Without my consent.
As you may know, last month I decided to take part in a National Health Blogger’s Challenge. Each day the blogger was to take the day’s “prompt” and write about something pertaining to health. I was off to a smashing success and was having a lot of fun with the process. I was doing a lot of research about health-related topics, learning a lot of fascinating things, and generally having a great time with the entire process.
Then… what would irony dictate in such a situation? Exactly. I got sick. Smack to the backside.
I won’t bore you with long details. Long story, short – I had my thyroid removed in 1990 and, since that day, have had to take a daily supplement (a supplement to give my body what my non-existent thyroid cannot). My daily medicine recently turned on me – giving me more than my body required. This threw just about everything in my body off kilter and ultimately led to low iron and a host of other less-than-fun side effects.
For a few months, I haven’t felt totally like myself. But you know how we wives and mothers are – the same things that would alarm us about our children and husbands.. we tend to overlook in ourselves.
- Oh, I’m just tired…
- I guess I haven’t been eating right…
- Must be allergies…
- I’ll give it another week…
When I realized that I had “enjoyed” recurring mouth ulcers for two months straight, I broke down and went to the doctor. I would often have two HUGE mouth sores at once. These weren’t your normal mouth ulcers, either. I’ve had those before and, while they’re bad enough, these beasts were far worse. Once, I even got one on my tongue that looked like a small crater. That dude hurt so bad, this non-drinker would have gotten snookered if it would have made me forget the pain for even 10 minutes. Each time, in the middle of the night, as I sat on the bathroom counter putting Orajel on these sores, I’d think, “If I had access to hard liquor I’d drink until I thought I could fly.”
They were that bad.
Of course, since I have never drunk anything stronger than espresso, I’d probably think I could fly as soon as I opened the bottle.
Every meal hurt to eat, coffee hurt to drink, and life kind of sucked for a while. I’d wake up in the middle of the night in hideous pain because my mouth would have dried out while sleeping and the sores would feel like salt had been poured into them.
Salt was actually one of the countless “home remedies” I tried – a particularly painful one.
In addition to the personal hell the mouth sores caused, I also had zero energy and – to use a highly technical phrase my daughters and I use when we don’t feel right – simply felt “poopy” all day and all night. I’d fall asleep at night right in the middle of favorite prime time television shows. During the day, when I normally go back and forth between working in my home office and doing my regular housekeeping chores, I found myself not giving a dang about any of it. I normally go ALL OUT with Christmas decorations, but it was all I could do just to put the tree up this year. And, believe me, that was a day long production. Put a few limbs on… sit and play solitaire on my iPad… put a few decorations on…. lie down and recover.
I wasn’t ME and I wasn’t at all fond of the person impersonating me. After all, I’m seldom ever still and this impostor seldom ever moved!
And all of this went down right in the middle of writing about health topics like how important it is to see a doctor regularly, how vital it is to take care of yourself, etc.
Smack. Right on the butt.
Ultimately, it was the mouth sores that led me and my hard head to the doctor. Nothing like constant pain to break your will, is there?
The doctor was SO impressed with the size of the mouth sore I had at that time. I told him I was kind of lucky at that moment because I only had one. While he was admiring the size, I told him that it was actually the second largest one I’d experienced – that I’d had another one the size of Danny DeVito. He laughed and said he wished he’d seen that one.
I thought, “Me too.” Then I probably wouldn’t have had the 3 that followed.
As my body and health begin to get back to normal, I’m realizing how puny I actually felt. How could I not have seen that something was wrong?!
That’s a question most of us ask in these situations, isn’t it? We swear up and down that things “crept up on us” when the truth is, we knew it all along. We just looked the other way.
Ladies, I honestly believe we are the worst about this. It occurred to me when I was sitting in the doctor’s office – if one of my daughters or my husband had been experiencing painful mouth sores like I had, I would have dragged them kicking and screaming to the nearest doctor. I’d have thought, “Something is wrong, here. This isn’t remotely normal.”
Yet, here I was the one going through it and I had a million reasons why I didn’t need to see the doctor. Duh.
This would be a good time, in all fairness to my family, to point out that they had no idea I was going through all of this. If they had, they would have become impossible nags! All they really knew was I’d had a few mouth sores. They never saw how big they were and I did a great job of hiding the fatigue and weakness from them. Everyone always has a lot going on in their lives and I didn’t want anyone worrying about me. Besides, I fully expected to start feeling like my old self any time. After all….
- Oh, I’m just tired…
- I guess I haven’t been eating right…
- Must be allergies…
- I’ll give it another week…
Listen to Your Body
And yet I couldn’t read what my own body was trying to tell me! Or maybe I simply wouldn’t.
Either way, my mistake could have led to real trouble. That’s why I’m writing all of this for you – on the off-hand chance there are other hard heads out there besides me.
If you find yourself EVER thinking, “I’m just not myself lately..” realize there is a reason for it. Never allow this situation to continue for any amount of time. After all, there are a lot of conditions that if (caught and treated early) won’t amount to anything, but if you ignore them, they can lead to something downright hideous.
In fact, because I let myself get so run down, I became an open invitation to a nasty bug that was going around. I never, never get sick, but here I was – mouth sores, runny nose, bad cough, and the worst sore throat I’ve ever had in my life. It felt like I’d been gargling glass.
If I had gone to the doctor as soon as I realized I wasn’t myself, I’d have spared myself a lot of grief and pain. It’s my hope that you’ll learn from my mistake and will always go to the doctor at the first sign of trouble.
Even if you find yourself feeling more tired than normal, don’t keep writing it off as something else. What’s the worst thing that can happen? The doctor’s going to tell you your healthy?! If that were to happen – and I hope you’d swing by Starbucks to celebrate your good health – you still got information you can use. If you get a clean bill of health, then you know that your lifestyle has to be held accountable. You aren’t getting enough rest, you need more nutrients, protein, and vitamins from food, or you’re running yourself ragged.
The trip to the doctor would have pointed you in the right direction.
Unfortunately, most of us try to weed out all of the things in our lifestyle, THEN go to the doctor. The problem is, by then, we’ll just be more run down and if there IS a medical problem, it will have only gotten worse during that time.
Never take your health for granted. When it has been compromised, even slightly, you realize what a blessing good health is. Life is too delicious to spend one minute of it feeling less than your best.
Listen to your body. If it begins behaving in a way that’s alien to you, don’t make excuses, make an appointment.
~ Joi
Everyone should really pay more attention to his health.