Well, the back is slowly getting better.  I have weened myself off the pain pills.  Only taking Motrin now.  My only problem is a bad case of restless leg syndrome when I try to sleep at night.  Not sure if that is from weening myself off the pain pills or what.  I am going to google it and see if I can find any type of relief from it.

On a good note, my weight was down to 213.2 lbs the other  day which is the lowest I have seen it in awhile.  It might be back up from the weekend, but it will go back down during the week.

Last week, my friend, Kacey, helped me take my dad to the doctor three different times.  She also helped taking him to another appointment on Tuesday.  She helps get the walker in and out of the car for us.  Her help is so invaluable.  Thanks Kacey!

All in all so far I feel like the back surgery was worth it.  

I had a decompression laminectomy or hemilaminectomy/discectomy Tuesday morning (4/24/2012).  Everything went smoothly.  After everything is healed up I should be pain and numbness free.  But that will take a while to get everything healed up.  The surgery was worse than I expected.  I didn’t realize that I would have a general anesthesia with a tube down my throat and everything.  Of course, I don’t remember anything about the surgery.  They had to put me on my stomach and try to put the breathing tube down my throat.  I guess it took two attempts.  When I woke up I had quite a sore throat and neck.  It is still a little sore today.  My back has about a two-inch incision where the surgeon cut into the back muscle to get to the L4 vertebrae. They removed some bone material from the facet joint so that they could get to the disc that was bulging.  They removed the part of the disc that was bulging and made the opening that the nerves go through a little larger.  

So I hope this fixes the pain and numbness problems that I have been having.  But right now, I am in a lot of pain in the back where they cut me open.  My muscles back there are still very sore and tender.  But each day seems to be getting better.  I still have some numbness and slight pain where I was having it before. 

I haven’t been posting about my paleo diet experience because I have been embarrassed that I haven’t been following the diet as strictly as I wanted to.  I still have quite a craving for sweets.  Also, making up things to eat is sometimes time consuming.  But I will keep trying.

Also, my back has been giving me problems more lately.  I feel like such a whiner, but the nerve pain is very aggravating.  Today seems to be the worse for some reason.  Sitting at my computer all day does not sound like fun.  So I am in bed with my laptop and an ice pack on my lower back.  I will alternate from heat to ice to heat to ice today and see if that helps any.

Today I am going to try to eat a spinach salad.  I made fish stew on Sunday and had some yesterday, but had a stomach ache after I ate it.  So I might have to throw out the stew.  We shall see.  I want to bake an onion sometime. 

My back might be hurting more because I bought some plants to put in our back yard.  I got a cilantro plant, a cinnamon basil plant, a tomato plant, and two strawberry plants.  I also got two ivy plants and 9 african marigold plants.  I have some tomato seeds starting to grow and some moon plant seeds that are germinating.  So I will have to plant those when they get big enough. 

Well, that is all for now. 

This will be a quick little update on how I am doing with the lifestyle change.  I don’t want to say that dirty word (diet), because then I will get frustrated that I am not following the diet.  Then my rebellious side kicks in and says, I don’t want to do it that way just because I have to.  I think when I am “forced” to do something I start sabotaging the thing that is forcing me.  But if I am doing this because I like the food and I want to feel better, then that is different.  I can even “cheat” a little as long as I still feel good.

Like this weekend - I cheated and had some grits for breakfast (plus eggs and bacon) and some pizza in the afternoon (because my husband is a pizza addict).  On Monday morning I had a lot of diarrhea and stomach pains.  So that tells me that I am on the right track because now today my stomach feels better. 

I didn’t eat that much yesterday, which I probably should have eaten more.  I did have a salad of just romaine lettuce, but the salad dressing was a homemade pineapple dressing from paleofood.com.  It was pretty good.  I will make another one today, but will add eggs and bacon, I think.  I have to go cook up some bacon first and boil some eggs.  I need to have some hard boiled eggs on hand when I forget to eat and need something fast.

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I baked some bacon and boiled some eggs.  Now I just need to make my salad.

I did want to say that I am still at 215.6 (down from highest of 225) and it is easier to put my shoes on and bend over to pick up things.  I think I have a little more energy.  I am still having troubles sleeping at night.  My hip pain really acts up at that time and I toss and turn most of the night.

On other news:

I have been checking my ancestry on ancestry.com.  I have traced a lot of my McMillan family back to Scotland, then Ireland, then Pennsylvania (Quakers), then Ohio (Quaker/Friends).  I came across an interesting thing about a George McMillan, who may or may not be related.  He supposedly killed his wife in 1882 and was hanged in Canton, OH in 1883.  I am doing more research, because it is an interesting thing.  I guess he said his father killed his wife.  While in jail awaiting his hanging he tried to starve himself so that he would not have to go through the barbaric torture of hanging.  I would think a slow death from starvation might have been worse.  But I hope I never have to find out.

I have been doing fairly well so far on this lifestyle change.  Yesterday I had grilled chicken and cauliflower rice.  It was pretty good.  Dave had some other rice that didn’t taste very good.  So when he had another piece of chicken he asked if he could have some of my “rice”.  As he was eating it I was surprised that he was not spitting it out.  He doesn’t like vegetables.  But he kept eating it.  When I told him what the rice actually was he said it did taste a little funky, but was impressed that it was almost like rice.

My weight is still running between 217 and 215 pounds.  I think soon I will drop another pound if I stay on this eating regimen.

Today will be hard because Dave will want pizza.  I probably will have some, but I usually only eat 2 pieces anyway.  But tomorrow I will get back on track.

I am having a little struggle with this diet.  I think I am eating too much fruit and that is causing me to still crave carbohydrates and sugary snacks.  Also I need to go to the store and get some more vegetables and meat.  I have some vegetables and some cooked chicken thighs, but the meat is a little dry.  I guess I will make a chicken soup with spinach with the leftover meat.  But I am working right now and don’t really have time to make it. 

The other frustration is that my weight went up 2 pounds.  I hope it goes back down tomorrow.  I know that there will be fluctuations, but it still gets a little depressing to have it go back up.

But I figure I will just keep plugging away.  I think I see a slight improvement in how my stomach feels. 

Also I went for another 20 minute walk.  Yesterday I did some warm up exercises with the exercise band.  So I am getting a little more exercise in my daily routine.

Yesterday I did pretty good.  My husband and I like to go to a small Mexican restaurant for breakfast on Saturdays.  We always get two breakfast tacos with bacon and soft tortillas.  There are potatoes and cheese mixed with the eggs and bacon.  Probably some milk to make the egg batter.  So while it isn’t exactly Paleo, it is pretty close.  I ate the first taco like normal with some mild salsa, but the second one I just ate the filling and not the tortilla.

Then I had some leftover pork rib and some vegetables.  For some reason I can’t remember what vegetables I ate.  Weird.  Later in the day I had a broccoli slaw salad and a smoothie made with banana, blueberries, blackberries, almond milk and some carmel flavoring.  It wasn’t too bad, but I won’t use those blackberries again; too many seeds.

Today we went out again for breakfast.  It is almost about the only time we have to spend together and get out of the house with Dave’s sports editor job and my work at home computer tech job.  I opted for a bacon, avocado, tomato, omelet with monterrey jack cheese, fruit cup and some toast.  I only ate half of slice of toast.  For lunch the rest of the leftover pork rib (which was dry), snow pea pods, broccoli slaw, and a glass of white wine (picture will be included next).

Today was I pleasantly surprised to find the scale said I weighed 215.8.  I didn’t really exercise yesterday and might not today either.  But will try to exercise tomorrow morning.

I am dealing with another problem.  I have been taking Percocet for about 7 months now due to a painful back problem with numbness and tingling and pain down into my right foot.  I think the pain doctor thinks I need to have back surgery and I have been trying not to do that, but might have to.  But it is a little better right now, and I shouldn’t have to take the Percocet every day.  But when I try to not take it, I become a wreck.  Chills, sweats, very uncomfortable feeling like I am crawling out of my skin.  Can’t relax, can’t sleep, can’t really do anything.  So yesterday I tried again, but that didn’t work very well.  I am going to try reducing the dosage by cutting in half and maybe thirds if I have to.  I only had 1/2 tablet last night and then again today around 1.  I hope to not need another until bedtime tonight and will only take 1/2 tablet again.

All in all, I think the diet will do well.  I still have some “cheats”, but they are not big ones.  It is interesting that my husband has lost so much weight (215 down to 158) by doing a low fat, low sugar diet.  That didn’t work for me.  It was boring and yucky.  This diet seems better for me.  So he and I have totally different meals.  I will post the picture of the chicken/noodle with savory garlic sauce meal that I made for him.