would bring a shotgun to the school and get it open for her.  She told him that would get her suspended.  Made her laugh, though, which was a good thing.

I took her to school Wednesday, and of course, we had some more tears.  I prayed all day, again, that she would have a good day.  I got a text that afternoon that she got her locker open all day!  PRAISE GOD!!  I asked her if she would be ok going back the next day.  She said "I don't know."  Well, that was a step up from a flat out "I don't want to go." So, I considered it a good day.

Thursday we had no tears before school.  Today, she got bored waiting in the car with me until time to drop off.  I'd say we are on the up side of this middle school thing.  Thank you Jesus!!

hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to middle school we go!

Kaitlyn started middle school yesterday.  It's hard to believe that my baby girl is in 6th grade!!  She has been so nervous about this.  She went for a tour of the middle school last year and said that there was a lot of pushing and shoving in the hallway.  So, her fear has been that she was going to be shoved into a locker. Well, the lockers are pretty small, so we have convinced her that that is not going to happen. :) 

Sunday night, she started crying because she was just straight up scared about going to school.  She said she didn't want to go, but couldn't tell me why she didn't want to go.  The only thing I could get out of her is because it's a new location.  When we said our prayers that night, I started crying before I even started praying.  She finally went to sleep around 10:30 or so.  Yesterday morning, she was pretty nervous but didn't cry.  I prayed with her again before we pulled into the school, and now that I look back on it, that may have been the breaking point.  She started crying as soon as I got to the drop off point.

She opened her door to get out and the tears came.  She said she didn't want to go, but she dried up her tears and went on in.  I, however, cried all the way to work.  I sent her several text messages throughout the day so that she would see them when she turned on her phone at the end of the day.  I just wanted her to know that I had been thinking about her.  I was a nervous wreck.  But, at the end of the day, I get this text, "it was so cool." That's it.  No other details. Nothing.  I couldn't wait to get home to hear about it.

She liked her teachers.  She said they were all funny.  Her art teacher is pretty strict.  He has two rules.  Rule #1 - he's always right.  Rule #2 - always remember rule #1.  One teacher loves dogs.  Another teacher has 3 kids and another loves blue.  She said they have nasty ranch dressing but they serve sweet tea there.  She's going to have to keep ranch dressing in her locker (she loves it!) but hopefully the sweet tea will make up for the nasty dressing!  She also has one friend, Alasya, that is in almost every class with her.  Alasya did not have her schedule with her yesterday, so she got lost a bunch.  Kaitlyn said she finally ended up taking Alasya with her so she would quit getting lost.

We decided to go to Huddle House to eat supper last night, and I went into her room to get her, and she was laying in her bed crying.  I asked her what was wrong and she said that she didn't want to go back.  I asked her why and she said a couple of kids had picked on her.  Apparently some older kids made chicken noises at her in the lunch room and some 8th graders asked her why she was wearing rain boots.  She wasn't wearing rain boots, but was wearing some knee high black boots.  I told her the same rules apply in middle school as they did in elementary school.  She is to stand up for herself.  If she gets in trouble, we will deal with it.  But if students pick on her, she needs to dish it right back.  If they know that she is not going to stand for it, they will leave her alone. 

I hope today is better for her.  She didn't eat breakfast this morning because she had butterflies.  But, she did wear her boots again. :)

First day of middle school, 8.20.12

I survived!!

I SURVIVED BOOT CAMP!!

 
It ran for a month and ended on Wednesday, 8.15.12.  It was rough to begin with, but as we got more and more into it, it actually got easier.  I couldn't admit that as I was doing it, but the last week, I noticed that I was able to get through 50 crunches or 100 leg flutters without stopping.  I could do 30 dips with ease, and got through 133 push ups the last night without passing out.  Definitely a huge success from where I  was the first night when I couldn't do 5 deep lunges without screaming in pain.

So, I have a dress that I have used as a guide to show me where I am as far as my weight loss goes.  I wore this dress for Easter and Kevin and I had our picture made with Elaina in it.  One day, I wore the dress and one of my students saw the picture and said, "Julie, look at how different you look!"  I hadn't realized until then just how far I had come.  So, this dress became my guide.

Easter 2012, 4.8.12

I wore this dress yesterday (8.16.12) to meet with my Nutrionist. When I showed her this picture, and she compared it to where I am right now, she was slightly speechless.  She said she knew that I was smaller, but did not realize just how much smaller until she compared the before and the now.  She made me feel really good.  It also made me feel really good when she ran down Dr. Lovelady and showed him the picture. :) Nothing like getting praise from your doctor for doing what he says!!

Here is a picture Kevin took of Kaitlyn and I last night before we went to her Middle School orientation.

To date I have lost 17 pounds.  For boot camp alone, I lost 3.4 pounds.  However, during boot camp, I lost a combined 10.5 inches!!  I plan to keep up with the exercises that he taught us at home, as well as going to the gym on campus.  I am seeing results now, which is not something that I have never done in the past when dieting.  I am LOVING this!!

They took my lung!

That's what I found out today.  Not the whole lung, just a part of it.

When I had the tumor removed from my lung last year, I was told that they didn't take any of my lung out.  Well, they told me a story!!  Let me give you a little back history.

In June, 2011, I had a schwannoma removed from my right lung.  It was larger than an egg, solid with nerves and blood vessels all entwined in it and was positioned between my right lung and chest cavity.  When we first went to the doctor about it, he thought it was a liquid filled cyst and that he could make a 2-3 inch incision, drain it and be done with it.  But, I can NEVER do anything the simple way. :)

I ended up with a 9 inch incision, in CICU for 4 days with a chest tube and recovering from one of the most painful surgeries I have ever been through.  For the full story, check out my facebook note and see how the whole ordeal played out.

Anyway, for the past 6 months or so, my breathing has really been compromised.  I haven't been able to take a full breath of air and at times feel like I can't breathe at all.  My family doctor referred me to a Pulmonologist who ran some tests on my heart and did a pulmonary function test.  The tests on my heart came back great.  Everything looked normal. But my lungs were a different story.

He said my lungs, specifically my right lung where the tumor was, is significantly restricted and doesn't expand as it should.  He asked me how much of my lung they removed when they took the tumor out.  I told him that I was told they had not removed any of it.  He said, "well, they did."  Great. 

I don't know how much of my lung is missing, I just know some of it is missing.  How strange is that?  It's odd for someone to tell you that a piece of one of your most vital organs is just gone.  I am having a hard time wrapping my brain around that.  No wonder I can't breathe!

I am now on two different inhalers - one twice a day regularly and one for emergency situations.  He said that I will be on these inhalers indefinitely. 

While the news was not what I expected, it could have been so much worse.  Through all of this, I can't do anything but Praise God!!  This experience has taught me to rely on Him when things are way beyond my control.  I still struggle with that daily, but when I do, He finds a way to get my attention again.  Having someone tell me that part of my lung is missing is a GREAT way to get my attention, God.  Thanks!

No pain, no gain

So, I have my first work out injury.  It seems that I have strained my left shoulder.  Wednesday night, our exercise was focused on our arms. We did overhead claps, front claps, plank walks, pushups, push aways and stood with our arms stretched out even with our shoulders for minutes at a time.  My shoulder apparently did not like this exercise.  I can barely lift it today.

On a side note, I am down to 176.4 pounds.  That's a total loss of 16 pounds.  I have lost 8.5 inches and I am down 1.5 sizes in clothes.  I guess the "no pain, no gain" saying is actually true.