Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Three big things happened this week.

Ben went on his first date on Saturday, November 20. Her name is Alicia, and she asked him. They went to see Harry Potter and they had chili cheese fries for dinner. They had a good time and she is a cute girl.

The second thing is that Kimi donated her hair to Locks of Love.
Here is the before picture-

They cut off 10 inches.
Here is the after picture-

She's been begging to do it for months so we finally went over and had it done.

The third thing-

Today my therapist and I decided that I'm done with the therapy portion of my treatment. Neither one of us felt like there was a need anymore, but he let me know that if I am ever in need again he would be there to help me. I agreed. I am happier than I have been for years. Literally about three years. I cannot figure out why it took me so long to do anything about it. When I think of how I was living and feeling for that long, and how I feel now just a short time after I first picked up the phone, I am amazed at the difference. It is a totally different life. I feel like I am a better mother and wife, I can deal with things a whole lot better that I was, and I have the motivation and energy to do things that I haven't wanted to do for a very long time.
This whole last month has been such a revelation to me and I've learned so much about myself and the way I need to live to be happy and healthy. I can honestly say that by far the hardest and the best thing I have ever done in my life is to pick up the phone on October 8 and make that call. I'm so glad that I did.


Thursday, November 11, 2010

I found this blog through a friend of mine, a lady I admire. It so describes how I feel sometimes - overwhelmed, sad, not able to control things. I was really impressed with her analogy of the signs. We all have them. We all want others to notice ours so that we don't actually have to say the words that are hard, sometimes impossible for us, to say. I hope you'll read this article and think about your signs and the signs others wear.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

I just got back from an appointment with my ob/gyn. I went expecting to have a lengthy discussion about anti-depression medication and the side effects and risks of taking them. I had done a lot of research about treatments, and I was not excited about any of the drugs or treatments out there. The side effects of the medications sound horrible, at least as bad as the depression, and the withdrawl from the medication is really bad, but in most cases the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Of course, not everyone experiences any or all of the side effects or they might experience a slight reaction to the medication instead of a severe one. Either way, I don't like taking medication unless I absolutely have to.
Anyway, it turned into a discussion about polycystic ovarian syndrome. She is convinced that I have it and depression is one of the things that can happen when you have POS. I have all the symptoms. The only way to treat it is with diet and exercise. The symptoms of POS are irregular cycles, obesity, high blood pressure, pre-diabetes or diabetes (I am pre-diabetic), infertility. Guess how many of these categories I fall into? All of them. She was surprised that no one had ever told me before about this. She put me on a diet (the South Beach Diet) where you basically don't eat any sugar or processed food or white flour. No pasta, no bread, no candy or soda, etc. Lots of veggies and lean meats. I need to exercise for at least a half hour a day, too. She didn't put me on any medication. She wants to see if these changes make any difference. She's convinced that they will. So, I guess we'll see. I'd rather change my diet and lifestyle a bit than take drugs with undesirable side effects. I'll keep you posted.