Good morning everyone... How is everyone doing this wonderful morning?  It looks like we're full into summer now, with temps in the 90's and no rain in sight - at least for us, though other parts of our area are getting regular rains.  I'm not sure how that manages to happen every year.  Other people end up with lush green grass and beautiful flowers, etc and we end up with dry grass and nothing but weeds - hmmm...

Anyway, it's been an eventful week.  You'll be happy to know that I was able to go on Monday and have the awful ureteral stent removed - yep, the very one that was inserted a month ago following the Lithotripsy for my kidney stone.  I have to try not to think about that situation so much because it still upsets me, knowing that they inserted the stent and then forgot about it!!  That's just not cool for a doctor's office to do!!  

Anyway, that episode is over and when the next kidney stones need to be dealt with, I'll consider my options very carefully.  

On a brighter note, my calligraphy guild had a Zoom Study Group on Wednesday and we learned how to make neat little books that can be used for greeting cards or other gifts.  We've made different versions in the past and it's kind of fun to do something different and creative instead of simply going out to buy a card, though I'm not keen on sending a book as a card.  One of the books I made has pockets and I use it to carry exemplars for various calligraphy styles when we go to events - that way I can "attempt" to write in different styles and have the directions right in front of me.

At each event, someone (often me) in our calligraphy guild takes photos of the event and we put them in scrapbooks, as our "historical record".  It's a lot of work to do that, so periodically, a group of us get together for a scrapbooking day to try to catch up - we did that yesterday.  It was really my first "outing" since having the stent out and it was SO nice to be out and about with friends, feeling "normal" again.

I mentioned last week that neighbor has gone back to Oregon for the summer, so I no longer have my walking partner.  I had the ultrasound done on the arteries of my legs a while back and I do have some mild blockage; my cardio's office said I need to walk as much as I can, so I'm making a definite effort to walk every day, even without neighbor to nudge me!!   Even when she was here, we weren't doing a lot since I had the stent, but I'm trying to get back into it again to make sure I do "enough".  The cardio said, at least a mile/day, so that's my goal.  With the heat of summer, that might not be easy, but I'll do my best.

I also received results of the blood test that was done the day I had my pre-op exam for the Lithotripsy.  3 hours after eating, my blood glucose was at 160 - that long after eating, it should have been < 120.  I did relay that to my pcp's office so we'll see where that goes.  I do have a family history of diabetes (my son, 2 sisters and a brother), so my chances are pretty good.

All that said - I'm down 2 pounds from last week.  That puts me at a 20 lb loss since October.  I've seen over the past couple of weeks how easy it will be to regain if I'm not careful, so I need to try to come up with a plan to keep it off.  Although they say diet is the majority of weight loss, I've found that exercise is the key for me, so I'll have to make sure I'm diligent.  

Of course, there's also been this forum to help keep me focused and with the coming closure of MedHelp, there won't be that  - I'll save my comments on that for later.  

I hope everyone has had a good week.  I'm off to do some work outside.

~~Wishing everyone a wonderful, successful week~~