Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Jenny Craig

     I have started on the Jenny Craig diet.  I have only been on it for three days but the food isn't bad.  I am doing it to lose weight (obviously) from all the steroids I had to take for the MS.  This has been something I have been wanting to do for some time.  I want to look and feel better.

     Of course, my weight has not been an issue with my better half.  He loves me just the way I am.  I am grateful for this, but unless you feel OK about yourself, it is difficult to accept.  I have always struggled with my weight.  It is part genetics but the medication I have to take everyday, doesn't help.  I am not able to do much in the way of exercise so the diet is my only option right now.  I am hoping that by losing weight, I might be able to do a little more than what I can right now.  Once retirement is in place, I want to be able to enjoy the rest of our lives together whether it be traveling, volunteering, or just visiting family.

     What got me thinking more in this direction and actually doing it, was a promotion that Jenny Craig offered.  They were offering the diet half off the current price.  That was a big savings!  When I heard that, I couldn't pass it up.

     It does require us to have two different meals but we are going to work through that problem.  So far it has been working fine.  I know this is the beginning but I have high hope that I will succeed.

Update on Frankie and me

     We have decided NOT to have any surgery done on Frankie as we had told you before.  Frankie seems to be doing better and is running and jumping without any pain.  He is even getting back to his old self of wanting to play and not just sleep all day.  We can always do this surgery later if we think he needs it but for now he isn't going under the knife.  We have a friend that had this surgery on his dog and after 2 months, is still not right.  I was told it would take about 6 months for everything to be back to normal but I also have heard that the dog is not the same.  We just couldn't risk having Frankie's personality change.

     I had my doctor's appointment today with the podiatrist regarding my foot.  He took x-rays to see how the stress fracture was doing and it showed not one but two fractures.  It was the second and third toe.  They are still healing but I am able to wear regular shoes instead of the boot.

     The one area that I am having a problem with is with my big toe on that same foot.  Ever since the surgery on the bunion, that toe will go across the second toe and not stay flat.  The doctor can correct this  by another surgery.  He would take a pie shape piece of bone out of the toe and move the toe over so the toe will be straight and away from the other two toes that have the healing fractures.  If this is done, it will mean 6-8 weeks.  I would be in the boot again for 4 weeks with things finished in another 2-4 weeks.   After the 4 weeks, I would be able to wear regular shoes.

     I am not sure which way I want to go with this.  I don't like the fact my toe moves over the others which makes it a little more difficult to walk.  I really thought that this problem with the toe laying over the other one was part of the reason for the stress fractures as I was not walking correctly because I was not using that big toe.  The doctor said, once this is done, then my foot is finished.

     I still have some swelling from the fractures.  It has been 6 weeks at least for the fracture problem.  I had the original surgery back at the beginning of May.  Can I survive with the toe the way it is?  Probably.  It will be a problem for me the rest of my life though and do I really want to live like that.  Such a quandary!  Do I put up with the boot and surgery again or just let it go and hope for the best?  I just don't know which way I should go.  Initially my first thought was to go ahead and have it done.  I just want this whole problem to come to a conclusion.  I don't want to switch doctors as he knows my case and I do feel confident with him.  I also don't want to move to South Carolina and still have an issue that I will be noticing every time I  look at my foot and saying I wished I had done something.

     I know it sounds like I have made a decision about this but I just want to make the right move for me.