Slimdude

since we last blogged.

broke back…fractured in 3 lower vertebrae.

test results still indicate cushings… 2 much cortosol.

bonedensity scan reveals i have severe osteoporosis now.

-2.5 is OP and my numbers are beyond that.

still, i crawl on. also standing and walking a bit with waklker. i am now`frail and easily breakable but my spirit is` still bold.

probably my mil career is kaput. they didnt treat me in time.

oh well. life moves on.

im going 2 have a great c-mas w my ife, little boy, dad and step=mom and grandma and i hope yall do the same.

also im still exercising, believe it or not. baby weights on the couch and an hour of “lieBo” —punches thrown in the air— every day. other than the CS and theOP im in great shape. its true my arms and legs are tiny now but they are enough.

—matt

Thanks again, BSers for your comments. Perhaps later on today I will have the opportunity to visit your Blogs and catch up. You’d think with all my downtime I’d be by to visit more often, and the kindness with which you’ve supported me with is great.

 I’m starting to think of my trips to medical with my wife as “dates”. true, they are not neccesarily romantic in the traditional sense, but they do give you an opportunity to talk about so many things. We like to talk about what our future plans are , our family, celebrity gossip and even things as flippant as make-up. I do not know anything about make-up and quite frankly I have a hard time feigning interest. But my wife at heart is a girlie girl and she loves to make comments about how much she loves a certain lip gloss or a certain brand.

 According to her, revlon is good but almay is horrible.

 But these are the small things I love about my wife. And bless her heart she has done everything around here. I mean, she gets up at the latest about 7am, makes me breakfast and takes care of everything. She then wakes up our son and takes care of him.

Then she has to get us both ready, if we both have things to do. He goes to daycare everyday and lately I’ve had doctor’s appointments every morning.

On top of that, she keeps the house clean and runs all the errands and does all the chores and she is also attending college classes and pretty soon she will start her courses to become a nurse. Oh the sweet coincidence of that one.

So yeah I think between my wife, my son, the BuddySlimmers and my family yeah I have a really great support system in place. oh yeah and my regular job, too. they are like a second family and they have been great.

okay so celebrity gossip. i recently read rosie o donnells book, celebrity detox and it is great. i loved rosie and i thought she was great on The View, she was the only good thing about it. Not that I watch The View all that often anyway. yeah I do like some girl shows, but a dude has to draw the line somewhere. I do think Whoopi does a great job though from what I see. I highly admire Whoopi and I think she’s awesome.

Well so Rosie’s book lets you see what a crazy dictatorship The View is run by Barbara Walters and ABC and i can’t believe that someone who has all these great interviews and such a braodcast legacy like BW is basically squandering it on a stupid show like the view.

And it seems like BW doesn’t get something: young people like me don’t really care. We know she is a legend and all that but someone like Rosie is way cooler and way more relevant. Relevancy. That;s it. Barbara Walters is not relevant to the year 2007. Period. She trots out this stupid once a year Most Intersting People special where she asks the most boring-ass questions and who really cares.

I bet Meredith Viera, who is a real journalist, almost lost her friggin mind being surrounded by the likes of Walters, Hasselbeck, Star Jones, and Joy.

Joy isn’t so bad but she’s just sort of ho-hum. She’s not that funny she just reminds me of a zany old aunt that gets drunk at every wedding.

and i’m glad sherri shepherd is on the show to fill in the moron spots left wide open by star jones and liz h.

i’m sorry to be harsh and you know i am a liberal social progressive type person, but people like sherri just drive me up the wall.

did ya’ll see her nonsense blathering about “the world might be flat”. can she really be that dumb?

next thing you know she’s lushing it up with martha stewart and a bowl of alchoholic punch.

her latest thing was about some little boy who was in daycare and innocently dressed up in a dress and sherri’s all like “I’;d be upset because boys are supposed to dress a certain way and girls are supposed to dress a certain way” and all that.

now this might sound crazy and controversial from a white dude here, but does sherri realize that if everyone had her type of mentality in this great nation of america, people with her skin color would still not be allowed to vote and they’d still be on the back of the bus. thank god some of us are willing to push the envelope and make positive change and not be stuck in the dark ages like sherri sheppard.

argh, i really hate being mean but that whole thing just pissed me off. i’m gonna be proud of my son no matter what he does. if he’s a big macho football player, rock on. and if he turns into a swishy dress-wearing salsa dancer i’ll still be just as proud.

as long as he doesn’t become a republican.

hahahaha i’m just kidding ya’ll.

i really don’t like to get that much into politics because i just want the whole world to get along, ya know? so i hope if any of ya’ll are really conservative or really republican i didn’t make you mad.

i’ve said ya’ll way too many times in this blog entry.

—matt

Well tonight I come 2 u in better spirits. I went to normal PCM today and I was in pain but he took me seriously and ordered some more tests… also did new X-rays on my back and shoulders and ribs and all… and they came back “NEG” for any new breakerage.

 So I don’t know… there are no answers as far as what is causing my immediate pain. I do know that I increased the amount of time that I go between taking my pain killers. It was 4 hours but now I’ve got it on five and I may go for six soon.

I am still on leave and I have a whole series of tests to complete between my regular doc on base and the SPecialist. Like I’ve said before, their BEST GUESS so far is CUSHINGS SYNDROME. But the final diagnosis is pending further testing.

Today I probably got up about ten times in all and that includes walks to the bathroom and around the Medical facility while we were there. I use my walker but I try not to lean on it as much as possible. And I think, even though I feel very weak in my back and legs, it IS helping. I am getting stronger and stronger, I think. I tell myself that yesterday’s ER visit will be my lowest point and I will NOT ever let myself be unable to move or stand like that.

They put me on new BP meds and those I start tomorrow.

First of all, thanks to my wife. She has been an absolute angel during all this. She knows I can only do so much so she still makes my meals and even today she had to help me take a bath. The upside is, well… having your spouse rub you down with soap? Hey that sounds great! except then you kind of consider what the circumstances are, you know, having an extremely limited range of motion and stamina, and the romance of it sort of flies out the window.

Then let me thank all you BuddySlimmers. Your comments mean so much to me and I know even the ones of you that come by but don’t leave any comments… I know you care, too!

Okay well as for fitness and weight=loss : I have not stepped on a scale in quite a while now but I am almost positive I’ve met my goal. But the funny part is, I don’t look anything like I used to look at 140. I have this big round face and a big round belly but meanwhile my arms and legs are stick thin.Like seriously they are old man limbs. I know that this is also related to the CS, but it doesn’t make it any more comforting. I lost weight all right, in muscle mass and tone.

But that’s okay. I’m gonna build back slowly. Walking around with walker. Then without walker. Then I’ll start walking more regularly, then the Gazelle, etc and before you know it I’ll be back to weight training, jogging, aerobics, and maybe even do that P90X program next year.

One last note for the night, Guilty Pleasure in watching Project Runway. I am not good at picking apart the fashions or anything but I always know what I like and what I hate.

My wife and I have developed this semi-nightly ritual of putting The Boy to bed, then watching some TV while we have a small snack, sometimes I have a fudgesicle or sometimes some Jell-O or a just a diet soda. And then I rub her feet with lotion.

So that is my life and over=all it is still grand. yes I am in pain and yes I am struggling with just walking but I still have it great overall. My wife and Cable TV and my son started talking so much more (for him) and it is so cute! I am so excited when he says something new!

“Cookies”, “Cupcake” and “Cartoon” are all brand new and he already says “dada” “Mama” “ball” “Nana” and “SpongeBob” which to be honest sounds more like “BobBob”

—Matt

— i don’t want 2 go 2 rehab…

yesterday got scary. from 2am on I gradually lost feeling in my extremities until I was in a lot of pain and I could feel but I could not make my hands, legs, arms, feet move without extreme pain and difficulty.

 bp was extremely high, at 160/120 something.

called 911 and spent the morning in ER strapped to the tgorture device aka back board.

tests came back normal but the crazy thing is, they did not do any scans on my ribs or back at all. Not one.

Gee, the area with the most pain.

Wasn’t hungry, got sick.

Went to Endocrinologists office and he ordered more tests, which I have up to 3 weeks to finish.

I need answers.

Back still hurts so much, even on Medication. BUT I have decided to make myself get up several times a day. Unassisted if possble, but with my walker if I need to.

Even sitting here now with my laptop… shooting pain in my back and legs. Must find a better position…

hope u r all doing well.

thnx 4 the supportive comment.

—Matt

i got a laptop. early xmas present. most days i lie flat on my back and watch tv and read all day. muxles hurt. joints ache. ribs hurt. aking meds, eating 1200-1500 cal per day. still figuring out how to type comfortably. glad i’m back on the net. tghis thing sitting on my chest is heavier yjam i thouhjt it woiuld be, please esxcuse the spelling errors. like i said, still workig out hot to type … can barely see ghe keybard. have fun.’

matt.