Monday, November 11, 2013

My Last Meal

Okay, perhaps I'm exaggerating just a bit.  It won't be my last meal, I will undoubtedly eat again.  More accurately, it'll be my last fun meal in a while.  I'll explain.

In case you don't follow me on Facebook or missed the post somehow, last week I had a doctor's appointment.  Now let me go on the record as saying that I LOVE my doctor.  She's the best.  I hope that she never retires or moves...I want her forever.  While going in is never ideal because it usually means that they're something wrong, I look forward to seeing her.  Sadly, that wasn't the case last week.  I'd been dreading the appointment.

For the last few years, we've watched some of my lab numbers creep up.  It's never been anything serious and always ended with a friendly admonition to eat better, exercise more, etc.  So really, I didn't expect perfect numbers but I was in no way prepared for the severity of the news she was about to give.  From the moment she walked into the room, I could tell that she had something to talk to me about.  As she worked her way through the exam portion of the appointment, I kept waiting for the shoe to drop.  Finally, it did. 

Here's the thing.  Several of my numbers are merely "too high."  Not great but not hugely disconcerting.  One of them, however, is a bit out of control.  If you look up what the number ranges are for that particular item, the categories generally are Normal, Borderline High, High, and Extremely High/High Risk.  Let's just say that I am solidly in the Extremely High/High Risk range.  Not really the news that I wanted to hear.

After a long talk with her and the admission that yes, I do want to be around to see my grand babies, it has been determined that I really do have to make some changes.  I will begin to exercise as I am able, although she knows that I'm fighting a few significant physical limitations right now.  The biggest thing needs to be my diet.  Basically I can't eat anything that I like anymore.  Sigh. 


For those of you who don't know me well, I don't like anything healthy.  Really, I don't.  I'm a terrible eater, always have been.  It's a wonder that it's taken this long for it to catch up with me.  I went to the grocery store this morning and it was significantly less fun knowing that I couldn't buy about two-thirds of the things that I would normally buy.  Eating my favorite things, eating out, drinking my favorite things...everything must change.  So if you think of it over these next few months, you could say a prayer for me, that I will have success and be able to do this.  You know, grand kids and all. 

I'll get back to my last meal.  Matthew has been out of town all weekend so it's just been Andy and I.  We had decided that we would go out all three nights that he was gone and that I could choose wherever I wanted to go, a last hurrah, so to speak.  We had Mexican food twice, but what was my last meal? 

A cheeseburger (no tomatoes), Animal Fries and pink lemonade.
Yep.  In-N-Out.
It was delicious.

So here I go.  Unhappily embracing my new life.  But so thankful that I have a life to embrace. 

1 comment:

Joy said...

Oh man. That is hard. Food is such a huge piece of the good part of life and it can be really, really, stinking hard to change eating habits for that reason. I really understand the feeling but I hope you'll be able to find a healthy place both physically and emotionally.