Hi All:

I know that many of you have other ailments besides the PN. I myself just am in the early stages of Diabetic Neuropathy but it hasn't impacted me yet thank god for that. but I DO have degenerative joint disease and that can be a real pain in the morning upon awakening. I never know if I can stand up straight, bend my fingers. Even walk to the bathroom without looking like Walter Brennan from the Real McCoys. Some days I'm fine but others, WAHOOO, I do feel old.

Now I make breakfast every morning. It really jump starts my metabolism. I'm not talking about a bowl of cereal here (I really can't eat that because I'm diabetic). But I do love my egg beaters omelletes and Alan just loves this breakfast. So every morning, crippled or not, I would have to get up, make coffee, make toast, chop up vegetables, cook them, make the omelletes, put the veggies and a slice of soy cheese or smart balance cheese in the omelletes, cook everything. Jeeez, it's annoying because I just want to get up, brush my teeth and sit down to breakfast. Alan can't cook a thing.

So one night (I do just fine in the pm), I said to myself "why can't I cook breakfast now, and eat it tomorrow. You should have seen me in the kitchen. I made a big pot of cut up veggies and stir fried them. I then made two omelletes. I fixed Alan's his way (veggies, no salt, no cheese). I fixed my omellete, (with the soy or smart balance cheese and the veggies.) I cooled them a bit, and wrapped them in saran wrap. Put them in the fridge. The table is all set for the morning.

You have absolutely no iea what was like to just wake up and everything is ready. Alan gets up first and plugs in the coffee, pours the juice. All we had to do is heat up the omelletes. Make toast. That's it!!

I will never again make breakfast in the morning. So this morning, when I couldn't even bend my hands, everything was done and we just enjoyed breakfast. I have read where we are supposed to be having 7 servings a day of fruits and veggies. I am doing this with no problem.

In the omelletes are chopped up tomatoes, peppers, zucchinies, mushrooms and onions. I make a big batch that lasts for 3 days. I put this in everything.

Alan has lost 70 lbs eating these things for breakfast. He weighs now about 187., down from 257. He tried on his old pants (48) and we laughed our heads off. They fell off. He bought underwear and he got a size 36-38 underwear. This man hasn't been less than a size 48 since I married him. Can you believe this??? Never mind he wears a 36-38, he thinks he's 36 years old again!!!! He's actually going to start looking for a part time job. Now that would be a gift from the heavens, if he can do that!!!

I have to put no salt tomato sauce on everything he eats for dinner. And put two packets of splenda on everything. Because he was on the Fentanyl pain patch two years ago, it caused something called taste perverson and I have to sweeten everything with splenda.
Can you imagine eating Tilapia (fish) with tomatoe sauce with splenda? Jeez. but he likes it so no problem.

So if you like your omelettes in the a.m. , why not consider doing everything the night before. You get a good breakfast and it doesn't hurt your fingers or hands in the morning. Works for me.

Next time I'll tell you how I make my grilled chicken with garlic and lemon over salad and veggies for lunch. You'll die and go to heaven, it's that good!!

love ya, Melody

P.S. did I mention that he doesn't need to use a laxative because of all the veggies??????????

I have diabetes mellitus Type II, degenerative joint disease, hypertension and high cholesterol which I'm trying to get down my weight. I've lost a total of 45 lbs. and am still working on it. I re-joined Weight Watchers and have lost so far 3 lbs. but just started a couple weeks ago. I was in it 2 years ago and lost the majority of my weight over a period of 2 years. I'm still a full figured woman but not as full figured as I was. I actually put something on the other day and my mother said you need to get a smaller size. I'm so used to wearing baggy clothes that I hadn't paid it much attention but the weight loss is beginning to show.

On the National PNC a number of people who had neuropathy also had neuromas. Wonder how many folks on here have neuroma's to go along with neuropathy.

I've had 2 foot surgeries one for tarsal tunnel surgery and one for neuroma which I think is back with a vengenge due to the foot pain I'm having now.

That's a good idea to fix your breakfast the night before, saves a lot of time. Its usually just me since my husband works so I have whatever I'm in the mood for, usually some oatmeal and toast or boiled egg and toast or some fresh fruit. I know what you mean about DDD. It takes a hot shower in the morning to work the kinks out of the back plus I go to a chiropracter which helps a lot.

Take Care
Lynn

It's about time somebody got down to the business of posting relevant stuff and not a bunch of complaining [I include myself in the latter category].

And, unlike some posters who complained under General and Forums, this isn't about 'recipies', tho they sound great, IT'S ABOUT LIVING WITH WHAT WE HAVE, TO DO WHAT WE HAVE TO AND DOING IT RIGHT!

I don't know about you, but before I even think of going shopping, I've got to make up THE LISTS, so I don't have to take any more steps than necessary. Even make plans for the plans! I can walk distances at times, but other times, that PN legs' cast-in-concrete feeling hits and well, WHAM! The big question then becomes: Can I make it home in one piece? Intact?

As for other conditions complicating the mix, both you and Lynne are right. It just makes things more confusing, especially when the 'something completely different' starts to intrude.

Whew, now, all PN'ers, did anyone save that dermatology tutorial site I'd posted in the old 'Stickies' a few months ago? I cannot find in in my puter anywhere & Ineed to refer to it. Thanks! - j

I have to tell you something funny about this weight loss thing. I used to weigh 300 lbs many many years ago. Took me a long time to get it in my head that a female is not supposed to weigh 300 lbs.

So after losing around 100 lbs, I setlled in, thinking, "Okay, I look completely different, this should be fine". But I was still an uncontrolled diabetic and still ate things sometimes that should never cross a diabetic's lips.

And I still wore what I wore years ago. You know, blah clothes, long tunic tops, black pants, nothing that shows a figure. I did this all my life. Oh I still wore my makeup, up the kazoo. Once a hair dresser told me "you know who you look like? you look like Meatloaf? I thought he meant the food. I had no idea there was a fat singer named Meatloaf!!!! you'd think that would have been my wakeup call. But nooooooo!!!

So fast forward to now and I'm now almost 59 years old. Not young anymore but certainly not 85. Alan thinks I have lost my noodle.

I now lost 26 and half more lbs so I'm almost close to my goal weight. Do you have any idea what it is like to walk into a woman's clothing store and pick up a skirt off the rack and just bring it home (without trying it on)? I've never done that in my entire life. never worn a skirt, never not tried it on to see if it makes me look fat!!

So the other day, I come out of the room in a yellow skirt, yellow tank top, makeup (I was only going around the corner to sit on my friend's porch but what the hell, I've got a new look, why not look festive).

you had to see alan's face when he saw me. He's never seen me in a color never mind in a tank top. He says "oh my, I see where this is going, you're going to start dressing like Madonna now, aren't you?"

I laughed my head off and said "oh, let me show you the top I just bought."

I come out with an off the shoulder thing that showed my cleavage (just a bit)
He goes nuts and says "YOU ARE NOT GOING OUT OF THE HOUSE IN THAT, YOU'LL GET RAPED". I replied ""WHY, THANK YOU, THAT'S THE REACTION I WANTED FROM YOU".

I changed my clothes and put on the yellow number.

this man has no idea when he walks in the door, what I'll be wearing or if I'm dancing in the kitchen to my ipod as I cook.

Too bad I didn't do this 30 years ago but what the hell. Better late than never, right? But it's funny when you see a person in yellow clothes all bent over and trying to stand up and not look like she's 80 years old.

I won't go to bed with ben gay or anything like that. I'm fighting this tooth and nail. He thinks I've lost my mind.

Oh, we went to a family reunion last week, up in Warwick NY for my Uncle's 89th birthday party.

50 people were there. 50 people, who when I was much younger, I was always the fattest person in the room. And the tallest. I always stood out like a sore thumb. My mother was 5 feet tall. She had 9 brothers and sisters. All from 5 feet to 5 feet 2. There I was 5 feet 8 and 200 plus pounds. Never fit in anywhere.

So fast forward to me being 59 years old and walking into my cousin's house with one of my new outfits (tasteful yet youthful). My cousin Chippy who is 71 was sitting on a couch and sees me and goes "who is that". His wife says "that's Melody". He goes "Melody, melody, that's not Melody". I stepped aside and said "if you think that's something, get a load of Alan" And my 70 lb lighter Alan walks in and everybody goes nuts. You see, all my cousins GAINED 50 lbs. and were twice my size. Twice Alan's size also.

PAYBACK'S A *****, but I loved it.

So keep using your magassagers, and making omellettes. You'll feel good!!!

Love ya,
Melody

you had pics...what do they say? PRICELESS!!!!
Mouths open that could catch flies...big ones? Well, YAHOOOO, WHOOOHEEE!
Talk about grace and presence without having to swing the 'ol 2x4! In many contexts.

Now, all us PN'ers have to do is figger out a program where we can all 'learn' to walk as intended without falling down like the 'lil 'ol guy on the trike on LAUGH-IN'... humm do I date myself? Betcha! - j

I like your response. You are always so upbeat. Even with what you are going through.

But I have news about my Alan. Today we went to his doctor to see what this lump he has developed inside his thigh was.

He was sitting in the living room the other day and says to me "melody, come here and feel this thing, I have a lump inside my thigh".

so I go there and squeeze around and I go "it's a LIPOMA". He says "A LI WHATTA??? I said "relax, it's a ball of fat, I've had them, they're nothing, but you're going to Dr. Fred on Monday so he'll check it out".

So we go there this morning, Dr. Fred feels around and goes "oh, it's a lipoma". but the best was what happened earlier when Dr. Fred was with another patient. He was telling the patient "don't eat a lot of protein".

Alan's face goes white and he says "My God, I've been drinking these protein shakes and Dr. Fred is telling this person "don't eat protein".

I said "Relax, she probably has a kidney problem" and people with kidney problems sometimes can't injest a lot of protein because the kidneys are filters". Alan looks at me and says "now how on earth do you know that this woman has kidney problems", when all of a sudden Dr. Fred goes to her "now you're kidney stones are not too bad but we don't want to aggravate them".

The look on Alan's face was priceless. That's all I have to say.

Oh by the way, THEY LOWERED HIS MEDS. He cut his metoprolol in half and took him off the vytorin. His cholesterol is 100 and he doesn't eat any red meat so they feel safe to see what happens until his next test in three months. isn't that spectacular? All the blood work was good except for the ferritin and something called TB something.

The TB something or other was low at 237 and the rage is 250 to something or other.

His ferritin was 689. I asked the doctor if this was hemachromatosis and he looked at the other readings and said: "No, if he had hemachromatosis, the other readings would be off the charts then he was talking about the readings with the nurse practictioner and he said something like "you have to see readings over a thousand, etc. etc. Couldnt hear all of what he said but I distinctly asked him "so this ferritin thing is not serious? and he said "no, don't worry about it". I trust this man.

Alan also had a hemachromatosis test a few years ago at Coney Island Hospital. The ferritin level was high then but they said "no, he absolutely does not have hemachromatosis". Also, he takes vitamins but there is only a little iron in them. He doesn't eat red meat. And the whey protein shakes do not contain iron.

So where the hell is the ferritin coming from, that's what I would like to know.

but his docs are pleased as punch.

His doctor even looked at his feet and foot ulcer and we discussed his neuropathy. His feet sometimes "do a dance" as he puts it.

But every time I give him a deep tissue massage either with the magnassager or my hands, all the tingling goes away.

If only they could find what nerve (or nerves) are being compressed so they could uncompress them.

That's why Alan lost all the weight. 73 lbs so far as of today. He feels that if gets thin enough, Dr. Theirl, the chiropractic/neurologist, may someday be able to find the nerve that is being pinched.

One can only hope!!!

Be well, and keep smiling.

melody

even when my fangs are showing. You know, STUFF happens!
As one poster used to say " Lemons to Lemonade". I look for the absurdities of being chronically ill and compare it to things like the weather, economy or politics. There's little you can personally do to create the CHANGES that mite make a difference. All you can do is see what's going on and find the stupid parts.

Mel - I've got to say that I AM SOO GLAD that Alan's meds are lowered. You've a keeper for a doc. My DH had lost some weight but his doc didn't focus on THAT in relation to his meds-talk about 'short-attention-span!'. When pushed, doc Did take a look, w/a resulting OH MY! Some docs seem to overlook this little aspect-sigh.

Do you think Alan might allow a little salt into his life now? - j

My husband Alan wouldn't eat a piece of red meat (he says stuff like "I NEVER WANT ANOTHER STENT!!) if you paid him to. And salt, forget about it!!! Once a doctor tells him "no salt", that's it for him. And he puts splenda on everything. He likes things super sweet. So he doesn't miss the salt.

I could never give up salt for good. I use the Salt Sense and luckily, my pressure is 100/59 (I'm on zestoric, and I'm in the diabetic protocol out of Cornell Medical Center in NYC).

The odd thing about Blood pressure (and which I really don't understand) is the correct numbers.....What exactly should they be!!!

I mean, I've been taking one blood pressure pill since I'm 26 years old (I was morbidly obese at the time). They started me on Vasotec, I believe it was. The lowest dosage. Did fine on that (or similar ones) still the lowest dosage until I hit my 50's. Then because I had been diabetic since I'm about 40 and was still obese, and before I went to Cornell, my primary care doc said to me "Let's make sure you are on the right blood pressure meds for your kidneys, because you are diabetic". I said "what the hell do my kidneys have to do with blood pressure meds?". He explained the whole connection and then we looked it up in his medical book and he said "oh good, you are on the correct meds" Then I changed medicare advantage plans and found that they no longer covered that particular meds so he switched me to monopril. Still the same low dosage. My pressure would be about 120/70, or 137 over 75 to 80. No light bulbs went off in my head or his head. I felt fine (no headaches).

Then two years ago I go to Cornell medical center and they do a complete physical (and I mean complete), and they go, we want to get your blood pressure down a bit" I say, "why, I'm normal" and they go "no, we have new criteria now, and a person with diabetes should have blood pressure around 100/55 to 110/67 or something like that, can't remember exact numbers but believe me they were much lower than the 120/70. "We want you to reach that goal". So they changed my medicine zestoric from 20/12.5 to 20/25. I found out that part of this med is a water pill med. She told me, "you won't notice much difference, you just might urinate a bit more, but you will see a difference in your numbers".

She was right on the money. I used to go to Cornell once a month so when I changed to the 20/25, when I got there and they would put my arm in this machine that takes my blood pressure 3 times and average it out, I would see each time it would say 100/55, 102/59 105/60. Then the average would be something like 105/66 (sometimes even lower). The first time I said to myself. "oh my god, I must be dying my pressure is so low". I will never forget the doctor coming in and smiling and saying to me "oh my, look at those numbers and giving me a thumbs up sign'. I remember being totally confused and saying "wait a minute, wait a minute, what happened to the 120/70 that every other doctor is saying is normal pressure?"

The doctor says "we now know that in diabetic people, because diabetics are at risk for strokes, heart disease, etc. etc., the lowers numbers are preferable. Same thing with your glucose readings.". In the past I would go to my primary doctor and if my sugar was 150 in fasting mode he would go, that's not bad and I would eat myself silly.

At Cornell, they would have none of that. They say the criteria for diabetes is different now. It's something like 70 to 105 if you are not diabetic. And if a person is diabetic, their sugar should not go above 120 (I mean, that's what they want it to be. But if it goes above 139, they will change the meds to bring it down. So everything I thought I knew about diabetic numbers has been drastically changed. It seems that the longer you keep your sugar as low to normal as possible, the better for the other organs. And especially for the neuropathy in my toes (which I never noticed in my life, thank god for that).

Alan's sugar by the way is never over 90. I check his too.

Now, because I take Lantus, and I watch my diet like a hawk, my sugar is usually 90 to 118 in the morning. They are pleased as punch at that.

But I really am confused about the numbers of the blood pressure. I have always thought 120/70 was great and when I watch the shows on ER, or Discovery and they take somebody's blood pressure and it says a person's is 120/70 the paramedic goes "oh, that's great".

so what the hell is the correct number? 120/70 or 100/60 (like my Cornell doctors are saying). I mean, These are endocrinologist at one of the top medical centers in the country. And I'm in a special protocol (which I broke by the way, they never saw anyone lose weight, lower their blood pressure and lower their sugar number), That was a first for them. I'm happy but I don't get the big difference in the numbers.

I mean, if 100/66 is the better number, how come all doctors all over the place, don't change the person's medicine to lower it to that number.

Understand what I'm getting at?

Oh, and when I tell my friends what my pressure is, absolutely every single one of them goes "oh my god, it's too low, my doctor would never allow that, you're going to get sick". Really? I never looked better in my life, my sugar is fine, I have no headaches and Cornell is happy.

So who is correct here?

All you professionals out there, jump in and give opinions.

Love ya, Melody

How are you? I missed reading your posts, they always make me laugh!!

I am very glad your family renunion went well. I can just picture it!!!

Hi Aussie:

How are you doing? We are doing just fine. Me and my Alan.
he went to his doctor and got good results. I still don't understand what the ferritin thing is but his doctor is not worried so neither shall I!!!!

Alan has lost a total of 73 lbs. His body has undergone such a change and his face, well he had to go and get new glasses.

With the glass he wears now, he looks exactly like the guy in the commercial for Great Adventure, the one where the old guy breaks into a dance. Bald and big glasses.

Well, we got the new glasses yesterday and we walk out of the eyeglass place and I give the new glasses to him and he goes "no, I can't wear them, it's raining". I said "they are made of glass, so what?" he goes, no, I have to break them in". I replied "they are not new shoes, my dear".

For love nor money, he would not wear his glasses. They are half the size of the other ones and they won't pinch around his nose.

But noooooooooooo, god forbid he should buy glasses and put them on the same day. What is this,? a guy thing or something?????

Anywell. nice to hear from you guys. How come these boards are nothing like the old ones???

melody