Archive for the ‘Health’ Category

The Things We Do

October 10, 2008

I’m sometimes amazed at the lengths we humans will go to in order to get what we want.  I put myself in the group of people who will go to extraordinary lengths to get something even though a simpler alternative is readily available.

A year or so ago Betsy and I decided we needed to eat more oat cereal as part of our cholesterol-fighting regimen.  We found a cereal we really like — Maple Brown Sugar Oatmeal Crisp.  The nutritional label had all the right numbers and the flavor was very good.  We happily added it to our daily cereal mix.

But as time went on, we began to notice that Maple Brown Sugar Oatmeal Crisp started disappearing from the shelves of the grocery stores here in Crossville.  There were two other varieties of Oatmeal Crisp available, but neither of them appealed to us.

A few months ago Maple Brown Sugar Oatmeal Crisp completely disappeared in Crossville.  It simply is not available.  But we knew that according to the General Mills website it was still being made.  One day last spring, on our way home from Knoxville, we passed an Ingles store (there are no Ingles markets in Crossville) and decided to see if they carried Maple Brown Sugar Oatmeal Crisp.  They did, and we stocked up.

Our supply ran out a couple of weeks ago.  Fortunately I had to take Mrs. P (our Prius) into Knoxville for service yesterday.  Guess where I stopped on the way home?  It was a little out of the way, but it was worth it.  Our cereal will be delicious in the morning.

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Paying the Price

September 16, 2008

I know I should do more walking.  I need to walk to help control both my weight and my high cholesterol.

A couple of years ago we bought pedometers in hopes that they would help motivate us to get our daily exercise.  And I must admit that I think I did fairly well —  last year I averaged almost 5 miles per day and did pretty well with both my weight and my cholesterol.

But this year has been a different.  I did pretty well until mid-Spring, but then because of discomfort from my hernia, I cut back on my walking.  Of course I didn’t do much walking after  my surgery, either.  Then it was too hot to walk.  I had all kinds of reasons not to walk, but I promised myself that I would start walking when it cooler.

Well, it got cooler yesterday and I thought I had better start walking.  I took a path across the golf course that I had easily walked last year — I thought it would be an easy way to get back into the swing of things.  But it didn’t take me long to notice that someone put more hills in the trail than there were last year.  I think they also managed to stretch it out somehow!

Needless to say, I didn’t set any speed records yesterday, but I did get a start.  I wonder how I’ll do today?

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Double Trouble

August 6, 2008

I can’t seem to do anything the easy way.

As I mentioned earlier I had surgery on Monday to repair a hernia. My doctor said I had a hernia, the CT scan showed a hernia, the surgeon said I had a hernia.

So what happened in the operating room on Monday? The surgeon discovered that I had a DOUBLE hernia. I honestly thought one hernia would be enough, but evidently not — I had a indirect Inguinal Hernia (that’s the one we knew about) and an even larger direct Inguinal Hernia.

As a result of this surprise the surgery took longer than expected, but I was still able to go home late Monday afternoon. I went back to the surgeon yesterday morning and he said everything looked good. It’s just too bad things didn’t feel as good as they looked! I didn’t do a lot of moving around yesterday and when I did move it was nice and slow. But the surgeon said that Tuesday would be the worst day, so I’m hoping today is much better.

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I Wish I Wasn’t Here!!!

August 4, 2008

It looks as if I’m going to be spending most of the day today at the Cumberland Medical Center (picture above).  I’ll be having surgery to repair a hernia.  Doesn’t that sound like fun!?!

If everything goes right it should be same-day surgery, and I will be home by late afternoon.  Everything should be just fine, but I can’t help but wish I was spending the day just about anyplace else.

Actually I suppose I shouldn’t complain.  It’s good that there is a medical center and surgeons right here in Crossville to do the needed surgery.  Things could definitely be much worse, but I still wish I wasn’t here!

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