42 Weeks

Yesterday was 42 weeks from surgery. Since then, I have lost 118.4 pounds, and 178.2 pounds total. Never in a million years would I have believed in February that I would be where I am today. But, I AM here – and that is cause to celebrate! (I have lost 64.71% of the weight I want to lose.) I have another reason to celebrate. Congestive heart failure zaps my strength. One of most visible ways this has happened for me is singing at the choir at church. In the not too distant past, I have been unable to stand while singing. Dave wants me in the choir – and the choice was either to sit and sing – or not to be in choir at all…so I sat. I have been making progress – standing for one song on Sunday morning – standing for a couple of songs in our patriotic musical in June. But last night – during dress rehearsal for our Christmas musical – I stood for EVERY SINGLE SONG! Granted, Dave builds a lot of sitting time into our musicals. We have a variety of ages represented in our choir, and a number of health issues. So, he arranges for everyone to sit as often as possible in order to accommodate that. He would much rather someone sit and sing, than not to have the opportunity to sing at all. Anyway, I’m doing the happy dance this morning – because standing (and doing everything else I did during rehearsal – drama, costume changes, signing “O, Holy Night”) means that my stamina is increasing – and my health is improving.

I’m making it through this busy week. Tonight, I have to build a well (if that intrigues you, you’ll just have to come to the performance on Friday or Sunday to see why). And tomorrow is the performance. It should be wonderful! We had a couple of glitches in dress rehearsal – but nothing too severe, and truthfully, I always worry a little if we DON’T have something go wrong during rehearsal. That is what dress rehearsal is for – and we get it out of the way – and everything is good for performance on Friday.