December 11 - I feel like a broken record but there's nothing I can do about it. I still have thrush. :-( I called and left a message for Dr. A yesterday letting her know. We'll see if she has any new ideas on what to do about it. It made for an even more unpleasant than normal dentist visit yesterday. When the slightest pressure makes the inside of your mouth bleed, it ain't pretty. On the bright side, the dental hygienist (DH) said my teeth are looking good and she can tell I've been doing a good job taking care of my mouth. Meanwhile, the swelling thing in the back of my throat seems even worse than it has been. I just took the pain meds 2 hours ago but I still feel a very strong urge to gag so drugs aren't even helping at this point. Ugh! I hope it doesn't prevent Dr. C from doing a scope next Tuesday because I really want to know what the hell is going on and what we can do about it. And now that I'm thinking about it, I'll have to make sure to take the pain meds an hour before that appointment because if he does scope me, there will be a camera getting shoved up my nose and down my throat which sucked the first time he did it and will likely be much worse now with the mess that's going on in my mouth/throat. <sigh>

The DH mentioned that the salt/baking soda thing was a good idea but I should really only do it once a day. She said 3-4 times a day and I'm likely killing the good bacteria in my mouth as well as the bad bacteria. So, I've decided to use it right before bed each night and just use regular water the rest of the time.

I scrolled back through a couple of blogs and it looks like I weighed 127.8 on 11/30. This morning I weighed 126.8. Only down one pound over an 11 day period! I think that's progress! I took myself to the Crab Shack this past Saturday and had a bowl of lobster bisque. I also got a bowl to-go which I ate last night for dinner. The nice thing about bringing it home is that I was able to run it through a strainer and get all the lobster chunks out. Made eating it a ton easier although yes, it was depressing as all get out to have to toss a quarter of a cup of lobster meat in the garbage. There's always a price to pay, right? I'm planning on taking Patilda there this Saturday for dinner and I'll be sure to get another bowl to-go. I'm still doing pretty good with drinking an eggnog milkshake every other day too. I know Dr. A wants me to eat one every day but I just can't do it. I don't want to get sick of them and then not eat them at all! I actually got a strawberry milkshake last week to try and mix things up. They forgot to give me a straw so I wasn't able to drink it until I got home at which point I discovered it totally tasted like freezer burn. Gross! It went right into the garbage. I guess not a lot of people are keeping milkshakes moving this time of year. Meanwhile, I'm getting kind of excited for St. Patty's day now. I think Mickey D's is the chain with the green milkshakes. Sammy/Mark introduced me to one of those last year and it was SUPER yummy! I just might be able to step up my milkshake intake for that particular flavor!

So, I posted last week that I was going to start hoarding money, not shop, that I had enough clothes to last a lifetime. Yeah right. At 126 pounds I am now a size 4. I have never been a size 4 in my life. Back in high school, when I weighed 118 pounds, the smallest size I could wear was a 9 because of my lovely, child bearing hips. Anywho, my pants are once again hanging off of me. I can't even begin to describe how sick I am of going through my closet and removing everything that no longer fits. (Yeah, I'm once again shocked to hear myself say something like that but it's true!) Some of which I didn't even get a chance to wear!! I went to Walmart and bought a bunch of plastic totes. I am now packing up all the 'big' clothes for storage. I'm also carefully vetting everything for "style" and I have a growing pile bound for the thrift store as well. I'm not huge into fashion but once something has sat in your closet for 15 years, it doesn't hurt to take a close look at it and make sure you're not going to look like too big of a doofus wearing it today. I had also forgotten that I used to buy myself clothes at the thrift store that I totally loved but that were too small. I would tell myself that as soon as I lost 10 pounds I would be able to wear them and hey, since I was shopping in a thrift store, it was cheap as dirt anyway. I am now able to wear two pairs of jeans that I bought years ago but never managed to fit into and let me just say, they are super cute and it was totally worth the wait! And all of this rambling leads up to the fact that I went on a bit of a spree on Saturday night. It was the bisque! It gave me an energy surge! I am now the happy owner of a credit card for The Dress Barn. (I seriously hate that name but I love their clothes!) (And I normally frown on credit cards for individual stores, but there was a 15% discount if I signed up. My total went from $325 down to $276, how could I turn that down!?)  I bought 5-6 pairs of pants and a couple of dresses in a size 4. (And I might have bought a few tops/sweaters as well........) So, I am once again outfitted for work. Let's hope my weight is finally stabilizing and I can be done with the shopping, and the trying on, and the cleaning out of closets, and the packing for storage, and the...............