I started off my last post discussing how I was having a food crisis. Little did I know, I truly was. I woke the next morning with terrible pain that I associated with bad dinner choices and a milk allergy. However that pain grew progressively worse within a short few hours and I ended up at our nearest Urgent Care clinic. I was sure I had food poisoning but Logician had none of the symptoms. Since we'd shared a pizza, it wouldn't fit that I would be sick and he wasn't.
So off I went to get an ultrasound and I learned that I had gallstones. This in an of itself is not a particularly frightening thing. According to most of the research I have done since something like 80% of people have these little buggers but only a smaller percentage (I think I read 20%) actually have what are called gallbladder 'attacks.' Lucky me....
I was told to I would have to have surgery and left the clinic awaiting a surgeon referral and staunchly saying I was going to try anything else (Acupuncture, Chinese Herbs, dietary changes, supplements, anything). I reread the report from the ultrasound technician and saw that a stone was overlying the opening to my gallbladder - I was concerned but certainly if it was a situation the doctor would have said... Or so I thought.
Now don't get me wrong here - I'm not bashing doctors of any form. They have reasons I will never know for what they tell me and don't tell me. I'm only saying that I likely should have asked more questions.
So Friday I developed a fever of 100.5. Now in my little brain I never before believed in going to the doctor unless you were dying (as I thought I was Wednesday) so a little fever was nothing to me. Thankfully Logician thinks differently and encouraged me to call the Urgent Care clinic for advice. The advice was to go to the ER. Hooray....
I was admitted to the hospital straight from the ER Friday evening and told I was going to have gallbladder surgery the next morning. The stone that was overlying the duct from my gallbladder was actually completely blocking the way and my gallbladder was working itself overtime to try to push passed the obstacle it faced (Sounds a lot like something I would do...). So it had to come out.
The surgery itself was short, sweet, and according to plan. I have four little holes (not really sure how else to describe them) with three around my gallbladder's former home and one in my belly button. I was released from the hospital the same night (partially I think due to the fact I desperately wanted to be home) and am now home. I can't work for two weeks and then I have to start back on light duty to see how that goes - the last thing I need to be doing is pushing my poor little abdomen around massaging people when it's been so traumatized! I can't lift over ten pounds and I am exhausted - all the time.
But this has given me so much time to consider how things were and a sort of fresh place to start from the change them. Having surgery on your 30th birthday is a hell of a way to break in a new decade if I say so myself. So now's the time to make changes, especially since my poor digestive system can't tolerate some of the abuses I used to throw at it! And I can promise that pizza Wednesday night will be the last chain restaurant pizza I ever eat! No more cravings there and if I do get some I'll find a way to make at home GF/DF/SF pizza that will be delicious!
Though this also poses a harder problem for me as I cannot quickly fix this. There is no magical quick diet that's going to help my body recover from what has been done. Instead now is the time I HAVE to make dietary changes.
The main changes I will be focusing on are:
- Going completely Gluten Free (GF): Logician can't have it and I have seen in my recent research that going GF can help with digestive issues moving forward from surgery. So this is a happy direction to go.
- Going completely Dairy Free (DF): I know, I already was supposed to be here. But I wasn't. I cheated (sometimes a little, sometimes a lot) and my body suffered for it. But I CAN'T have anything full fat dairy since surgery anyway. The only exception here would be if my body can tolerate some sort of low fat, possibly Greek style yogurt. I have not been able to find a non-dairy yogurt that I like to eat on its' own. So for baking definitely sticking with DF/Soy Free options but eating will be a trial and error experiment in a few months.
- Going completely Soy Free (SF): This one is going to be the biggest challenge. We are already avoiding it as much as possible but we love Asian food and one of the staples of many recipes is Tofu. Tofu will likely be the only exception I will make but with limits. I will only buy organic (to ensure it is not genetically modified) and I will not eat it frequently. However soy milk, soy protein shakes, soy creamers, etc - out!
I'm going to have to relearn my body now. I almost feel like a child learning what is good and what is horrible. It's an interesting place to be sitting at thirty, that is for sure!
I can't do any sort of decent cooking for the short term future - but rest assured I will be trying new products and as soon as I can be back in the kitchen I will bring you more GF/DF/SF goodness!
Be well!
So off I went to get an ultrasound and I learned that I had gallstones. This in an of itself is not a particularly frightening thing. According to most of the research I have done since something like 80% of people have these little buggers but only a smaller percentage (I think I read 20%) actually have what are called gallbladder 'attacks.' Lucky me....
I was told to I would have to have surgery and left the clinic awaiting a surgeon referral and staunchly saying I was going to try anything else (Acupuncture, Chinese Herbs, dietary changes, supplements, anything). I reread the report from the ultrasound technician and saw that a stone was overlying the opening to my gallbladder - I was concerned but certainly if it was a situation the doctor would have said... Or so I thought.
Now don't get me wrong here - I'm not bashing doctors of any form. They have reasons I will never know for what they tell me and don't tell me. I'm only saying that I likely should have asked more questions.
So Friday I developed a fever of 100.5. Now in my little brain I never before believed in going to the doctor unless you were dying (as I thought I was Wednesday) so a little fever was nothing to me. Thankfully Logician thinks differently and encouraged me to call the Urgent Care clinic for advice. The advice was to go to the ER. Hooray....
I was admitted to the hospital straight from the ER Friday evening and told I was going to have gallbladder surgery the next morning. The stone that was overlying the duct from my gallbladder was actually completely blocking the way and my gallbladder was working itself overtime to try to push passed the obstacle it faced (Sounds a lot like something I would do...). So it had to come out.
The surgery itself was short, sweet, and according to plan. I have four little holes (not really sure how else to describe them) with three around my gallbladder's former home and one in my belly button. I was released from the hospital the same night (partially I think due to the fact I desperately wanted to be home) and am now home. I can't work for two weeks and then I have to start back on light duty to see how that goes - the last thing I need to be doing is pushing my poor little abdomen around massaging people when it's been so traumatized! I can't lift over ten pounds and I am exhausted - all the time.
But this has given me so much time to consider how things were and a sort of fresh place to start from the change them. Having surgery on your 30th birthday is a hell of a way to break in a new decade if I say so myself. So now's the time to make changes, especially since my poor digestive system can't tolerate some of the abuses I used to throw at it! And I can promise that pizza Wednesday night will be the last chain restaurant pizza I ever eat! No more cravings there and if I do get some I'll find a way to make at home GF/DF/SF pizza that will be delicious!
Though this also poses a harder problem for me as I cannot quickly fix this. There is no magical quick diet that's going to help my body recover from what has been done. Instead now is the time I HAVE to make dietary changes.
The main changes I will be focusing on are:
- Going completely Gluten Free (GF): Logician can't have it and I have seen in my recent research that going GF can help with digestive issues moving forward from surgery. So this is a happy direction to go.
- Going completely Dairy Free (DF): I know, I already was supposed to be here. But I wasn't. I cheated (sometimes a little, sometimes a lot) and my body suffered for it. But I CAN'T have anything full fat dairy since surgery anyway. The only exception here would be if my body can tolerate some sort of low fat, possibly Greek style yogurt. I have not been able to find a non-dairy yogurt that I like to eat on its' own. So for baking definitely sticking with DF/Soy Free options but eating will be a trial and error experiment in a few months.
- Going completely Soy Free (SF): This one is going to be the biggest challenge. We are already avoiding it as much as possible but we love Asian food and one of the staples of many recipes is Tofu. Tofu will likely be the only exception I will make but with limits. I will only buy organic (to ensure it is not genetically modified) and I will not eat it frequently. However soy milk, soy protein shakes, soy creamers, etc - out!
I'm going to have to relearn my body now. I almost feel like a child learning what is good and what is horrible. It's an interesting place to be sitting at thirty, that is for sure!
I can't do any sort of decent cooking for the short term future - but rest assured I will be trying new products and as soon as I can be back in the kitchen I will bring you more GF/DF/SF goodness!
Be well!
No comments:
Post a Comment