Out and About

I tried to post this yesterday, but Blogger was down for maintenance and I was ready to go to bed. So here I am, reporting yesterday's news today.

Yesterday Tim had a follow-up appointment with his retina specialist to check for any changes. Tim said his vision seems the same and the doctor confirmed this. He also said that the retinal detachments have not changed and there is no new bleeding in Tim's eyes. Both are good news and a testament to how well he's been doing over time with controlling his blood glucose levels.

The outcome was the same ... Tim can opt to continue to monitor and see what happens or he can have surgery to repair the detachment in his right eye (which is really the only eye he has usable vision in anyway). Tim feels if it isn't broken, don't fix it. The doctor agreed surgery can wait because the risks right now are not worth what little improvement he might be able to get. He did say there could come a time when Tim won't have the option but for now he's willing to continue to wait and see. So a recheck appointment was scheduled for June 8th. Happy Anniversary, honey! (That will be our 21st wedding anniversary.)

I was a little irritated because the drive to get to the appointment is a two hour drive. There is one retinal specialist in our immediate area, but after a surgery he did on Tim's eyes a few years back, Tim had a drastic loss of vision and refuses to go back to him. This doctor is great and Tim likes him so the drive is worth it, but dang it all. I hate driving four hours round trip for a ten minute appointment. He was seen by the doctor for ten minutes, literally!

I do enjoy driving and Tim and I always talk about a ton of stuff when we're in the car, so it wasn't that bad. I just hated spending the money on the gas and putting the miles on the car. Again, it was worth it though, to know that everything remains unchanged for now.

Now on the diet front ... we went out for lunch at a place called The Pasta House. I asked about a calorie and fat content list but they had nothing, of course. They did have a couple things on the menu listed as low fat and low carb. They would have had no sauce on them and what would have been the fun in that? So ... I opted for the lunch size portion of eggplant parmeseano which ended up being two small slices of eggplant with just a little bit of marinara sauce and a little bit of parmesan cheese melted on top. (I asked for sparse toppings to cut some calories.) I also had a dinner salad (which was their house salad with Italian dressing already on it). I picked off the artichoke hearts and scraped most of the grated parmesan off of it. Lesson learned, don't assume a salad is just a salad in an Italian restaurant! I also had a nice sized portion of steamed broccoli and a small Italian dinner roll with Promise spread. I felt like I had made pretty good choices and was quite full by the time I had finished the meal. I had water to drink.

I didn't get to do my one mile walk DVD, but I did register more steps than usual on my pedometer because of the walk into and out of the doctor office. I've also found ways to take longer routes to the bathroom at home and don't mind walking farther when we're out. NSV was I made it all the way into the doctor's office without pausing to catch my breath and I really wasn't huffing and puffing, either. That felt really good!

I also forgot to mention a couple days ago that Tim made a nice comment. (Not that it's rare for him to do so, but it does highlight that someone notices I am making progress.) He told me that he's noticed I'm getting things for myself more and more instead of asking him or Mandi to get me things. He also said he notices that I am moving a lot easier and seem to be standing a bit taller. I think the height thing is because as the weight in my stomach lessens, it doesn't pull me down like it did. Lastly, he watched me get up from the floor the other day when Ceci was here without crawling over to anything to push up from and was amazed that I could do that! Heck, I was amazed I could do it!!!

So, the kids are out the door and I have an appointment to walk a mile with Leslie Sansone. Wish me luck and I'll be back later in the day to report how it goes.