63 Year Old Man: 'Year of Action'!

My prayers are with you SCHRAMMJ. May GOD bless you and heal you quickly. HE is keeping you around for a reason :). I pray for your continued good health! GOD BLESS

I hope all is well. I am sorry to hear about the challenges that you have faced the last year. I hope things are getting better. I do love your upbeat and non-stop effort to your journey. Sending prayers. - Penelope

Update:End of May 2014 clinic threw in monkey wrench at last minute that I had to see yet another specialist re family history of clots. I had genetic testing some yrs back and was cleared. BUT couldn't locate record and they wouldn't take my word. Long story short, I balked and am now glad. Kept to my food plan all summer and got back in gym 5x per wk starting Sept. At Thanksgiving not feeling so well. Turns out in the past year plus 3 mos of weight loss, despite a perfect endoscopy last yr, I seem to have developed GERD. Meds working tho and my total weight loss from Nov 2013 is now close to 60 lbs the old fashioned way. Discovered while scanning for weird symptoms around Dec that I have a small benign tumor in my liver. Most people have no symptoms but I think I do - one of which is little appetite and I'm full after a few bites. Nature's lapband. I have not gained weight one month since Nov 2013 tho hit plateaus a couple of times. I'm down about 5 sizes and am still not sure that I've found my "floor". Not having surgery turns out to have been a blessing. I've done it anyway. Planning to get back into gym after finishing some work on bad veins. Shorts and a tank top realistic goal for summer 2014. I turned 60 this yr too. Anything is possible and things have a way of working out. Believe that!

I pray you can continue your weight loss without the invasive surgery. Bless you. Your story inspired me to try without the need for surgery... I will look to keeping a food diary and using a weightloss app.

What has happened to you since?

At the moment you must be overwhelmed by a seemingly huge setback. I'd just encourage you to emphasize the positive. You had been following a plan; you'd been successful with it. And, despite your current health issue, you can continue with most of that (following your heart doctor's advice about exercise, etc.). Remember that slow and steady wins the race. You might say I had a setback, too - athough of a different non-life threatening kind. I jumped over all the hurdles and did my 6-month required (by insurance) monitoring. I actually got approved by the insurance company . . . and then . . . just when I was ready to schedule the procedure, the weight clinic threw two monkey wrenches in the works. Apparently there were two more hurdles to jump (which they'd known about the whole 6 months, but failed to advise me). One of them I was able to handle with no additional expense - a bone density test. Luckyily I'd had one about a year ago from a doctor in their OWN hospital system. So all they ever had to do was pull up the commonly shared record off a computer. The second hurdle is more troublesome. My own father died at age 47 of a heart attack which sent a clot to his lung - so, yes I do know about your bullet dodging. Because of that, some years back (maybe 8 years ago now) when I personally saw a cardiologist, I was advised to take genetic testing to be sure that I didn't inherit some kind of blood clotting/clumping disorder. At that time, the test cost over $1,000 (happily insurance paid) - and it was NEGATIVE. Now, because I truthfully disclosed my family medical history (a mistake I won't make again soon) - suddenly the weigh loss clinic is ordering me to see a hematologist at a CANCER center - due to that history. I told them about the genetic testing - I even have a record of the names of the 3 "syndromes" they tested for - which were all negative. But because it was 8 years ago, I can't easily get my hands on the lab report. Doctor's office didn't keep it; even the lab searched and couldn't seem to find it - though they found plenty of other tests over the years (they're a national lab). So - then I balked. Then I pushed back. I've taken so many "unnecessary" (to me - because I knew I didn't have that - apnea or acid reflux) tests and run up thousands in insurance - not to mention my share of the co-pay. And genetic testing? I can only imagine what it costs today - and your genes don't change. I know those tests were negative. Besides, I got into my busy season at work (summer) and I had told the clinic all along that I'd have a narrow window of opportunity around Memorial Day after getting insurance clearance and before work took over. Missed window of opportunity due to last minute monkey wrench. And they knew this for 6+ months already. It's like changing the rules of the game at the last minute. The hoops are flaming and in constant motion. So, I'd already lost 35 lbs on my own at that point - and although I no longer diary or have monthly check ins, I've kept it up and lost another 5 or so since June - right on target, as my average these past months has been 1 lb per week. Consequently, since I'm still going in the right direction, and since I don't think I should have to pay additional thou$ands for unnecessary testing, I have not returned their last two phone calls in which they now say "What can WE do to move this along?" Don't change the rules of the game after supposedly I already won. It's like a bait and switch. And I am just as cooperative and compliant as you please otherwise - but don't promise me the moon and then jerk it away when I COMPLIED. I was just so irritated. So, (a) I have to be sure how long my insurance "approval" will be effective and (b) how long those stupid tests I already took will be "effective" - since I would never pay one cent to repeat any of them, either. And when work calms down after Labor Day, then maybe I'll be able to think about it again. I'm shopping in the Misses dept (versus Plus) and everyone at work I never said a word to about the whole thing now really notices. So, to that extent, it's all good! I have another 10 lbs to go on my original goal (of 50) - and 20 lbs to go if I were really on my "heart's desire" goal. I have no idea whether I can get there just on my current plan, or not. And even if it did not happen, I've already had a great success. So whatever happens with your heart attack and post-heart attack program, it could all work out in the end, anyway. Really. It could. Might take longer. But you can still get there. Slow and steady really does win the race. Just keep telling yourself that you didn't gain all that weight in an instant, and it's going to take a commensurate amount of time to go away. But it can be done.