The Deans List, Exercise and more about the HBO Documentary

I am so proud of Jessica!!!!!!! She got her final grades for her first college semester and she made two "A"'s and three "B"'s which puts her on the Deans List. Personally, I think that is pretty darned good considering she is working full time and going to school full time. She had two legal classes of which one she wasn't even supposed to take until sometimes in her second year but she ended up coming through with flying colors. Of course, there has been many tears and teeth gnashing and she has stressed to the max(she got this trait from my mother)but the semester is now over and she gets the summer to take a well deserved break. She has pretty much picked out all of her classes for the next semester and she even got the good news from the law firm that she works for that they will be reimbursing her for the two legal classes that she took. YIPEE!!! She can use that money to pay back part of the student loan that she had to take for this semester. Hopefully, between that and then the Education Credit we will get on my 09 tax return we can knock out a big chunk of the loan.


Now for the exercise portion in the title of this post. Yours truly here got the bright idea that Jessica and I needed to exercise and while I was blog stalking another blog I got the idea of Jillian Michaels, Thirty Day Shred. I must have been smoking some illegal substance though when this thought occurred (now I am kidding about the illegal substance) because for those that don't know Jillian, she's the tough trainer on "Biggest Loser". I didn't want to call her a b*tch, cuz that's just not nice, but when Jessica and I did the 20 minute deal on the beginner Level One the other night, we thought someone was torturing us!!! Jessica kept saying "Damn I hate Jillian!!!!". We are still sore today, especially on the tops of our legs and down our arms. We are going to try to tough it out for 30 days and see what our results are at the end. This blog will perhaps keep us honest. Jessica has lost 60 lbs since last July. I tell you, she really has some willpower and she sure doesn't get it from me. She is looking so good. I was looking at some pictures of her on her friends camera the other night and I didn't even recognize her in some of them. She has a cheat day once every three months and for that day alone she will eat (within reason) whatever she wants to. She usually goes for mexican and then finishes it up with Coldstone Ice Cream. Personally, if I was gonna cheat I would be eating a big, fresh loaf of hot, white bread slathered in butter!! Y-U-M-M-Y!!! but to each his own. Just send good thoughts that we don't keel over in the meantime though!

I finished up watching the HBO Documentary on Alzheimers last night in between watching the finale of "The Biggest Loser" (I"m still bummed that Tara didn't win the title, she had really worked hard). Overall, I think the series was really good but I wish there has been more about the early onset but I understand why there isn't since only 3% of the population has the early onset type. I know I was shocked when they were going over the risk factors and Butch had every one of them!!

·High blood pressure (the most closely associated risk factor)-diagnosed at 17
·Cardiovascular disease - Heart attack at 48
·Hardening of blood vessels (atherosclerosis and lipohyalinosis)-high cholestrol diagnosed at age 38
·Diabetes-diagnosed in his 40's, insulin dependent by 52
·Smoking- he started smoking at age 12
·Hypercoagulable states (ie, hyperhomocysteinemia, hyperfibrinogenemia)-diagnosed in 1992 after continuing to have strokes. This is a genetic type of disorder although we have had MD's tell us different things. I think they really even aren't sure. We do know that the clotting disorder that he has, has some kind of tie in with Rheumatoid Arthritis. I think it is genetic for the simple fact of looking at the family history on his fathers side. All were diagnosed with early onset hypertension (high blood pressure, usually in their teens) and all of his fathers sibling had strokes starting in their 40's. Same for Butch's two younger brothers.

Butch was never the type to take care of himself. He always relied on a pill to take care of things. Even when he was diagnosed with diabetes, he was in denial until he was put on insulin. I know that I tried to help him by cooking healthy, not buying junk food and sweets, things like that, but he was famous for going to the store and coming back with ice cream or candy bars or honeybuns. He loved his sweets!!! I would clean his room and find candy wrappers stuffed around. Unfortunately, it all caught up with him. I don't know, maybe this would have all happened anyways. Who knows? It's too late now, but I know this much, it's not too late for Jessica. She is young and when I was watching the statistics of her possibly having this one day, it just scares the hell out of me. I guess that's what makes me so passionate about it now. The research won't help Butch, but it may help my child and I would do anything to keep Jessica from going through this herself.