Medical Update

First I want to say thank you to everyone for your positive comments about my last post. I am not going to give up, so know that I will get to my goal. Yes, it's been a long haul to date and I have a long way to go, but I am going to do this. I'm not going to let the fat defeat me. I'm still as determined as ever and I think most of you realize that.

I went to my new primary care physician on Wednesday. She was really nice, if a little 'out of the norm' for a doctor, in my opinion. It's not every day, at least for me, that you see a doctor with sandals, toenails painted, and a toe ring. Poor Tim! All he could focus on was that darn ring. *chuckling*

She was very attentive as I told her about the thing on my leg. She was concerned about the infection as it's pretty evident by the pink tinge it is still infected. She agrees it has to come off as soon as possible. Yes!

At the appointment, she said she'd discuss it with the surgeons in the group and the plastic surgeon and see who would be the right ones to remove it and she'd call me back. I got the call late last evening from the doctor herself. I can't even remember when a doctor called me last and not the office staff! I was impressed. She said the plastic surgeon wants me to have an MRI (which I guess is different from a CT scan which I had while in the hospital) to see how big the mass is, what it is made of, and what it is attached to so he'll know if he'll have to deal with muscle, bone, etc. It was late in the day so she said all the office staff was gone so no way to schedule the MRI yesterday. She went on to say the office will call me today to arrange that and then the next step will likely be to see the plastic surgeon. If he determines there is too much involved for him (but it didn't sound like she thought that would happen) then I will be referred to a teaching hospital staff (like University of Chicago Medical Center) for the surgery itself. I'm hoping that doesn't happen as that means more travel and Tim staying with me for sure and I honestly don't want him doing that this time. It's hard enough on me when I do that with him but with all his medical concerns, it's the last thing he needs. Also, my sister who wants to come up doesn't know anything about driving in the city of Chicago (she's a country girl at heart) and won't want to drive down there every day.

That's where I'm at with all the surgical stuff. Still no date, but will post as soon as I get one. I realize some of you are as anxious about this as I am. I am so looking forward to that thing being gone. Tim took photos of it but I'm just not brave enough to post them right now. It isn't a pretty sight. Perhaps in time I will post them though so everyone will have a clear picture of what I've been dealing with.

On the weight loss front, still holding steady at 400. I had shot up to 405 early this week but as of this morning that has stabilized back to 400. The doctor said we should place bets on how much this thing weighs. She's guessing more than 20 pounds. Having lugged it around for a very long time, I KNOW it's more than that! I'll be surprised if it isn't.