So this is my first post. I named my blog "The first day" because of my mother. She has always told me my whole life, "Today is the first day of the rest of your life". I'm sure that most of you heard that from your own parents as well. A very true statement for me today as I embark on a personal quest, to lose weight. Yes I know there are a lot of weight loss blogs. Mine wont be simply about weight loss, although I will be tracking mine as the days pass and another "first day" is before me. 

I like to say that I'm a walking medical disaster, in a jokingly manner of course. But I do have a few health issues that I am dealing with. First, I'm overweight. I'm not just a little overweight, I'm technically "obese". I hate that word by the way. I can joke around and say I'm pleasantly plump or that I'm just fluffy but at the end of the day, I'm just plain fat. Ive been overweight pretty much my entire life. When I look at pictures from when I was 9, I was overweight even then. I have had a lot of tragic things happen in my life that I do feel had an impact on me that helped me to become overweight.

I have hypothyroidism, of which I have recently been put on medication for and I am actually taking it now. I've never been good about taking care of myself, but even though I keep protesting it, I keep getting older lol so its time to start taking care of myself. 

I'm a diabetic. My grandmother was diabetic, my mother is diabetic and about 7 years ago I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I tried all sorts of pills, then used insulin for a while which was a blessing, but after not being able to afford the insulin I am back on a pill for it. Thank God its not Metformin, that was horrible for me. So one of the things I need to do is check my sugar a bit more often. Especially since Ill be counting carbs, trying to take off some weight and starting to exercise. My doctor said to just check it every now and then but I think Ill make it a habit of a fasting check every other morning and a random check every couple of days. I haven't decided if I will bore you with the results of those checks yet.

Skin issues. Ugh! I hate this part of my life. I have a rare, genetic form of psoriasis. Palmo Plantar Pustular Psoriasis, better know as PPPP. This has been hard to deal with at times. It is small, very painful blisters that I get only on the palms of my hands and feet. Well around the edges of my feet too. Sometimes I will have a small spot the size of a quarter flare up, sometimes its the entire surface. Ill post some photos of what this looks like so you get a general idea of what I'm talking about. 

I also have Hidradenitis Suppurativa, another skin disease, which causes boils that are connected under the skin to other boils by tunnel like tubes which makes it very hard to treat. I know, this is disgusting to me too but I want to be as open and honest as I can about myself.

Diabetic neuropathy oh joy! I HATE this. I can't tell you how many nights I have laid in bed with my feet feeling like they're on fire and me wiggling my legs all over the place in hopes to get some relief which doesn't come. My doctor recently gave me some pain meds to help deal with the pain and it has been a bit better but yeah, I wouldn't even wish this on anyone. 

I'm in the very early stages of kidney disease. This is a good thing for me to know, because it's early enough to reverse it. I'm currently taking Lisinopril which is a blood pressure medication, but I'm taking it to help protect my kidneys, not to lower my blood pressure. My blood pressure isn't really high enough for me to take medication for it but this is used often to help the kidneys of diabetics.

I have retinopathy. This was first discovered when I was 17 years old. I had my first bleed in my left eye. I had laser surgery the day after they discovered it and thank God I didn't lose my sight in that eye! They said had it been another week without the surgery my retina would have detached and I would have been permanently blind in that eye. Well, I'm 44 now, and Ive had a small bleed in my right eye. This is something that a lot of diabetics have to deal with unfortunately. What happens is the blood vessels in the eye grow too fast so they are weak, then they break open and cause scar tissue to form on the retina. Without laser surgery to kill the blood vessels it can get out of control and cause blindness. I have had surgery on my left eye several times now. The biggest annoyance to me is the blood that's left floating around in the gel in the eye. Sometimes I cant see something directly in line of view, Ill have to move my eye around to get the blood to move over. I don't like driving at night anymore, its a bit scary for me although Ive never had an accident, I just don't feel I see as good driving at night. If you're a diabetic you should see a retina specialist at least once a year to have your eyes checked.

I have depression, caused by a menagerie of things, some of which Ill be talking about in the future. I luckily have a therapist and good medications so I'm not sitting on the couch unable to do anything because I'm crying all day uncontrollably. Yes, it was that bad. But you know, I think things will be looking even brighter than they have been. Life is looking good these days :O)

So this is what I physically am dealing with. I also take care of my husband, who after being injured on the job 6 years ago, has been unable to walk due to a chronic pain disease called RSD/CRPS. Ill be talking about that a lot too as I'm dealing with doctors on a constant basis and my husband who I love so very much, struggles to deal with everyday life while being in so much pain. Just so you know, RSD is not just pain, its skin discoloration, hair changes, swelling, calcium uptake, muscle loss, tremors... Ill get into this on another day. On another first day to be exact :o) 

So later today I'm going to post some pictures, maybe dress up the blog some, post my weight, talk about how I do my carb counting and some other stuff that has popped into my head.

I guess that's it for now then!