Feeling inspired and so blessed!!

Tuesday, January 08, 2013

I feel really good today. I am feeling exceptionally inspired to work on my goals for 2013. I want to shout it the world!! I cannot even pay any attention to my aches and pains.They get my attention everyday... Today I want to give my attention to all that is great in my life.

I am soo blessed and I truly believe that all of my goals are attainable. I will lose weight, exercise and eat healthier. I will be healthier this year than I have been in a long time. My spirit will resonate with positive vibes and spread love and peace to those around me. I will surround myself with inspirational people, read inspirational stories and quotes and share them.

I am incredibly blessed with a wonderful family. I have a great husband and an amazing son. I have 5 siblings including my twin sister. They are such a big part of my life and inspire me to be better as well. I live in a comfortable home that is accessible for my son, that uses a motorized wheelchair. I have all of the daily necessities that my family requires to make our lives easier. My parents are both alive and well in Puerto Rico. I have medical insurance for myself and my son to take care of our medical needs. We have great doctors and accessibility to and from our appointments. I have a place to share with incredible people my ups and downs. Today, I will only share my ups : )... I am blessed in so many ways that a blog could never cover them all. I would be writing forever.

I will not give up or give in to negativity. I have done enough of that. It's time for success to take center stage in my life.. Yay! Success!You have my full attention.

Have a blessed year full of many successes. Sending you all positive vibes(((())))

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I got the thumbs up for light exercise from my doctor... Yay!!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Hi everyone. Yesterday I had my appt. with my doctor at the headache center. I went in to get routine nerve block injections in my head. I was talking to her and asking her about how she can help me reduce my weight and the pain that is associated with any type of exertion. I was surprised to see how much she wanted to help me and was happy that she used one of my suggestions. She gave me a medication used to control blood pressure that I should take 1 to 2 hrs. prior to exercise. She is going to supervise me for six weeks and will make any changes accordingly.

This week I have to start off with two days and see how that goes. Baby steps that I am happy to take. I just took the medication about an hour ago so I am going to see how it goes. Wish me luck in the next six weeks. I am still not going to weigh in for another two to three weeks and I am excited to see how well I am doing.

Thanks for reading, Maria

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MY ST. PATRICK'S DAY - 3 YRS AGO, BRAIN SURGERY!! PHOTOS (VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED)

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Hi spark community! I wanted to share with you one of the reasons I lost control of my health and weight.
Over three years ago, I was suffering with debilitating headaches that led to paralysis and the inability to speak. My twin sister had suffered with the same headaches. After seeing a number of specialists, I was told that I had Chiari Malformation 1. It appeared that my brain was too big for my skull causing my brain to squeeze into my spine. It was about 13mm in. This was causing my CSF(cerebral spinal fluids) flow to go slower than it should. With these headaches I also dealt with only being able to laugh or cry a little at a time due to the pain it would cause my head. Anything strenuous would cause me severe pain and I'd feel liquid rushing in my head. My paralysis and the headache "episodes" became more frequent and I was sent to a Neurosurgeon.

I showed him all of my lab work,x-rays, mri ,etc. He then explained that I would need decompression brain surgery. He said in detail that he would have to remove a piece of my skull (craniectomy), remove the first vertabrae from my spin, C1 (laminectomy) and cover the hole in my skull with my own tissue from my brain (duraplasty). I was shocked by the diagnosis and more shocked about the proposed solution. I had never heard of anything like that.
After speaking to all of my doctors and my family, we agreed I'd give it a shot.

Here I am almost three years post surgery. I am sorry to say that I did not get any better and in fact, I became more ill after the surgery. I was diagnosed with a number of different conditions post surgery. I am now considered disabled and all of these stresses and the inability to do most physical activities without feeling pain lasting for many days later.

I MUST say that I have learned so much from sp that this St. Patrick's Day I am very proud of all of the mental progress I have made. Many of these small changes are helping me get healthier overall. I have managed to lower my cholesterol 40 numbers in about a month and I eat much healthier than before sp. I now see a team of headache specialists and am really following up with all of my check-ups.

I wanted to thank all of my sp friends and sp staff for all of the love, encouragement, support and resources provided to me on a daily basis. I am truly blessed.

Below I have some pictures that I wanted to share with you. I hope they don't freak anyone out and I hope you will be able to see them (provided sp allows it). If you cannot see them please send me sparkmail and i will send it to you via mail.





The first pic is the day after my surgery.
The second one is about a two weeks later.
I had to get hospitalized again to re suture my surgery site.


This St. Patrick's Day I will rejoice for how far I have come and how far I have to go!!

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Day one of no scale, OMG!!

Wednesday, March 07, 2012

Hello sp friends. I was successful on day one of not weighing myself for a while. Wow, I have to say it was harder than I thought. I kept feeling anxious and I was very tempted to just take a peek. Good thing that my husband hid the scale from me yesterday. Although I know he probably would have given it to me if I asked enough... : ) That was yesterday ...

Today, I am SO happy that I sent my scale on vacation. I have been exercising a little, eating better and getting a bit more sleep and because I didn't get a disappointed number on the scale I was actually proud of myself. I feel very strongly that I am able to accomplish my goals and feel that sense of satisfaction in different ways. I feel more confident about myself in just two days of not using the scale.

When I woke up this morning I felt a little bit of the anticipation that I felt about weighing in but I started thinking about how it made me feel when I did that and the anxiety went away quickly. I was able to focus on feeling god about myself because I know that every good choice I am making is a step in the right direction. I even have more energy and feel like I can do many things that will help me reach my goals.

Thank you for all of your support and encouragement. Will keep you posted, Maria

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I am sending my scale on vacation!!

Monday, March 05, 2012

Yes I am going to stop weighing myself for a little while. This is VERY difficult for me to do because I literally live by the scale. I know that I shouldn't allow the numbers displayed to guide my day but they always do. I know that the scale is not the only tool used to determine my success in this long journey but I always fall into the trap and I do get a bit of a rush right before I weigh myself. Then time and again I am disappointed at the numbers but I also allow those numbers to bring me down .

I have lost about 12 lbs. so far on this journey and I have learned a great deal from all of the sp resources that I am lucky to have. I believe deep down inside that if I continue to rely on those numbers, I cannot put all of my knowledge to good use. The numbers drive me crazy and throws me off my A game.

For the next two weeks or so, I will be working towards feeling better about myself because I have accomplished my daily goals, including exercise...

Wish me luck because I believe that the support I receive from my sparkfriends always push me to do what I have set out to do.

Bye, Bye Scale!! Hello freedom to feel great about every other accomplishment I make from here on in! Thanks for reading, Maria

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