As Bettie West communicated to Wendy Apgar's starship:
 
 BW> Boy Wendy. I had no idea you had so many health 
 BW> problems..God bless. you. it takes a lot of willpower to 
 BW> control your physical being as well and your mental, and 
 BW> dieting is a big downfall of mine. I think I've been on a 
 BW> diet since I was 13 and weighed 135. I wish I weighed that 
 BW> now..but I'm almost twice that today..I joined a TOPS group 
 BW> hoping that will help. sometimes you can do with a group 
 BW> what you cannot do alone. the support of people in the same 
 BW> boat kina of thing.
 
 I know that TOPS has helped a lot of people. I can't
 deal with it though. It all has to do with my mom 
 bringing me to TOPS with her when I was in jr high
 school. I was the only child there with all adults.
 I have since remembered all the times when she stuck
 up for me with my father when he would yell at me about
 my weight. But then she dragged me off to TOPS so I take
 that as the same thing. 
 I know that I ate, in part, to cope with the abuse. I'm
 working at making good choices now and have begun to
 be able to eliminate the sugar. As long as I have fruit
 in the house, like apples, I do okay and eat those. But
 when I don't I gravitate to the sugar...ice cream that
 can be bought through drive-thru's. But I'm working
 at it.
 
 BW> I have a friend who has osteoarthritis and is in pain almost all
 BW> the  time. if she's not, and takes her meds as perscribed, she 
 BW> is a zombie and she hates that. 
 
 I am lucky not to have that problem. I wouldn't take the
 meds if I felt drugged out. Even when I was in the hospital
 in March with level 10 pain I was really careful about how
 much morphine I let them give me. I don't feel drugged
 out with my meds. But that may happen as the doses go higher,
 I don't know. What does she take for the pain?  Pain, with
 fibromyalgia and my other problems is a fact of my life and
 I will always have some..but I'm happy if it is managable
 and with the help of my MD it has been so far.
 What is hard is when the pain is bad and I have to take
 so many of the meds that I have to fill it each week. It
 simply costs too much and it is a struggle, although my
 church does help me out sometimes.
 Listening to my body more has actually enabled me to
 do more of my crafting since I take breaks. Before I
 would stamp all day and be miserable for the next week.
 No more!  And I have quite a few things I can do sitting
 in my chair that doesn't cause my body to have more
 added pain.
 Thanks for caring,
 Wendy
 @>-->---
... Jesus is the reason for the season!
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12
--- Maximus 3.01
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