Hi All,
For the benefit of Kay (TarHeel) particularly, I would like to explain the reason for my occasional visits to this thread. Every year on my birthday in September, the low-carber team send me an e-mail wishing me a happy birthday, attaching also a link to this site, which I used to visit at least once a day. So I click on the link, thinking I'll have a read of what's going on now in the world of low-carbing, and spend half an hour or so browsing round the whole site. Then, I come across this section of threads that have been preserved through all these years, and notice that this thread is - amazingly -still here. So then I wonder if anyone has visited again since I last looked in, at least a year before, and go straight to the back page, from where I work backwards, till I find my own last entry, then I read everything in between. There I find that others have visited and left remarks which always touch me. Still, after all these years, I read about really nice people who have been treated really badly by unthinking, uncaring, unhelpful people whose IQ is smaller than their shoe size. And yet I still feel I have gained by reading them. Firstly, we have all been victims of these insensitive people who have made us feel wretched, so I get a notion of companionship, comradeship and rapport. Then, I am genuinely impressed by what my fellow sufferers have survived, and feel a mixture of anger that they should have had to tolerate it, combined with pride and inspiration because they did. Then I think of myself sitting here on the south coast of England thousands of miles away from many of the readers of this thread, but feeling far closer to them than to many of my neighbours and compatriots. Finally, I feel it is cathartic for us all to bare our souls in this way in this safe place, knowing that your readers are going to be sympathetic and in all probability have similar experiences of their own to describe.
After that, I feel compelled to write something more as a result of what I have read, and this makes the thread "current" again. It gets seen by a new batch of readers, who feel compelled to add something, and then when I get my next birthday message I find more postings, and answer them again. Incidentally, just in case you are wondering why I did not reply in September, I moved house and lost my broadband link for a couple of months this year. When I finally managed to get back online, there were 3,000 messages in my e-mail inbox, including the one that linked me back to this site. As for where other people are now, I can see that Homegirl and Lessara are still visiting from time to time, and I suspect that Doreen and Rosebud are still very busy around the site; also I have seen Natrushka's name on a recent posting. So some of the "old" crowd are still around. As for me, I am still losing weight and still having to work at it, but don't feel I have anything new to offer that I haven't already posted elsewhere. I now suffer from arthritis in my feet and ankles, and from chronic venous insufficiency, with frequent bouts of ulceration. Naturally, the medical people (doctors, nurses, even receptionists) all assume that these medical conditions are brought about by my weight, and refuse to believe it when I say that I was suffering from chronic venous insufficiency for years before my weight escalated. Luckily my blood pressure and cholesterol readings are both low, I don't smoke and I don't drink, so the medical people are not too sanctimonious with me. Even so, they still act as if I deserve it!
I must recount one embarrassing experience I had recently. After a prolonged bout of leg ulcers, I was finally able to go swimming for the first time in 15 months. Swimming is a great activity, because you can exercise every muscle in your body, you can work at your own pace, you can gradually build up the activity over a period of time, and best of all the water's buoyancy supports you, giving all your leg joints relief from having to carry your weight around while you are exercising. All went well until it was time to get out. The workout was unhurried, but fairly intense, and I was tingling with a feeling of good health. But then I found that I couldn't get out of the pool! The steps were not wide enough for me to get my whole foot on, and because of the arthritis in my feet and ankles I was unable to walk up them with only the front half of the foot making contact. I tried hauling myself out of the shallow end, but the arthritis meant I could not push with my feet, and I was unable to pull myself out with just my arms. Of course, the other swimmers in the pool assumed it was my weight that was preventing me from getting out. In the end, the lifeguard went to his store cupboard (or closet) and extracted a heavy plastic manikin used for teaching resuscitation to life-savers. With the rest of the pool watching his every move, he brought it down to the shallow end, filled it with water so that it sank, and I was finally able to climb out by standing on it and hauling myself up with my arms. He told me that next time he would have to use the hoist to get me out. So I made enquiries and found out that a disabled group use the pool once a week, and all their members need to use the hoist to get in and out, so I guess I'll be joining the disabled group so that I don't stand out each time I enter and leave the water! Interestingly, when I have used other swimming pools, they have had steps wide enough for me to get out myself, by simply walking up them.
Good luck to everybody. I think you are all amazing, and I wish you all well.
Andy
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