Shmokin!!

My great aunty (aged 82yrs) sadly died on Sunday so today I travelled down with my sister and brother in law to New Plymouth for her funeral. Was good catching up on all our news. It was our first proper catchup (other than phone calls and txts) since the funeral of her boys 3mths ago. Wow, can't believe how quickly time has flown by! My bro in law couldn't believe how much two chicks could talk ... continuously for the 3hr trip there and back ... hey we had a lot to catch up on!

I am SO back on track it's fantastic ... I'm on fire again ... finally!! Been months since I was excited about losing weight. I started off the day with a light brekkie (choc up & go 1pt) to allow for those funeral 'must eats to fit in and fill in time' foods while politely sipping tea and telling all the other great aunties how well we are doing ... my favourite scenario ... NOT! Don't get me wrong I love them all but repeating the same thing over and over is not my cup of tea.

Anyway, backtracking a bit ... calling into a cafe for lunch I had everything under control seeing a 'lightly seared scallops served on a lettuce salad' choice on the menu. I reiterated to the waitress (very politely of course) that I needed the scallops cooked in as little oil as possible. She assured me that wouldn't be a problem ... ehemm ... on receiving our lunch (40mins later!!) it was DRIPPING WITH OIL!! Not just the scallops but the 'salad' (bowl of lettuce with a few slices of tomato) was dripping so much that the lettuce had gone see-through!! Yuck!! I ate the scallops and a quarter of the lettuce and left the rest! But it was marginally better than my sisters lunch ... a chicken fillet burger with the fillet still RAW in the middle!!! (she put it down as soon as she realised).

The funeral was very sweet, she lived a wonderful fulfilled life and was a dag of a lady!!! I did very well at the funeral with all the food around me to temp me considering my growling tummy!! I consumed only 3 mini club sandwiches.

Then on the way home had a vege salad (no cheese) and lamb 6inch sub ... yummo!! All fitting in my points for the day ... ohhh and I tried the new 'fling' choc bar ... boy oh boy are they good!!! And only 3.5pts for the whole thing or 2pts for 1 of the twin bars. Quite low in points ... but dangerous!!!




For those of you wondering how my foot is going ... here's a pic ...


I meet with the surgeon tomorrow to check how it's going. I'm secretly hoping he'll give me clearance to go back on the ambulance. Infact I have my hopes set so high, I'm taking my uniform in the car and if I get the go ahead will go onto duty after the 10.15am appointment ... fingers crossed!!

I need to bottle this mojo ... or even better find the recipe, and give it out to everybody!!!

All done and dandy

I'm home honey!! Miss me??

Yep in and out in one day, no muckin about. I was in panic stations for a bit when they decided to bring my surgery time forward a few hours meaning I could come home last night instead of this morning. My organised ride via ambulance had to be rescheduled.

I arrived at the hospital to the flashest lastest interior decorated polava. Looking at the reception rooms no one would have guessed this was a hospital. At 11.30am I got ushered through to the first examination room, with vitals and weight taken. My BP was only 120/70 and weight 109kg (fully clothed) so happy with all that. Then off to get dressed into the stunning hospital gowns and leg sterilised, given a pair of slippers, dressing gown and sent through to bed to wait. The time actually went pretty quickly and before I knew it was being wheeled off to theatre. I was told to shuffle across to the operating table which felt like I would fall off of, it was so skinny. 12.43pm the theatre clock read and that was pretty much the last I remember.

Next thing they were calling my name and it was over. Felt a little pain (described as 4 out of 10) and sent through to recovery. 1.50pm so surgery only took an hour, hopefully meant good news with no reconstruction needed on the tendon.

Taken up to the ward and dosed on and off for the next couple of hours with my ride coming to pick me up around 6pm and home by 7pm.

I've been pretty dozey and in a bit of pain (not too much) for most of the day. Taking it easy for the next couple of weeks. The medical certificate they gave me instructed 42 days off work ... hmmm ... don't think so! lol

I have a follow up appointment in three weeks so will ask if I can go back to work then.

Until then I'm taking it easy on the couch as the pic shows.

Saturday I have Mandy and her family coming over for a BBQ so really looking forward to that.

Thursday looms nearer!!

Wow that comment was very bizarre. I'm happy to view people's opinions on any subject but ya'd think they'd make it a little shorter so I could be bothered reading it ... ummm nup sorry mate!! lol

The other bizarre thing was that I couldn't delete it. Everytime I pressed the delete button blogger would malfunction... very interesting!!

I think you're right in saying it was because I used gay and teletubbies in the same post. I had nothing against poor old tinky winky, just don't do the gay part myself very well. ... anyway ...

I had a blast and the costumes were a great hit... everyone's goggle eyes as we all walked in said it all. And yes I did get very hot!!! Infact at one stage I had to go outside for some fresh air and on looking in the mirror noticed my bright red face. I went to my station manager and told her "I think I'm overheating love ... look I'm taccycardic with a pulse of 120!! You don't think I'm gonna have an 'mi' (cardiac arrest) do you??" lol ... she chuckled and assured me I'd be fine.

We did get some photos taken but on another lady's camera (not digital) so not quite sure how quickly I can get them up on here.

I was very well behaved and did a lot more dancing than drinking and very grateful for that the next day watching the hungover people have to sit through another 5hrs of lectures!!

In saying that tho I do have a confession to make (oops better not use that word, might get a priest making another horrendously long comment) ... my eating has been shocking the last few weeks and I haven't hopped on the scales in absolutely ages!

I think subconsciously I'm putting it all in the too hard basket at the moment. When I had my ankle surgery a year ago I put on a major amount of weight purely because I was on bedrest for nearly 4wks.

And my surgery date is fast looming on me ... Thursday ... I have a horrible feeling it's going to happen again ... I mean I know it won't but this nagging thing sits there in the back of my head.

Once I get the surgery done and back on my feet again I can get back into it. Right now all I can think of is that horrible operation on Thursday! I probably won't get a chance to update much before that with working all day tomorrow and Wednesday.

Up bright and early getting everything packed for hospital Thursday morning. Have to leave around 10am with surgery booked for late afternoon.

I get to try out the new facilities at the brand spanking new private Grace Hospital in Tauranga but unfortunately I probably won't see much being in and out so quick. Not even sure I get a meal ... have to starve 12hrs before op and let out first thing the next morning... ahh well.

Home again on Friday. I'm kindly being picked up by my own private ambulance and brought home by my station manager ... how cool is that?? I was blown away at their offer!

I'll try and get an update done again on Saturday when I get home to let you know how it went.

I'm sure all will be fine ... I hope! As long as it's better than Pink Panthers experience I'll be happy!

We have a date set ...

With everything that happened over the weekend I forgot to mention I finally have a date set for my surgery for my ankle!! We started procedures on the surgery back in March and 7mths later I'm FINALLY getting it done! So on October 18th I will go into the new Grace Hospital (southern cross) in Tauranga. I get admitted around lunchtime, the surgery is done late afternoon and I'm discharged first thing the next morning. I have mixed emotions about it all. One part of me is excited and relieved to eventually get my ankle sorted and moving again and another part is nervous (to be expected I guess). My body as actually become accustomed to getting around with it the way it is. Over one year since I broke it, it is still seized. I have up and down movement but no sideways movement (as if putting the soles of your feet together). In the short term I could get away without the surgery but I've been told that if I don't get anything done about it that later on in life my hips and back will play up because of it.

Unfortunately the 18th of October is right before Labour Weekend which is one of the busiest weekends in the shop for us. So I'll be out of action for it but will be good to get it sorted before summer chaos. They are aparently going to have a good fish around in there to check it is actually the tendon stuck behind the plate and not something else. So instead of the 10cm scar I have right now I'll have a 20cm one!! Great! But I guess it's not like I'm a foot model or anything. The plate and screws will be coming out and it is supposed to be fixed immediately. Recovery should be quite quick with just waiting for the stitches to heal. So back up and running (well not quite running lol) in a couple of weeks.

Mandy (chubbymum) has mentioned she wants to catchup over Labour weekend while they are here so a visitor will be quite nice while I'm house bound!

Malachi is doing very well with his temporary caps on his teeth. But boys being boys I had to tell him to get off the roof of the shed this afternoon!!! And yes it was his second teeth! And aparently the nerve has been permantly damaged on the left front tooth, meaning probably some discolouration to it. I'll find out definately when I take him to the dentist to get the proper caps done in a couple of weeks.

I think the weekend caught up with me this afternoon because instead of doing my computer work I slept. I tried so hard to keep my eyes open, with no such luck. I slept for a couple of hours and woke up at 3pm VERY GRUMPY! Poor Bill! lol Don't do afternoon sleeps very well.

Well talking of work, I better get some done now.

Can ya blame me? it's TTOM

PMT hit with a vengeance this morning with 3 teary-eyed episodes already!! I hate hormones!!

I felt it coming on yesterday when I just couldn't get enough to eat. I ate a ft long subway and was still hungry!!! Normally a 6inch one does me fine. I always recognise when TTOM is on it's way, firstly by the continual unsatisfied hunger and then never ending tears for pathetic reasons. But you'd think after 12yrs of marriage the men would work it out tho huh? Got home last night after ambulance sooo hungry I could have bitten the balls off a horse! Ewww, no maybe not quite :)

I walked into the house and saw left over dinner. Even tho I'd told Bill I'd get my own dinner and to go ahead and eat without me, the sight of stir fried mince was too much to resist. So I started digging my fingers into the food. "What the hell are you doing? Don't eat my dinner" came Bill's rebuke ... well that just set me off!! I was a blubbering mess. Like a volcano that had been bubbling all day and finally blew it's top. Revenge ... I had to EAT something NOW!!! So I chose a can of mushrooms. It was quite a sight ... stuffing these mushrooms into my mouth 2 at a time. By the time the can was finished I'd managed to calm down a little and cooked myself a proper meal.

This morning I wasn't much better, crying at silly things. So at 8.30am I decided to go back to bed and hopefully wake up a little happier and it seemed to work.

10.30am I had my appointment with the specialist to see if/what they were going to do about my ankle and I'm pleased to say he has agreed to operate again to take the pin out. He's putting me through privately so will only be waiting 2-3mths. The only little bugger is that he wants to have a good look at the tendons and joint while he's there to check there isn't another reason for the ankle locking up. So that means a bigger scar (the current one is about 10cm long) but I don't care about that.

And I can't remember who was asking about how to change the line spacing ... I'm not an expert in HTML coding but have self taught myself through doing tutorials and trial and error.
I worked out that if you put the following code ...

{ font-size: 10pt; line-height: 5 };

in your template after the "BODY { blah, blah ... " keeping it within the brackets, that should work. Just play around with where you put it in your HTML coding. But beware!! Make sure you copy and paste your template onto a word document and save it BEFORE you start playing around with it, that way you can always go back to your old one if you stuff it up.

Onto my evaluation for last week ...

Week ending 2 May, 2007

+/- this week: -2.4kg
total points used: 177/182
bonus exercise points earnt: 6.5pts
total steps for the week (exercise + work): 23,500
number of days exercise: 2
tracked: 7/7 days
water consumed: 12 litres/14 litres
sugar points: 21pts

Where did I go wrong? ...

• over all points were closer to where they should be... 99% there on that one
• my exercise was down a little this week but not too worried about that as last week I did it a little hard
• water ... almost there, just another two litres to get it perfect
• sugar points ... still on the high side but lower than last week and not a major

Things to work on for this week ...

• don't have anything major to improve ... just need to keep up the mojo and that may be trickier this week being TTOM. Time to get down and focus!!!

Third hole

Thankyou all soooo much for your comments, it has encouraged me no end!!!

I'm here at the station and it's 6.30am. My brain hasn't really woken up yet so excuse me if I waffle!! :)

Put my ambulance belt on this morning and I've gone down another hole ... wahoo! When I got my uniform a little over 2mths ago I had to get Bill to hammer another hole on the very tip as that was the largest they had and it just didn't quite fit. Two weeks ago I could go to a 'proper' hole but was pretty tight. Infact when I got home that night I had to 'let it all hang out'!! lol and now today I've gone down to hole #3 :)

When I was getting fitted for my ambulance uniform the lady was trying to gauge my size. And I really didn't know (or want to tell her) my size (somewhere round the 24-26 mark). She held up a pair of trousers in the air, looking between me and the trousers. "Nah, those will be way to big for you. They're HUGE!!" she said. I was too embarrassed to say anything. She held up another pair, me knowing they would be way to small. "Here try these on" she said. Well, I only got them no higher than my thighs and whipped them off before she looked. While she was fumbling round in the cupboard I snuck the 'huge' pair from among the pile and slipped them on and you guessed it ... they fitted. "These'll do" I told her. "ohh, where did they come from?" she asked. I just gave her a blank look and changed the subject onto shirts. I was so embarrassed that day, but as I always say "It's only downhill from here"

So you may notice I have a goal on the right column "get new ambulance uniform". You can now understand the significance of this. Given I only wear my uniform once a week it's a great gauge to feel them getting looser each week.

I have my specialist appointment tomorrow for my ankle. Every now and then I start to wonder if I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. I very seldom limp now and it only aches when I've over done the exercise for the day. But the other day I walked down the beach and as I turned around to come back I could see my foot prints in the sand. They looked like penguin footprints. I never realised but I was overcompensating for the slope and turning my plated ankle outwards. It was something my brain automatically did and as the slope changed so did the angle of the foot print. It amazed me that my brain would automatically judge the angle and change how I walked without a thought. This I know is bad in the long run and can cause hip and back problems if it continues. Hence why I need to go to this specialist appointment and stop telling myself I'm overreacting.

It's great to see some new people commenting, thankyou and a big hi!

Chris ... duathlon AND bikini?? Sheesh woman you don't expect much do ya?

Lynise ... I got what you meant first time ... lmao!!

Jules ... yeah I know the importance of exercises. I got told the same thing after I had my plate put in and the cast came off. I'm so glad now I spent the money, went to physio and did my exercises. Oh and as for another update pic ... you gotta wait till I get to 10kgs lost first! :p

Livy ... thankyou for the compliments on my layout. I've always found it hard to read some blogs and eventually either delete them or skim read if the words are too hard to read (especially if I'm tired). So I make it a point to have an increased line space (almost double spacing) for us 'oldies' who struggle with our eyesight.

Well I have a vehicle check to do on my ambulance so better get that underway before the boss arrives.

Cya

P.S. I'll have my weekly analysis up tomorrow when I'm back at home.

Waiting, waiting, waiting ...

I went for my first organised exercise walk this morning since breaking my ankle six months ago. I do a lot of walking in the shop but never for a full constant 20mins. I enjoyed it although got frustrated at the fact that I wanted to work my heart harder but my foot wouldn't allow it. And knowing I had to keep some 'foot energy' up for my shift in the shop. Still 20mins is nothing to be laughed at even if it only gave me a measly 1.5 bonus points.
I found out today from the specialist I've been waiting to see about my ankle (it's needs to be reoperated on ... grrr ... that's another story I'll tell you another time) can't see me till July. July is too long away! I'm currently on sick leave for my ambulance work and have been since 2 September 06 when I broke my ankle and until I get this damn operation done I can't go back onto proper ambulance duty. Ambulance keep asking me when I can go back onto roster (I'm only doing first responce at the moment) and I can't until I get my foot seen to. Ohh it's all so frustrating waiting for the public system. The other reason I want to get it looked at now rather than later is I want to be up and running again before next summer.
Anyway I got recommended another surgeon to ring instead of my current one to see if he had a shorter waiting list and turns out his is 4 - 6wks to get an appointment. Which is much better but I can see this thing spanning out and out and out, longer and longer.
For those of you who are wondering what the deal with my ankle is ....
I broke my ankle back in Sept last year and had to have a plate and screws put in. Well six months later my physio has told me theyve done as much as I can and the reason I can't get the full movement in my ankle (I can't bend my foot inwards, it's siezed up) is because the tendon is stuck behind the plate. Every now and then with some physio 'jiggling' she can get the tendon to flick overtop of the plate and I get my movement back but it only usually lasts for an hour or so and it's gets stuck again.
I can walk on it fine if I'm on flat ground because I have the up and down movement but as soon as I get uneven ground it goes to pieces. And I couldn't be on ambulance with someone needing cpr on the beach and me saying sorry can't do it, I can't walk on sand.
So this next phase is to wait for my appointment from this surgeon to see what he says. Meanwhile time is ticking ...