Thursday, June 18, 2009

Thursday, June 18th, 2009: One More Pound

I'm pleased to tell you that Erica's lost one more pound! I haven't attached any pictures because the weight loss has slowed down and you really can't tell that much of a difference. I will, however, post pictures when the cumulative loss is down about 10 or so pounds. So far, we have three or four pounds lost, so we have six more to go. That'll hopefully happen within the next few weeks.

We are also getting ready to go to New York next week, for Erica's niece's wedding. She leaves on Sunday and I will follow her a few days later. The reason for her earlier departure is meetings at her law firm's headquarters in New York. It'll be nice to get back to NY and look around - haven't been there for a while.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Saturday, June 13th, 2009: No More Ulcers!

Today was Erica's second endoscopy appointment. If you remember, she'd been having some really bad episodes of not being able to keep food down, and one endoscopy was performed about six weeks ago. The doctor said then that it would be a "series" of endoscopies, to keep the opening to her stomach open, and to cure the ulcers that had developed.

I'm happy to tell you that today was the last endoscopy! The doctor said (and had pictures to prove it) that her ulcers are cured and she's doing just fine. That's really good news, so to celebrate we are going out to dinner at our favorite Middle Eastern restaurant, Sahara.

Yay!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009: Doc is Pleased!!

So yesterday was Erica's follow-up appointment with Dr. Powell, who performed her gastric bypass surgery last November. He was very pleased with her progress, even when she complained to him that she's not losing as much weight as fast as before. He told her that the slower weight loss is better for her system and she'll reach her goal weight, it just won't be as fast as she thought. But with 124 pounds down, hey - it can only get better!

She is also scheduled to undergo another "scope" procedure this Saturday, June 13th, at 7 or so in the morning (see the April 25th, 2009 posting for how the procedure is done). She's not worried; in fact, we have a dinner date at our favorite Middle Eastern restaurant, Sahara, that night!

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Thursday, June 4th, 2009: It's Been a While - But Two More Pounds Lost!




I hope that those of you who follow this blog are still following it, even though there hasn't been a post since last month. Now we're back, with the good news that Erica has lost two more pounds!

She is doing excellently on her food - no real incidents to speak of, except for, well, last week when she overindulged on some Sun Chips, and that was the problem - overindulgence. Other than that, she is managing her food intake really well, and is just ecstatic because now she can have her coffee in the mornings again!!

I must tell you that we had a great time in Honolulu, despite the circumstances. We arrived in the early afternoon on Friday, May 23rd, and made it to the Ilikai with no problem. For those of you who were wondering, Erica did still need the seat belt extension, but it was still a great improvement on the way things used to be.

We were able to relax a little and then go out to Hee Hing Chinese Restaurant for dinner with my sister, brother-in-law, and niece, and also my cousin and his wife who were there for their respective high schools' 60th reunion. We had fun catching up and listening to their travels around the world, especially about the huge "rogue wave" that raised hell with their ship, the Crystal Serenity, tossing it over to one side and then the other. The kitchen, we understand, had a lot of stuff to clean up.

The next day was the funeral and we arrived early, as we were in charge of the guest book. My sister also asked me to be the Master of Ceremonies; that meant, at this Buddhist service, to call upon certain people to come and offer incense while the priest chanted. I had my little list and I did okay, other than overlooking my brother-in-law's sister, but I recovered and called her when I realized that I'd screwed up. She was fine with it and we had a little laugh about it.

After the service there was "local-style" food, as in macaroni-potato salad, fried chicken, rice, gon lo mein noodles, and lots of sushi. Yum.

We then went back to the hotel and relaxed until it was time to go out to dinner at Chai's Island Bistro, where we were meeting my family again (this time my nephew and his girlfriend were also coming), and see our friend Bobby and Maunalua play for the dinner hour. We had a blast. We were also joined by Bobby's wife Colleen, who danced hula. Everyone had a blast.

We landed back in reality on Sunday afternoon - we were exhausted but happy that we had gone and helped my brother-in-law with the very difficult task of putting his dad to rest.