When I woke us this morning, the clock said 7:40. I stepped up on Mr. Scale, and he said, “195.5 pounds.”

That weight is good to see for two reasons. First off, I didn’t do anything special to try and get an especially low weight this morning. I weighed 195.5, and I still have some water left over in my system from yesterday I am sure. Secondly, I had some tooth pain last night and about 4:00 AM, I had had enough of it and wanted to get some more sleep. So, I wrapped up two Vicodin tablets in a piece of bread and drank about 8 ounces of water when I swallowed them. I played Snood for about half and hour waiting for the pills to take effect and then I went back to bed for some very pleasant sleep. This morning the tooth feels a bit better. Hopefully the flare up will pass. I am scheduled for Halloween to get the root canal done on the tooth that I had the “root therapy” done on a while back (which is also the tooth that was hurting last night).

I can’t believe the way you end up waiting for dental work sometimes. Here I had a runaway infection, and a tooth that has been giving me pain for a long time, and I had to wait weeks to get in and finish up the procedure. Most of the wait has been relatively painless, but I have moments when the tooth flares up. I just want to get to Wednesday and get it over with. I must have bit down on something yesterday with that tooth which caused it to become irritated. It is all that I can think of that might have caused it. I just hope the infection doesn’t flare up again before I can get that tooth sealed up.

After weighing in, when I went to fire up the computer, I found that Daylight Savings Time had ended (which I had promptly forgotten about after talking with Dotti about it yesterday). So, when the clock was corrected, my weigh-in was actually at 6:40 AM PST. I checked the Naval Observatory clock to set my watch by (it was only 30 seconds off!), and then ran all over the apartment setting the clocks. The computers set their own clocks (but I still had to adjust the minutes slightly) and so did our VCRs. (With our old VCRs in the past I hated having to fire up the menu screen and then find the clock menu, and then set it back an hour. VCRs are getting smarter all the time. If only the people who create stuff to be seen on them would get smarter. ) The answering machine is one clock that I sometimes forget, but I remembered it today. Later in the day, I usually come across a clock or two that I forgot about, but for now I have set all the main clocks in the house, and we have a few of them. (There are 3 Tweety clocks alone!)

It is only 42 degrees outside. The fall has really set in. Yesterday we had a lot of rain, which we needed, and it was a great day to sit in our warm and dry house, which we did after going to the gym.

We played one full hour of racquetball yesterday. I held the number of “power shots” down that I used, and relied on ball placement for most of the games. That gave my elbow a rest and today it feels great! My left arm has worked out nearly all of the soreness from playing on Wednesday, and so I am pretty much back to normal. Today we are scheduled to play again.

Dotti is continuing to get better at racquetball all the time. When she was heavy, she couldn’t move around the court well at all, and so she didn’t learned to run after tough to get shots. Now that she is thin, she has the speed and energy to run after, and hit many of the tougher shots but it has taken some time for her to get used to calculating where the ball is going to end up after taking all its wall bounces. That part of her game is getting better every time we play. Yesterday she made some awesome shot on balls that she would not have come anywhere near to hitting just a short while ago. And when she gets the opportunity for a clean “kill shot” she is making it much more often. Her game is improving greatly. With the 10 point handicap she starts with, we had a game that ran to 14-14 yesterday before I snuck past her. In the past, I really didn’t have to work too hard to get a “skunk” game (15-0) if I wanted one. Now, I have to play much better racquetball to get a skunk, and I don’t do it all that often. Another thing about her game is that the lower and harder the play gets, the better her game gets. She was quite good at tennis in high school, and so her racket skills are good. When the ball gets to moving fast, she goes after it and has no trouble smacking it back against the wall, low and hard. Her greatest trouble right now is the slow game. Lobs and “easy” shots cause her far more grief than the hard shots do. But as I said, she is getting better every time we play. Dotti was the first girl that I had ever dated who loved to play sports. It has been a part of our relationship right from the start. When she was 240 pounds she still would go out on the tennis court, basketball court, or the racquetball court with me and give it her best shot. She is a much better player now, because she can move well, and she is in better shape, but she has always been a lot of fun on the court.

We are still very excited about LeRoy coming home. It still feels like it is not real. A part of me isn’t going to believe it until I see him with my own two eyes.

I think it is interesting watching the media go into a feeding frenzy on the Anthrax issue. So far only one person has died from Anthrax in the US because of the mail. On a “good” weekend, there are more people murdered in NYC than the total number of people even exposed to the Anthrax so far. Thousands and thousands of people are killed on the roads each year. (More people die in auto accidents every two years than the total number of men killed in Vietnam war.) It is a new and different danger, but right now it is relatively insignificant danger for the average citizen. (More people have won a major lottery than have died from anthrax over the last year, and the odds against winning the lottery are astronomical.) But it sells newspapers and holds the “marks” glued to their television sets.

I would not at all be surprised to see that it was a local boy who is sending out that stuff. Whoever has done this has hit some of the biggest icons of the left: Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, NBC anchor Tom Brokaw and the New York Post. For anyone who is strongly against socialism, and all forms of Marxist thought, these are some of the top targets that they would go after. Anyone who leans to the right at all, has found a great deal to dislike in all three of these targets. For someone who is radically on the right, they will appear to be downright evil. Now, take someone who feels that way, has a mental screw backed out a ways, and has access to the Anthrax, and you have opportunity, weapon and motive. It still might be Arab terrorists, but I am not convinced that it is not a local boy who is trying to cash in on all the hysteria running rampant in America today. What more opportune time to launch a chaotic program of anarchy than when the country is already reeling from the September 11 attacks? I guess we will have to wait and see what turns up. (The Unibomber, from the other end of the political spectrum, took years to run to ground. However, Anthrax production may be a bit easier to track down than letter bomb material is.) I hope that they can find the culprit soon and put an end to at least that particular threat which is worrying people so much today. Of course the media, who has to sell their product will find something else to fret over, but hopefully it will not involve something so basic to our economy as the US mail is.

Well it is almost time to head for the gym so I will wrap this up for today.

For eating yesterday I had my Standard Breakfast (5.0 pt.). For lunch I had 3 tomato sandwiches (2.0 pt.) and a Kashi Bar (5.0 pt.). That came to my standard 7 points for lunch. For dinner I had a cob of corn (1.0 pt.), fried (in Pam) potatoes (2.0 pt.), and a cheese omelet (2.0 pt.). That gave me 5.0 points for dinner and 17.0 points for my meals. For snacks, I had 5 cough drops (1.5 pt.), a yogurt (2.0 pt.), a bag of popcorn (with Splinda and butter spray) (2.0 pt.), 3 cherry flavored Dum Dum suckers (1.0 pt.), and a Mr. Cookie Face (3.0 pt.). That came to 9.5 snack points, and for the day I had 26.5 points, with 2.5 points to spare.

For water yesterday I drank 9 cups, or 72 ounces.

For exercise, I played one hour of racquetball, and earned 9.0 Aerobic Points.

169 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/195.5/200/BMI:24.5/WK-24/Maintenance Graph/Weight Loss Graph

Since I was up a bit later than usual last night, trying to get things straightened out on the computer network, I let Mr. Scale sleep in until 6:00 AM this morning. When I stepped up on him he said, “195.5 pounds.”

The computer I have been using the most lately, had developed a problem of locking up several times a day all on its own. It also was not playing well with the other computers on our home network. So, we decided to upgrade it to Windows XP to match the operating system on Dotti's laptop. In the process I formatted the C: drive, and reinstalled Windows Millennium Edition along with all the software from the recovery disk. Somewhere during that process the D: drive got formatted. I was fit to be tied at that point, because I put all the data I wanted to be safe over on that drive. Now it is in digital heaven somewhere, no longer available to this plane of existence. Oh well...

I went on to put in the upgrade home edition of Windows XP. I thought our networking problems with the computer would be solved. WRONG! Now it is even worse. I was able to get connected to the internet through the network, but that was it. No other computer was visible to that computer, and that computer was not visible to any of the other computers. Obviously this is going to take more work.

Before beginning all of the computer fun, Dotti and I went to the gym and played racquetball yesterday. Just as we were finishing up, I hit a serve that was moving well to the front wall but it didn't come back right. I thought to myself, "busted ball." Sure enough, Dotti returned the serve but the rebound was dead. I picked up the ball and followed the seam around and there was a one inch or so split. Dotti dug another ball out of the bag and we finished up.

Thanks to a lady Dotti bowls with, we got word of a gym that has both racquetball, and an indoor track, and it is located in Vancouver! Yesterday we went by and checked it out, and it is great. It has everything you can think of there, including golf and bowling! We were sold almost instantly. We are moving to this gym right away. It has 9 racquetball courts instead of only 4 like our old gym, and it does not tie the courts up all week with racquetball leagues, as was happening with where we are now. So, we should be able to get over there on weeknights with no problem. They have several basketball courts too, and of course the indoor track. (It is not huge: it’s 565 feet 8.4 inches around, and it takes 9 and 1/3 laps to make a mile. However, it will do). The gym is located only a few blocks from where we lived when we first moved to Vancouver in 1995. Unfortunately, it is a bit farther from where we live now, but it is just off the freeway and that makes it a quick trip. That is a really big improvement over what we have been doing. We are pretty happy about moving to this gym right now. Hopefully it will turn out to be as good a change as we think it is right now.

For eating yesterday I had my Standard Breakfast (5.0 pt.). For lunch I had a 6 inch Subway turkey sub (6.0 pt.). For dinner I had instant potatoes (3.0 pt.), a cob of corn (1.0 pt.), and an orange WW Smoothie Shake (2.0 pt.). That gave me 6.0 points for dinner and 16.0 points for my meals. For snacks, I had 10 cough drops (3.0 pt.), a yogurt (2.0 pt.), and a Mr. Cookie Face (3.0 pt.). That came to 8.0 snack points, and for the day I had 24.0 points.

For water yesterday I drank 9 cups, or 72 ounces.

For exercise, I played one hour and 10 minutes of racquetball, and earned 10.0 Aerobic Points.

170 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/195.5/200/BMI:24.5/WK-24/Maintenance Graph/Weight Loss Graph

I stepped up on Mr. Scale at 6:00 AM, and he said, “Ouch!” Well, maybe that was I, earlier, stumbling around in the dark and kicking something. All Mr. Scale said was “193.0 pounds.” I must be getting rid of some of that water finally. Once my body gets used to exercising a bit, it doesn’t swell up with water each time I work out as badly. Of course when my weight jumps 2.5 pounds in a single day, I know that something other than fat was involved. I think for the last couple of weeks I have been slowly getting rid of some fat, and replacing it with water. Hopefully, this in an indication of where my weight is actually at right now, and I can work on dropping from here. Of course tomorrow it could jump right back up. So, I will have to wait and see.

Yesterday was an all around quiet day. I took a break from exercising after the two days in a row of playing racquetball. I didn’t even take a walk.

When I got home from work, I spent some more time getting the computer back up to speed. I dug out the backup CD that I had created a couple of weeks back and transferred the files from that to the hard drive. That gave me some of my data back anyway. I am slowly getting the operating system organized the way that I feel comfortable with. I have my food points calculator, and my aerobics point calculator programs back up and running. I downloaded my graphs from the web page so that I won’t lose them permanently, and for my maintenance graph I can now continue to update it. I did lose a few things for good, but I was able to recover most of it.

The only fly in the ointment that still will not go away is the networking. The Ethernet card is working because I can access the Internet through it. The Network wizard has lost its powers obviously. It couldn’t cast a working spell to save its pointed hat. We ran the wizard exactly the same way on Dotti’s laptop and this computer, answering all the questions the same, and setting all the parameters the same. When we were finished, this computer was still totally disconnected from our local network, and Dotti’s laptop still was on the network, working fine. I am not sure what the problem is, but I will get it figured out sooner or later.

One thing that we found out is that the Windows XP Plus program will not run on either Dotti’s laptop or this computer (hardware limitations). And CompUSA has a policy that any software program brought back must be only swapped for the exact same software. That is $40 down the toilet for us. I don’ think we are going to let that stand without a fight. CompUSA will have a couple of very unhappy customers if we do not get satisfaction on this one.

This morning I am standing 3 pounds from my personal goal. I look at the progress that I have made, and from here on, especially when I fall below 190, is where I have to remember that I am not searching for perfection, only improvement. Over time, the exercise will shape my muscles and hopefully trade some additional fat for muscle. However, I will have to completely alter my focus from striving to lose weight, over to maintaining where I am, and being happy, even excited about that.

The thrill of stepping up on the scale and seeing a significant loss will have to be replaced with new thrills: the thrill of consistently remaining in my weight range; the thrill of having gotten all my exercise in for the week; and the thrill of eating a healthy assortment of foods.

No one knows how long life will be, but I feel very good that I have managed to quit smoking for 3 years and nearly 6 months, and then losing my excess weight and getting down to a healthy weight level. Of course a longer life is not guaranteed, but at least I am playing the odds on this, and improving my chances greatly. I am reminded of Jim Fixx who, because of health reasons, started running and created a whole jogging following. Even though he did die relatively young in the end, he had done something very positive for others as well as himself. Although I am no Jim Fixx, I hope that turning around my own destructive behaviors this way, will help me to have a longer, healthier life, and perhaps be an example to my children, who are adults, but not blind to what goes on in my life, and to anyone else who might be watching.

Healthy choices are not as hard to make as they appear from the other side. When you are overweight, and smoking several packs a day, you think that change is impossible. You know you are killing yourself but you don’t see a way out. You kid yourself into thinking that “these are the only pleasures I have in life and I am not going to give them up!” What you are thinking even deeper is, “I am in over my head and drowning! I can’t get out of this destructive cycle!” Well, I am here to tell everyone that destructive cycles can be broken! It takes work, and more than anything, it takes knowledge of how to most easily do it. But smoking, and overeating (and other destructive behaviors) can be controlled and conquered. I only wish that I knew what I know now when I was 30. Well, as they say, it is never too late.

For eating yesterday I had my Standard Breakfast (5.0 pt.) and Standard Lunch (7.0 pt.). For dinner I had 5 pieces of French toast (2.0 pt.), a corn on the cob (1.0 pt.), and a yogurt (2.0 pt.). For dinner I had 5.0 points, and that was 17.0 points for my meals. For snacks, I had 11 cough drops (3.0 pt.), and a Kashi bar (5.0 pt.). That came to 8.0 snack points. So, for the entire day I ate 25.0 points.

For water yesterday I drank 9 cups, or 72 ounces.

171 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/195.5/200/BMI:24.5/WK-24/Maintenance Graph/Weight Loss Graph

I stepped up on Mr. Scale at 6:00 AM, and he said “195.0 pounds.” To rephrase and only adage, “Easy go, easy come.” Still, that is not bad and I am told that sour kraut makes you retain water. So, I am feeling good about it still.

Here it is Halloween, a day that has been celebrated at least since the 5th century BC. It originated in Celtic Ireland, where the summer officially came to an end on October 31. They called this holiday Samhain (sow-en), which was the Celtic New year. So, Happy New Years! (The holiday season today, more or less runs from the old Celtic New Year, until our New Year.)

Not only is it Halloween, but there is going to be a full moon tonight, which I am told has not happened on Halloween since I was a wee little lad, 46 years ago. Of course the rain scheduled for today will probably make the moon’s phase invisible behind the clouds to those of us living in these parts.

Today, I should finally get the root canal done that has been pending for weeks now. Trick or Treat. I hope that my tooth and the surrounding bone and gum will be happier once this is finished. It would be nice if I could hold on to these last two molars. I am going to get a partial for the missing upper molars, and this will leave at least two real teeth to chew against. We will see how it all works out.

Yesterday, for me, was a day of computers and electronics. In the morning I was working on trying to get my dial up access working for my work laptop. For a few hours in the afternoon, I worked on a machine where I had to swap out a memory card and then test the machine to make sure that no errors were introduced. Then in the evening I played around with my networking problem at home. I found that I could “ping” Dotti’s laptop from the main computer, and it would respond just fine. But I could not get a response with the “Net View” command, which tests the networking setup. Something is still wrong, but the hardware looks good.

In twelve more days I will have completed my first 6 months on my journey. It is hard to believe that much time has gone by. It seems like such a short time ago that I started. However, it has really become a big part of my life during that time.

All parts of my day are touched by my journey. I start the day with Mr. Scale, and then grab my written journal to write down my weight. I then measure out my fixings for a cup of coffee, so I can count it. I next take my written journal over to the computer and write out my online journal. In the meantime Dotti fixes my breakfast and I eat that along the way. Usually I finish with the journal just in time to have to hurry up to get to work. In the car I usually have some cough drops, and the wrappers all go into my cup holder, where they can be counted at the end of the day. At work I will sometimes have a cup of decaf where I measure out the creamer. By lunchtime I am ready to eat, and there is my lunch, with all the ingredients measured out so I can count them. On the drive home, I have a head of romaine lettuce, a fresh cucumber and some fresh broccoli to eat on the road. When I get home, Dotti has my dinner ready all measured and ready to count. My water is noted all day as I drink it, and I mark it down in my journal. I count up my points after dinner, and calculate how many points I have to work with for the rest of the evening. I then will decide what snacks I can have to hit my desired points for the day. I write them down as I have them. And then the next day it is the same thing. It is pretty much routine now, and if anything messes up the routine, it is uncomfortable for me, as is the case when any habit is gone against. That was what I was aiming for at the start of my journey.

For eating yesterday I had my Standard Breakfast (5.0 pt.) and Standard Lunch (7.0 pt.). For dinner I had French fried potatoes (baked) (3.0 pt.), a corn on the cob (1.0 pt.), 2 hot dogs (2.0 pt.), and sour kraut (0.0 pt.). That added up to 5.0 points for dinner, and made 17.0 points for my meals. For snacks, I had 11 cough drops (3.0 pt.), a Mr. Cookie face (3.0 pt.) and 3 Dum Dum suckers (1.0 pt.). That came to 7.0 snack points. So, for the entire day I ate 25.0 points.

For water yesterday I drank 9 cups, or 72 ounces.

172 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/195.5/200/BMI:24.5/WK-24/Maintenance Graph/Weight Loss Graph

At 05:30 AM I stepped on Mr. Scale and he said “194.5 pounds.”

“Oh, the pain, the pain,” said Dr. Smith. I remember that phrase, often repeated on the old Lost In Space television show when I was in my early teens. Thanks to my visit to the dentist yesterday, I can relate only too well to the underlying thought of those words. Since she has been through a number of root canals, I asked Dotti if she ever hurt this badly after one, and she said no. Of course the tooth itself is dead now, but the bone and the gum tissues are not, and they were sensitive before the root canal was performed. (I had to take two Advil yesterday morning due to gum pain, even before the procedure was done.) What I am hoping for is that this pain is merely a flare up of that sensitivity because of the activity in the dentist’s chair, and that once and for all, the area will be able to heal up and allow me to keep this tooth and the one behind it. I am getting tired of having work done on teeth only to have to pull them afterwards. (The thought has crossed my mind several times that if I had this stupid tooth pulled a few weeks ago like I wanted to, I would be on my way to full recovery already.)

The Novocain started to wear off last night about 7:00, and I took two Vicodin at 7:30, because the area around my tooth was aching. I woke up at 2:30 AM in pain again, and took two more Vicodin so I could get back to sleep. I woke up at 5:30 AM and the pain is right back there, as if I had just been through an extraction not a root canal. The tooth is dead, having the root canals all cleaned out and sealed, but the bone and gums are aching like crazy. I took some Advil and I hope that will help ease the pain so I can get to work. I can’t believe how many days this year I have missed from work because of my teeth and I am tired of that.

I took some Advil yesterday, and I ate my full amount of points, but I still only weighed 194.5 this morning, which is a good sign that I am still heading down. I am in the lower half of the 190s today, which is getting me closer to my personal goal.

Due to the pain keeping me up, I am probably going to be tired all day today. I just hope that my tooth settles down as the day goes on, and I can get a normal night’s sleep tonight.

For eating yesterday I had my Standard Breakfast. I would have had my Standard Lunch, however, The dentist appointment in the afternoon, and some work obligations combined to leave me insufficient time. So, I did eat my two turkey sandwiches (3.0 pt.), my 5 meringues (2.0 pt) at noon, and then a head of romaine lettuce (0.0 pt.), on the way home from work to make my appointment, but I did not eat the rest. That gave me 5.0 points for lunch. For dinner, after my tooth was worked on, and my mouth was still numb, I had a bowl of bran flakes, which include 2 cups of flakes (4.0 pt.) and 1.5 cups of skim milk (3.0 pt.). That gave me 7.0 points for dinner, and totaled 17.0 points for meals. For snacks, I had 9 cough drops (3.0 pt.), 2 yogurts (4.0 pt.), a Jell-o dessert (1.0 pt.) and an applesauce cup (1.0 pt.). That came to 9.0 snack points, and for the entire day I had 26.0 points.

For water yesterday I drank 9 cups, or 72 ounces.

173 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/195.5/200/BMI:24.5/WK-24/Maintenance Graph/Weight Loss Graph

I got up at 5:40 AM and stepped up on Mr. Scale, and he said, “192.0 pounds.” I said, “Déjà vu.”

It is unbelievable. I am reliving the events of September 26 - October 3. On Wednesday, September 26, I had “root therapy” done on one of my two remaining molars. On Wednesday, October 31, I had a “root canal” done on the same tooth. On Friday, September 28, my gum and cheek began to swell in a very aggressive fashion, and the scale said I had lost 2.5 pounds since Wednesday. On Friday, November 2, my gum and cheek are once again swelling in an aggressive fashion and I have dropped 3 pounds since Wednesday. On Thursday night of September 27, I had a horrible night of pain, wishing that it were safe to take twice the recommended dosage of Vicoden, so I could get some sleep and not be in agony. On Thursday night, last night, I once again had a night of agony that was making me curse the manufacturers of Vicoden for giving me about half of the relief that I wanted, because it was wearing off a couple of hours before I could take more. On Friday, September 28, the pain lessened because the infection had migrated out of the small, contained cavity of the tooth well, and began to romp about my face in glee. That has once again happened, and this morning the pain has lessened from last night, and my cheek is expanding once more. On my weigh-in on Saturday September 29, I showed a very nice loss, but it was artificial, leading to the only gain I had the entire time on my journey so far on the following Saturday (October 6). Well, here I am today, only 2 pounds from my personal goal, but knowing that I may well have the same nice low weigh-in tomorrow, only to be followed by a bump back up on the following Saturday.

My dentist did not start me out on antibiotics this time right away. I was at work yesterday afternoon, when I realized that my tooth was beginning to ache significantly more than it had earlier in the day. So, I got on the phone with the dentist and he immediately called in a prescription for additional Vicoden, since I was about out from my supply left over from my earlier fight with pain.

Next, I remembered a conversation with Barb (LibraryLady) that I had last time my tooth was trying to kill me this way, and she mentioned the fact that pain is often as a result of infection building up under the tooth. I noticed that the gum was feeling just slightly swollen under the tooth. So, I got back on the phone with the dentist’s receptionist and she checked with the dentist for me, and it was agreed that I should get some antibiotics going. I told her that last time I was given two prescriptions for antibiotics. The first one, left the infection unchecked, as it laughed at such a feeble attempt to stop it. So, I didn’t want to waste time with that one this time. I told her I wanted the second antibiotic that was prescribed for me last time. I couldn’t remember the name of it off the top of my head but she said she would check with my pharmacy.

When we picked up the prescriptions after work, I saw that the antibiotic was Trimox. I told Dotti that they had given me the wrong one. When I got back home I found the old container of the weak antibiotic, and sure enough it was Trimox. I checked in my journal and found that the antibiotic that worked was called, Clindamycin H. I was not a happy camper at that point, but it was late and there was little to be done. This morning I am going to try and arrange to get the stronger antibiotics started sometime today, before the swelling gets totally out of control.

Last night, as I was struggling with trying to keep my sanity, in a wash of unrelenting pain, playing Snood unthinkingly just to get past the current minute and move to the next, I was reminded of my poor Dotti’s plight back in 1990. She had gone in for major abdominal surgery, and three weeks later she was just starting to get back on her feet just a bit, when all at once she had to go right back in for gall bladder surgery. (And it was the major surgery version -- no scope.) The second surgery nearly killed her. She had used up all her reserves for dealing with pain on the first traumatic surgery, and she had little left over for a second one. My situation is nowhere near as bad as what she had to deal with, but all last night I was saying to myself, “Not again so soon!” My mind was not ready to face all the same old stuff again, but life doesn’t ask you if you are ready before dealing its cards, it just lays them on the table and says, “Read ‘em and weep.”

I was able to get a couple of hours of sleep last night, but I am not going in to work today. I wouldn’t be any good to anyone. I also will have to run down and get my prescription filled when it is ready, because Dotti is busy helping her twin sister out with a ride, due to some car problems.

One thing that I found interesting was that I was taking Advil like crazy yesterday, but I didn’t seem to hold on to much water weight. Go figure.

I don’t know what today will bring, but I hope that I can get that swelling to stop increasing, and start shrinking soon. I also hope that this is the last time that I have to deal with infection with that same tooth. All last night I was asking myself, “Why didn’t you have it pulled in the first place?” Well, in a couple of weeks we will see if I made the right choice. If the tooth loses its looseness, and becomes solid again, I guess all of this will have been worth it. But if the tooth becomes a source of continuing problems I will be very upset.

My jaw is beginning to ache again, so it is time to wrap this up for today.

For eating yesterday I had my Standard Breakfast and my Standard Lunch, even though it was painful to eat it. I did not eat any of my fresh vegetables in the car, for fear of making the pain worse. For dinner I had three yogurts (6.0 pt.), with all my medication. That gave me 6.0 points for dinner, and totaled 18.0 points for meals. For snacks, I had 5 cough drops (1.5 pt.). So, for the entire day I had 19.5 points. That is low, but I was not all that concerned with it last night, as my tooth felt like it was trying to burrow in through my jaw to come out the other side.

For water yesterday I drank 12 cups, or 96 ounces.

174 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/195.5/200/BMI:24.5/WK-24/Maintenance Graph/Weight Loss Graph

*** Weigh-in for WEEK 25 ***

Week Completed:	___25___
Weigh-In Weight:	190.5
Body Mass Index:	23.8
Aerobic Points for week:	19.5
Week’s Average Points/Day:	23.4
Pounds +/- for this week:	-5.0
Pounds lost total:	49.0
Pounds to go to 10%:	0.0*
Pounds to go to goal:	0.0**
Pounds to go to 20%:	0.0***
Made LIFETIME: 11/3/2001
* Made 10% at 215.5 pounds on 7/14/01 ** Made Goal at 200.0 pounds on 9/22/01 *** Made 20% at 191.5 pounds on 11/3/01

___________________________

At 4:50 AM I decided to get my weigh-in done for this week. So I stepped up onto Mr. Scale, and he said, “190.5 pounds."

I would be very happy with that as my weigh-in if it were a legitimate value. However, I know that it is artificially low, due to the way I have been eating and feeling. I know that when I shake this infection off, I will move back up to where I really should be, around 195 pounds. But it is fun seeing the low numbers on the scale. It will look good on the graph this week, :) and then bad next week. :(

One thing that was covered up by all the tooth problems the last few days, at least until Dotti pointed it out, today is the day I made “Lifetimer”. It is my sixth weigh-in under my goal after making goal on September 22. Dotti did a real live happy dance for me (because I’m special :^) ).

“Oh, will it never end?” cried C3P0. I can certainly relate to that sentiment. My gum is swollen, my cheek is swollen, and it has even worked its way down my neck a bit, under my chin. I keep looking at the mirror and trying to determine whether it is more swollen or less swollen than the last time I looked. It is hard to tell, because when the small area that was swollen expands to a larger area, the height of the swelling at any given point may be a bit less, but the total volume of swelling is more. Looking at the swelling this morning, I think that it has peaked and is heading back down, but I am not certain. It has not gone down much if at all. I am just about at the same point where it peaked out last month before heading back down. So, I hope that is the case this time too.

I got a hold of my dentist yesterday morning and he called in a prescription for Clindamycin H for me. That is the heavy-duty antibiotic that I used last time to stop the infection wildfire, and it really did the trick. I am hoping that it will be up to a repeat performance this time.

I think back over how this all happened, and I just can’t believe the attitude of the medical profession sometimes. I went through a “root therapy” that turned into an infection nightmare. I was given antibiotics, and they beat the infection into submission. Right then would have been the time to do the root canal, when the infection was weak and helpless. Instead, I had to wait a month, before I could finish the procedure, and the bacteria used that month well. My tooth was heavily abscessed again when the root canal was performed on Wednesday. Now I am going through all the same things that I went through the first time, and I think it was for no good reason. There were two options available to avoid what happened this time: 1) The procedure could have been done, right after I finished the antibiotics the first time, a month ago, catching the infection in remission or 2) I could have been loaded up with heavy duty antibiotics before doing the root canal this time, so as to avoid this mess.

This is how I learn for the future. When I was young I relied on the medial professional to do all the thinking for me concerning procedures to be done. As I get older I am learning that is not a wise practice. You have to be proactive when you are being treated. The procedure that works best for the masses, which is what most dentists and doctors will give you unless you step in to help guide their selection, is not always the best procedure for you.

When I had breakfast yesterday, I had dry cereal (some form of Bran Flakes), which is very crispy, and it normally takes a long time to soften up in milk. So, after measuring it out into my bowl, I crushed it with a tamper into small pieces, put the milk over it, and then put the whole thing in the microwave for 50 seconds. It helped soften the cereal up quite a bit and made it easier to eat.

The rest of the food that I had for the day was naturally soft. I had some bread slices with my medication, and I soaked them with water to make them soft too.

I spent the day yesterday growing the size of my cheek, in pain from the infection, and in drowsiness from lack of sleep, and from the affects of the drugs. I did some writing, which I was surprised that I was able to get done in my condition, and I took a number of short naps. Finally about 5:00 PM I laid down, and I captured about an hour, or an hour and a half of sleep, waking up to run to the rest room, and then doing it again. I repeated this process until about 12:30 AM this morning, at which time I got up and played “Bejewled,” a computer game that Dotti purchased and is addicted to. I have not yet become addicted to the game, but it is fun. It requires a bit of thought, which is not easy when I am in pain, so it will not replace Snood as my game of choice for pain therapy.

Since the rest of my day was a haze to me, I am sure it would not merit going into in depth here. It is sufficient to say that I got through the day somehow, and I am now one day closer to returning to normal. (May it be soon!)

My eating yesterday was a mess. I had yogurt (2 pt.), with my cereal (2.0 pt.) and milk (2.0 pt.). That gave me 6.0 points for breakfast. For lunch, I had a Jell-o dessert (1.0 pt.), an applesauce cup (1.0 pt.), and a yogurt (2.0 pt.), totaling 4.0 points. For dinner I had one more yogurt (2.0 pt.), and a bowl of Cream of Wheat (4.5 pt.), bringing my dinner points to 6.5. That gave me a total of 16.5 points for meals. For snacks, I had 5 slices of bread with my medication during the day. (1.5 pt.). So, for the entire day I only had 18.0 points. That is low, but I just didn’t have the appetite for any more.

For water yesterday I drank 12 cups, or 96 ounces.

175 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/190.5/200/BMI:23.8/WK-25/Maintenance Graph/Weight Loss Graph