Steve and Judy's Travels!

  I could be the weight I was in college.  I could be the weight I want to be.   Well, I just lost twenty pounds, and it didn’t come out like I expected.  I’m not stylishly thin.  I’m gaunt.  I’ve no muscle definition left.  The skin is just hanging off my arms.  My thighs are about the same diameter as my calves!   A few years ago my weight got as high as 180.  None of my shirts fit any more.  I had to lose some weight or buy all new clothes.  When I got my weight back into the 160s it was all better.  Now that I’m down in the 140s, my shirts don’t fit again.  They all hang like hand-me-downs I haven’t grown into yet.   We don’t expect this weight loss to be a permanent thing.  Weight lost due to surgery tends to come roaring back at some point and will want to overshoot my starting point.  I don’t want that either, and I’m on guard for it already even though that phase has yet to begin.  But it’s funny how twenty pounds lighter doesn’t feel at all like I expected it to.  

  It was our last invasive procedure for both the heart bypass and kidney stone.   We went to the surgery center and the urologist took the stent out.  The stent is a flexible foot-long swizzle stick with pig-tail coils on each end; one in the kidney and one in the bladder.  It’s supposed to be inconspicuous, but my body has been constantly aware of it and trying to reject it for the last month.   The urologist says most people just get the stent out in the office; it’s no big deal.  They just stick a piece of medical equipment in that hole that leads to your bladder, grab the south end of the stent, and pull it back out.  That’s what the last urologist said too, but he didn’t think to strap me down before he started.  The process went much more smoothly this time with me totally unconscious.  The relief from getting the stent out was immediate.   We’re very happy with this urologist.  He is the first one who has shown any interest in continuing past treating the symptoms and determining the cause for my kidney stones.  We’re going to hang around for as long as it takes to finish up the follow-through.  

  The recover from heart bypass surgery doesn’t always go smoothly.  Cousin Ed’s wife Diana went in for a stent last Friday and got scheduled for heart bypass surgery on Monday.  She has battled cancer recently and been through chemo and radiation.  She was already beat up by that before she got beat up again with heart surgery.  She lived for another four days and died today.   Our hearts to out to Ed and the entire large loving family.    

  We all know what that means:  Judy is no longer the boss of me!   Now everything can revert to just like it was before.  I can do anything I want any time I want.   As long as Judy agrees that it’s okay.    

  Debby Thompson.   Becky’s teacher at Mountain Shadows Montessori over forty years ago.  Over the years she taught Becky, Matt, Taylor, Tony, Teigan, and Conner.  We’re proud to still be friends and in touch.