Just a quick update.

Yesterday I met with a sleep specialist to discuss the results from my sleep test. Way back when I was diagnosed with Atrial Fibrillation they were at a loss as to why I had it. One possibility was that I suffered from Sleep Apnea. So they wanted me to get tested to see if it was the cause or not.

After being on a wait list for almost two years (thanks public health care!), I finally got the call to go in and get the equipment. So I went in and found out how to operate the machine which consisted of a heart monitor, breathing monitor, and sound monitor. I went home and that night hooked everything up and tried to go to sleep. It was without a doubt the worst sleep I ever had as I had all this crap taped up to me and had to be careful every time I turned on my side that I didn't yank everything out. The next morning I dropped the machine off at the hospital for them to analyze the data.

Fast forward a month and I'm sitting in the specialists office. He did a quick checkup of me (I was surprised to discover my right eye is pretty crappy) and asked a bunch of questions and made a bunch of notes. He then went over the results and in the end it was determined that I have very mild sleep apnea. Not severe enough to cause my heart issues and not severe enough that they need to do anything about it. I mentioned that I've been losing weight and he figures if I keep doing that I should be pretty much normal after losing a few more pounds. In any case he's going to do a follow up in six months.

So I guess that's good news.

This past weekend was Deb's 40th party. Despite my best intentions I felt moderately crappy the next day - although nothing like Jamie and Tracy were feeling I'm sure. Thankfully there's no more 40th parties for at least a few years. Tracy, then Jay, and now Deb all within a few months. I don't think I could handle any more. It was a fun night. Happy Birthday Deb! Here's some pictures of the night:

Well I'm living the bachelor life as Chris is in Vancouver this week. Yahoo! Party! Nah, I miss her already. I'll probably just geek out while she's gone.

With all the stress of the past two months, living on the road, eating out all the time etc. I ended up gaining almost 30 pounds. Chris has also been wanting to get back on Jenny again but she's found it hard to do so while I continued eating normally. So we talked it over and I agreed to give Weight Watchers (WW) a shot.

The idea is that I still get to eat something other than processed food and she gets the added support of us doing this as a couple. With our cruise coming up in April we both need to get back to some semblance of healthiness. So that's our short term goal, to lose as much weight as possible before then. I've been on it for a few weeks and I've lost about half of what I had previously gained. I'm not sure if it's getting back to a normal life again, exercising again, or eating better - probably a combination of everything.

We both bought a WW app for our phones and it's been really handy at keeping track of everything. Whenever we have a meal we run the app and punch in what we ate to keep track of our points. A few things I've learned so far are that carbs are a lot of points, exercising isn't as important as reducing what you eat, ground turkey is actually a pretty tasty substitute for ground beef, and eating at restaurants will pretty much use up your daily allotment of points in one meal. One other thing I've done which has really helped is to basically cut out alcohol.

That said, I pretty much said screw it this past weekend as we went up to Edmonton for Jay's 40th birthday party. My best bud had turned the big 4-0 so I just had to live it up with him. It was a fun night. Maybe to much fun as I felt somewhat crappy the next day.

Well I'm off to go eat some carrots...

Finally, the worst year of my life is over.

There's two ways you can go when faced with such a tragedy. You can become withdrawn and self destructive or you can move forward with a new sense of purpose. For most of my life I would have taken the former route. And while I've still had my moments, I've chosen to go in a positive direction. I'm not sure why. Either I'm hugely naive or with age I've just become more accepting of things I can't control. Ultimately, I need to take care of myself as the thought of Chris and my Mom losing me is unimaginable...

 So in that mindset I enter a new year with a clarity I haven't experienced before.

Christmas was obviously not very festive. I can't even really remember a lot of that week. I know I woke up to a dreary day which I found appropriate considering the sadness I felt. At some point we went to my Mom's and half heartedly exchanged gifts. Days before my Mom had asked what I wanted and I jokingly said 'a pony'. So sure enough she got me a stuffed pony. It added a nice bit of levity. Later we went over to Jay's parents place who were kind enough to invite us to their family get together. As my Mom said it gave her a chance to forget about things for awhile. And that was our Christmas.

New Years was also pretty subdued. It started off with a bunch of us going to go see the movie New Years Eve. It's one of those films with multiple intersecting storylines. But one of the stories was about a father's last day dying of cancer. I find myself reminded of my Dad's passing by the most mundane daily things. Things that I previously wouldn't have given a second thought to. But this was unbelievable and much too soon. I tried to tough it out and get through it, but eventually it got the the point where I was going to break down in the theatre and I bolted out of there. So while everyone else finished watching I drowned my sorrows at a bar across the street.

We then ended up at a Greek Restaurant which was to celebrate Kim's birthday. The food was awesome and we all agreed we want to go back. From there we went back to Kim & Hailey's to ring in the New Year. We watched the ball drop, did the countdown, kiss kiss, and not long after came home and went to bed. Not the craziest way to welcome 2012. Oh well, at least I wasn't hung over the next day.

This weekend was really good. For the first time in a long time I was able to actually relax and just enjoy myself. Today Kim and Chuck joined us at an Indian Restaurant to learn how to cook Indian food. Tracy was supposed to be there as well, but unfortunately had to cancel at the last minute. We watched while the owner demonstrated how to make a variety of popular dishes and the history behind them. When that was over everyone got to take a tour of the kitchen and then eat a buffet. As I love Indian food I left very satisfied and full. It was a fun experience.