Believe it or Not

I was excited when I first heard heard about the Implanon birth control implant.  It seemed like a perfect fit for me.  I got the implant, and I was very happy with it.  Earlier this year, it was time to get a new implant put in.  That's when the trouble started...

They could not find the implant! Four people searched for it.  I was asked if I had been messing with it.  I hadn't.  The only thing I was guilty of was taking the damn thing for granted.  I used to check for it every day when I first got it, but after a while, I became complacent and forgot about it.

I was told that they could not put a new one in without pulling the old one out.  Then I was told that there was no way to find this thing using an xray because the first generation of the implant has no radiographic capability.  I was told that Implanon representatives recommended using an ultrasound to find it, but that the machine would have to function at a minimum of 15 gigahertz to pick it up.

So here I find myself in the waiting room of Scott & White Hospital here in lovely Temple, Texas.  Metroplex and Fort Hood don't have the imaging capabilities needed.  I'm wearing a hospital gown and jeans.  At least my toenails look nice!

Surrounded by pregnant women who are staring at me in puzzlement, I'm called to the exam room.  Long story short, the tech couldn't find my implant either...back to the drawing board!

Dumb Conversation

I have been trying to introduce my kids to the Xmen series that T and I grew up with. One of my pet peeves has always been when people talk in movie theaters or when people talk when I am trying to watch something. That being said, it is almost the end of our block leave, and my mom has been encroaching on our family time by initiating pointless conversations when we are trying to watch things together. I just want some time alone wth my husband and my sons.

My mom and I have a very troubled history; she put me in foster care when I was fifteen, and she wanted nothing to do with me for three years. The only thing positive that happened to me during those years was that I met T. Now she acts like she wants to be my best friend, but she was not there when I needed her most. She lives with me now, and I take care of her because I believe there is a God that I will face someday to whom I must give an explanation for my actions and because it's the right thing to do. No one said right equals easy, but some days are harder than most.

It's hard when someone wants to pretend like your past never happened, like a simple apology has the power to reset all the hell you've experienced. For me, I fear it may be too little, too late.

Get Busy Living, or Get Busy Dying

The title above is a line from one of my favorite movies, "The Shawshank Redmption." I can't think of any other quote that can frame the struggle to be healthy better. I decided last December that instead of making New Year's resolutions that are an excercise in failure and futility, that I was simply going to declare 2011, The Year of Me. This eloquent statement comes down to one very simple fact: this is the year when I take responsibility for my choices, my well-being, and my health. I have been beyond overweight for some time now, and in December, when I could no longer walk to my mailbox without feeling like I was going to die from the shortness of breath, I decided to do something about it.

Thus, my intiative was born. I started making appointments for dental surgeries I knew I needed but put off because I am terrified of dentists. I forced myself to go, even though I gripped the dentist's chair so tight, I'm sure the mark of my fingernails is still there. Phase One of my plan was the dental work, which started in January but is ongoing. I'm still scared, but I still go.

Phase Two started in February, (February 6th) and it involves me getting serious about losing weight. On February 6th, I weighed myself and discovered I weighed 266 lbs. I got upset, had a good cry, and began to research information about weight loss. I found an application on my phone that helped me get started. I lost some weight, but I wasn't too happy with the results. In looking at reviews for the application I was using, I found a review that recommended another one, and I decided to give the new app a try. I started using the new app, called MyFitnessPal, on March 23rd. Since then, I have lost
7 lbs. for a total of 23 lbs. I am still working on it. I didn't get this way overnight, and I know I won't get back to healthy overnight. By the way, I wasn't compensated for mentioning the name of the app I used; I mentioned it out of a desire to help other people feeling hopeless and frustrated with their weight.

My whole point in writing this is to discuss my frustration with my mom, who is fifty-nine, morbidly obese (as am I at my current weight), and a Type II diabetic. She is the kind of person who makes excuses for everything; it's always someone else's fault that things happen to her. I told her about my program, which is one hundred percent free to join and she tells me she won't join because she will only be allowed to eat a few calories. This mentality infuriates me. She has a disease that has serious complications, that can be more easily managed with a modest weight loss, and she is being offered free tools to help her and she still won't even try? Why? Isn't this a no-brainer?

I finally goaded her into participating; remember the too few calories she was griping about? Turns out, according to her weight loss profile, she needs to eat 1900 calories a day. That's more than I'm allowed to eat! The point is, people...we need to take responsibility for ourselves and stop passing the buck.

P.S. I'm TheUnforgyvn on MyFitnessPal, if anyone wants to add me.

Just Sixteen More...

Just sixteen more credits and I will get my degree. It has been a long work in progress and tomorrow I will complete another class. The class I will be completing is Western Civilizations I. I will be taking Macroeconomics for the term starting on 19 October. Until then, I will enjoy my time between classes.

One thing I think would make education more financially feasible for most people is the use of ebooks. I am not sure why academic publishers have not jumped on the technology bandwagon and published textbooks in traditional and digitized form, but I am hoping some of them get the message. For example, my next textbook will cost two hundred dollars. That does not include shipping.

Assuming that my next six classes require books that cost two hundred dollars apiece, I would be spending twelve-hundred dollars on books alone! And of course, that would take a huge amount of money out of a person's financial aid. Given the fact that financial aid is mostly comprised of packages a person has to pay back, why not give students something that would work a little better for their budget?

The benefits would ripple out to so many areas, more students graduating with less debt, the environment would not have to lose so many trees, less people would have any kind of lumbar issues, and publishers could really exploit this business model for profit. Everybody wins!

Oh, and professors would no longer have to dread people not having their books on the first day of class...

What do you think?

Proflowers

One of the soldiers in my husband's old unit recently lost his wife. We decided to send flowers and they arrived today. I ordered them from Proflowers because I have done business with them before and was satisfied. Today, an arrangement that cost almost a hundred dollars arrived in a box, and decidely unarranged. The flowers are not even open. Needless to say, this represents the end of my business with them. Above is a picture of the nightmare I recieved. Have you had a bad experience with Proflowers or any other online florist? I would like to know...