Healing Hand of God

Jan 31, 2013

Good morning, friends....

Well thus begins Day 3 of my '7 Challenge'. I have to admit, going grocery shopping last night with my husband and stepson while I was hungry was not the smartest thing. I resisted the temptations that were scattered all throughout the store, but I have learned my lesson. I had a "YAY" moment when I realized I can have one of our family favorites: chicken fried rice! I don't add a lot of "stuff" like they do in the restaurants, because my kids wouldn't eat it, so it is just chicken and rice, which are two foods on my list. YAY!!!

One thing I have not shared on this blog yet it that I'm having surgery (yes, another one) on the 18th. Even before my RNY, I was borderline anemic. Since then, I've had to do transfusions off and on to keep my blood levels up. My hematologist has been after me for a VERY long time now about the hysterectomy, because he thinks (and I agree) that my cycles are a huge factor since they go a long time and are very heavy. When he first suggested it, my immediate thought was, "what if?"...as in, "what if I wanted to have another child? what if something happened to my husband and I married again, then what?" But then I realized that a) my organs do not define who I am, b) with all my health issues, it would be quite dangerous for me to carry another child, and c) my daughter is 16--I DO NOT want to start over!

After visiting with my OBGYN, and talking over options, and weighing the pros and cons of a partial vs. total hysterectomy, we are doing a total. My doc said he usually doesn't even consider a total on someone my age (38), but with my family history of cancer we don't want to leave anything that would further invite cancer to come and hang out for any length of time. Ovarian cancer, as you well know, is insidious...the silent killer...once it's found, it is usually in the later stages and has often already metastasized. A total hysterectomy isn't the right choice for everyone, but a RNY isn't the right choice for everyone either. We are all different, and this is what is best for me.

I'd been thinking (knowing) for a while that my eating habits were spiraling out of control again. It's been quite a year for me--more on that later--but just suffice to say that while I kicked a lot of other bad habits, in truth they just changed faces and I turned to food once again. I know it is like this in many other parts of the country, but particularly the South: if someone is sick, you bring food....if someone has a baby, you bring food...church get-together? you bring food...someone comes for a visit? you go out to eat...someone dies, you bring food...someone is moving away, leaving a job, getting married, etc., etc., etc....you bring food. And not just any food, no...that down-home comfort food. I feel like with this hysterectomy, I'm "cleaning out" from the inside out, and it seems a great starting point for new habits to replace the old. To cleanse. To heal. For many of us that have had WLS of any kind, we know that food was an obsession before, and a chore after. It was so much WORK to eat following my RNY. Making sure I was getting what my body needed, and just the right amounts at the right times, was exhausting. I SO wish that I'd known about the 7 Challenge then, and incorporated it into my post-op eating habits. But you know what they say about hindsight....

Love to all--

-bga

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