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Woody · 05-01-2005, 01:23 AM

Hi Everyone, long time no type huh? I thought I'd share what's been going on in the Woods.(Our last name) A quick review for the people that don't know us; I had an open RNY in April of 2002. My wife, Terry had the same in May of 2002. We both did well with no complications. Terry has lost 110 lbs and is maintaining. I think I lost about 125. I don't weight myself very often. I can tell how I'm doing just by the way my clothes fit. I went from a size 50 to a size 38 so I'm happy.

Our lifestyle has changed since the surgery. Most of my pre-surgery illnesses have gone, including diabetes, sleep apnea, high blood pressure and numerous mild obesity related ailments.

Terry went through a tummy tuck a few months ago where they remove 40 lbs. of excess fat and skin. It was quite an ordeal. Again, no serious complications but a bit of discomfort. Here's where things took a negative turn. About 2 months after the TT, Terry came down with double pneumonia. At least that was the diagnosis at that time. She spent a week in the local hospital. When she came home, she was still having difficulties breathing. So, we went to a different hospital. She didn't stay long there.....it just wasn't a good hospital. The doctors couldn't pinpoint her illness. It was worse than double pneumonia. We finally decided to go to the best hospital we could think of which was Scripts Clinic. She stayed there for a little over a week. They did test after test after test, including a lung biopsy. She was put on oxygen 24/7. Our place looks like a hospital with all the tanks and equipment. After we came home, they finally got some of the test results in. They still haven't pinpointed what's wrong with her, so it's back to Scripts we're going next week. They think they have it narrowed down to 2 possible diseases. One is something called "BOOP" which is treatable. The other is called "Intrastitchel lung disease", which would mean she has 1-5 years to live. Needless to say we're hoping for the BOOP. We're confident that they know what they're doing there. Her biopsy was sent to the Mayo clinic for evaluation.

All of this has been going on since November of last year. That's why I haven't been posting much, although I read the boards almost every day trying to keep up with everyone.

Just to complicate things, we decided that we need to move out of our house. I's a 2 story condo with very steep stairs. Terry just can't handle going up and down the stairs so she spends most of her time in the bedroom. Don't worry too much about that.... we have her set up with her laptop and a cooler so she's fairly comfortable with that. So it means we're going to move soon. That presents quite a dilema. Our daughter has moved in with her boyfriend here in Vegas, so it's just the 2 of us here. We need to downsize. Also, the medical bills are killing us. We're now going through the decision making of WHERE to go. Our son still lives in San Diego. We've been looking at manufactured homes. Some our quite nice. If we decide to go that route, then maybe we could find one back in San Diego, but that means leaving our daughter. There are all kinds of possibilities open to us which means a lot of talking and soul searching. And yet, we really can't make any kind of decision until we find out what's wrong with Terry.

That about sums things up for us. Everything we do is contingent on some thing or another.

So, that's our story for the moment, subject to change, which seems to happen regularly. All we can do is trust in God and whatever will be will be and we'll deal with it as it happens.

I'll post more at the end of ther week. Hopefully it will be positive news.

Thanks for taking time to read this short story. If you can fit us in to your prayers we could sure use them.