These meds hate me...or maybe they love me?

I couple weeks ago I was finally able to have an appointment with an orthopedic specialist to evaluate my tennis elbow. It got moved back several times because of the crappy first two weeks of this year.

After getting a TON of cortisone injected into my elbow (we are talking 5-6 ccs which is lot and HURT) he also gave me some other things to do (a specific stretch and this carpal tunnel brace to wear at night) and...dun dun dun....huge "hardcore" meds as he called it. My tummy didn't respond pretty much at all with the previous NSAID prescription, which he said is a good sign. The he said what my doctor has prescribed me just wasn't going to nip it in the bud considering how much pain I had and the extent of damage (yikes). He basically warned me that this medication would suck and that under NO exceptions should I ever take it on an empty stomach or even if I skipped a single meal in between. I instantly agreed to everything because he asked me straight out if I wanted to stop this pain quickly or slowly. Why wouldn't I want immediate gratification? ps- I like this Dr, he was very straight forward and kinda funny even though I've heard that some people don't like him.

So after less than a week after cortisone +medication my elbow pain went from a pain scale of 8 (on a scale of 1-10) to a 5 and now it's very low. HALLELUIAH!

The only problem...he was right about this darn NSAID. It makes my stomach feel terrible- at times actually causing me to double over in pain. This past weekend I had to skip a dose because I was drinking my calories in the form of shots not eating them (yeah, yeah I occasionally make bad decisions, but I am only human and need to cut loose sometimes :P In my defense though I worked them all off in the form of dancing). So, like a good patient I skipped a dose Saturday morning and another Sunday night because there wasn't enough time in between doses to take it with food. So since Monday I have been back on full swing normal schedule of twice a day.

It's like I am restarting the medication from scratch after finally feeling normal again. Yeargh!! I've eaten even better than I have in probably months- very light, only whole fresh ingredients and still, my stomach is killing. The one good thing about your stomach bothering you- you have no appetite. Despite the alcohol consumption Friday night, I lost 3.2 lbs this week! holy crapola!! As a source of update, I am now down 213 lbs! I am only 42 lbs away from my doctor goal!

I honestly can't believe I just wrote that- I am so close to goal I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel! Just last night I was in dress barn picking out some new shirts for my conference in Phoenix that I'm leaving for Monday morning. I fully broke down in the dressing room. It's hard to believe how far I have come when I was too big to fit into normal women's plus. Now I'm in a misses L, pant size 14! This totally blows my freaking mind that I am still overwhelmed by it. Now that goal of a size 10 isn't so far off- I will get there!