It’s been a very rough 2 years for me and my health. Some major stuff has happened and some silly stuff, and now two years down the road, I’m still not totally back to normal and am absolutely sick of it. My husband and I got to spend a ton of time outside this weekend with the kids enjoying the sunshine and fresh air and we talked a lot about the state of my health and how we both are ready to see me being “me” again. The me of two years ago loved to be outside ALL the time, I loved to run and had no problem training for half marathons (never a full one – but maybe someday), working out 5-6 days a week and still chasing my three young kids around all day. I didn’t feel the need to take a nap every single day to just get through my days, and was always able to handle a lot of activities and chaos without getting a stress headache and or blowing up at my kids. Today, I’m the icky person I just described. I’m tired even after a full 8 hours of sleep. I feel the need to take a nap every day to just get through the day, and if I don’t, then I’m a mean, crabby lady at 5pm. I get stress headaches on occasion, but feel like I get them even when I’m should be able to handle my stress. I don’t get 5-6 days of exercise in because I’m usually just too tired, and sometimes when I do workout, it makes me so much more tired that I know that I’ll for sure need a nap that day to get through the full day with my kids.
I’m sure you are asking, what happened 2 years ago? Right? Well, 2 years my kids were ages 1, 4, and 6,
and we were planning a surprise trip to Legoland, California for the 2 oldest to celebrate their birthdays (which are only 15 days apart). We planned this trip on a whim and we had such an AMAZING time!!! It was their first time on an airplane and their first time seeing the beach. Was truly awesome! We had a great time on this trip, but my foot started to hurt on the trip. So totally odd how it just started to hurt all of a sudden. I didn’t injure myself that I can recall, but as soon as I got home I called a podiatrist. Upon evaluation it was discovered that I had a bunion. I know, gross, right?! Ewww!!! I thought that only old people got bunions – not me, I was only 32 – how in the world did that happen??? Well, it was sort of a freak thing because it was not there before our trip and was mysteriously there after our week long trip – and it was big – and it really hurt. I had no other option but to let it grow or surgically remove it. I opted to get rid of it as soon as possible.
I scheduled surgery for a couple weeks later, and I honestly had no idea how bad this surgery was going to be on my poor body – I’m still glad I did it, but it was so much worse than I thought. Before I could be approved for surgery I had to have a doc give me a full physical to make sure my body was in good enough shape for the actual surgery. I figured it was just a formality and that I would be approved an on my way quickly. I had just finished my first half marathon a few months earlier and was feeling fine. I didn’t even have a GP (General Practioner) doctor – I had only been to my Gynecologist in the past 5 years when I was having kids! I just didn’t have a reason to go to a doc. So, it was a huge surprise to me and my family when I went to my GP for my surgery approval physical and she finds a very large mass in my thyroid. I went to the doc for a quick physical for my FOOT surgery and came out of there needing to go to a whole bunch of new appointments to try to figure out why I had such a huge mass in my thyroid. Great. Help me Lord.
Now I was in a whole new world of scary. I was given a great doc to go see about my thyroid who specialized in thyroid surgeries, but of course, I had to a wait a few months for my first appointment with him. In the mean time they did an ultrasound on my thyroid and it confirmed a very large mass on one side and a couple smaller ones on the other side. I was starting to get scared, but I had my foot surgery to deal with. Despite my thyroid issues, I was approved for my foot surgery and it went ahead as planned. It truly was awful. Foot surgery is really hard to deal with, especially when you have little kids and a 1 year old that likes to get into everything. I couldn’t drive, I was in a huge boot – it was hard enough to even walk, going down the stairs was comical. I had a giant boot on my leg for 8 weeks and it was terribly uncomfortable. I did get through it though and now I have a few extra pins in my foot and some stiffness, but I had no idea how totally differently my foot would operate and function from the other one. I have run another half marathon since surgery and that is a whole other story for another time (needless to say, it was AWFUL).
I recovered, and after meeting the thyroid doctor I was told I needed to have immediate surgery to remove the mass that they feared might be cancerous. Yes, CANCER. Freak me out. They told me to get into surgery as soon as possible and they would know as soon as they cut me open if the mass was cancer or not. Talk about scary!!! I got the boot off my foot the weekend of my birthday in October and the following week I was having thyroid surgery. I wasn’t scared, because I knew the Lord had my life and my health all in His plan. I went into surgery without fear. My husband knew before I woke up from surgery that the mass was NOT cancerous! Praise the Lord! This surgery being only a few months from the last was exhausting, but much easier to recover from – as a result I do have a nice 2 inch scar right over my throat though. J My surgeon did a wonderful job and a week later I was feeling a ton better. I followed up with an endocrinologist and have been told that even though my thyroid is half gone, that it still functions just fine and that I don’t need to be on any medication. Now 2 years later, I’m a totally different person than the day I was wheeled down the long white hall to my surgery room. I’m tired – and for a while I thought that was just because I went through 2 majors surgeries back to back, but after 2 years, I can’t use that as my excuse anymore.
About 6 months ago I met a lady who has really changed my life and caused me to look at my health in a totally different way and over the next couple months I’ll unfold more of my health story and my journey that I’m preparing to go on. Stay tuned, I’m hoping for some great things to come of this!
During this process I’m clinging to this verse, this is who I want to become again! I can’t wait to laugh again at the unknown! “She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.” – Proverbs 31:25
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