In follow up to my previous post, I spent the next Saturday (against my doctor's orders after my 2nd ESI on Friday - oops!) taking the huge pile of fat clothes to Goodwill and also taking a pile of other clothes -- good ones that I wanted to keep -- to the tailor to have them taken in! So I get to pick up what essentially will be 11 new pairs of pants and a new skirt next this weekend! It felt SOOOO awesome. And since I did all that, I've found even more things that need to go to both places -- very motivating! And while my weight has been sort of stuck in a 3-4 pound range for the past few weeks (probably because of the steroids and the lack of exercise -- per doctor's orders), I think it is back on the way down now. And since I'm going to start back on the treadmill today, though still for limited time periods, I'm sure I'll be down a few more pounds before I see my doctor again next week, and that's my real goal right now.

Another thing I've decided I have to do, after living through another hospitalization of my mom this past week (this time for an epidural hematoma on her spinal cord after a cervical ESI last week!) was to really try and work on being less negative in general every single day. Even though she was in a fair amount of pain for the first few days last week, mom was actually happy in the hospital for two simple reasons: she had her iPhone and her Nook with her. I.e., things that she could play with and learn about, which are the things that keep her happy and positive about things. The last few days she was there we had several conversations about how we both need to focus more on the positive things in life and do things to make ourselves feel happy and comfortable. For her, those things were basically centered around making herself spend money on fixing up her house. For me, they were more centered around making the best of my current work situation during the time I have to be here and to work on making as many positive new outside contacts as I can. I cannot live my life dealing with just the four other in this office, one of which (and unfortunately, the only one I am close to) has become almost completely negative and has driven me almost to the point of confronting her about it, because it's either that or avoid her almost completely, which clearly can't (and shouldn't) be done. But I need to spend more time with my more positive and supportive friend and her family, and then find some ways to make some new friends. Not quite sure how I'm going to do that exactly, but I am definitely making major efforts to talk to people more when I am out and about in everyday life, and that ALWAYS makes me feel good. And you never know where some random conversation will lead. So that's sort of my start. It may be small, but it's something!