Challenges That Create

I needed an attitude adjustment and I knew it.  Yep, no other way around it.  I needed to have my attitude adjusted and quickly.  Eventually the attitude adjustment happened.  Interested in what happened?

Webster dictionary defines being challenged as "to arouse or stimulate especially by presenting with difficulties."

As I read that definition, I think about how, in some ways, that seems to be such a simple thought.  I want to be challenged in my job.  In my opinion, that type of challenge is a good thing.  So, what about the challenges that you don't want to have?  What about the challenges that you look at and wish that you could get over them? To stimulate... Seriously, sometimes life doesn't need a single additional thing!!!

Are you wondering what all this has to do with an attitude adjustment?  I promise I will get there, but let me tell you a bit of an update about surgery first.

I am going to be 2 months post-op on Monday the 15th.  I can't believe that two months have gone by.  When I look back I wish that I had done a better job of documenting what exactly has happened.  However, I have a deal with myself that I can't blog until my school work is done.  Yep, I have to be Mommy to myself and set boundaries.  Well, the last class that I had was very demanding.  That is just the way that it is.  Now, I get to play catch up.  Such is life.

So, I believe we left off with me being thankful for more then liquid food, being able to drive my car, getting rid of my first set of clothes and being amazed at the changes that had happened with my diabetes care.  Let's pick up where I left off.

I few days after I wrote the last blog I decided to use the wonderful standing order I have for diabetes lab work and to go and see what the changes had actually done in my care.  For anyone who doesn't know what an A1C is, click HERE to learn about it.  I am sad to say that the day I had surgery they drew and A1C and it came back at 9.2.  NOT a good number.  Believe me when I say it wasn't for a lack of effort by me or my care team.  This is one part of the desire to have the surgery.  Well, when I got the lab work done on that day in November, at the one month mark,  had dropped it from 9.2 to 7.4.  This is a HUGE drop for such a short amount of time.  I can't wait to see what the next month of changes will bring.

One month came and went.  I knew I was losing weight but didn't really realize until I saw the scale the morning of one month and saw that 20 pounds were down.  20 pounds in one month.  I was amazed and even more blessed when I had Paityn take my one month pictures and I could physically see change in my body.

After finding out that wonderful news I began to feel like, in some ways, it was one thing after another.  I started itching really bad at my incision sites.  Itching can be a great sign for a diabetic because it means healing.  However, this was a different type of itching.  It seems that my bodies PH balance does not allow dissolvable stitches to dissolve.  Needless to say, I am so thankful for a doctors office who got me in within an hour of my call and snipped some of the stitches out.  Amazing what a difference it made.  Challenge 1 down, check!

A short time after that trip to the doctors office, I went to bed one night with a slightly elevated blood sugar.  After such amazing control it was very easy to identify that something wasn't right.  However, what that was, I couldn't figure out.  The next morning when I was rubbing medicine on my incisions (to hep with the silly stitches issue) I discovered that I had puss coming out of an incision.  Let me see, increased blood sugars, puss and feeling like crap.  Yep, I was in the doctors office and on antibiotics for an infection within a few hours of my discovery.  Again, I am SO thankful for a doctors office who respects me and so easily worked with me to get meds.  Within 6 hours of starting the meds, my blood sugars were back down.  Challenge 2, Check!

A tiny bowl with
the spoon and fork from
when Paityn was a baby... yep,
Dad still had them!!!

A short trip to Arizona was a must in the month of November.  We were gone and home in four days.  Such a whirlwind of a trip.  No surprise, my Dad made me feel extra special with a special plate set up.  I was blessed with lots of time to talk to my Dad and Step mom about the surgery and all the changes.  Well, as we sat at dinner one night my husband commented that I had been having a hard time with a lot of things upsetting my stomach.  I had never thought of it.  NEVER.  But as I sat there, I realized he was right.  Nearly everything I ate didn't settle well at one point or another.  I could be fine the first time I eat it and then not fine the next.  It was the light bulb moment for me.  No wonder I was so frustrated.  Nearly everything I ate didn't settle.  And, let me tell you, my husband and daughter will testify that I was really struggling with being hungry.  I would eat and about an hour later I was hungry.  And I had turned into one grouchy bear.  At one point in our drive Corbin took over driving and told me to just focus on eating something. Bless him and Paityn for being so patient with me.  Returning from that trip ended in a call to my doctors office about this issue (we are getting to know each other well).  I was released to my "diet for life."  That means that I had no more food restrictions.  Let me tell you, a 1/4 of an apple had never been so good.  The doctor was able to explain that I was eating things that were in my "allowed" list but not food that were staying long enough.  They were easy foods to digest and I needed more substantial food.  Not the amount, but the type.  Challenge 3, check!!!

Thanksgiving.  A day of praising God for the blessings we have, being thankful for the people in our lives, time with family, and in my sake, being scared of the day.  I knew that I could handle only eating the small amount I could, but how would that work.  Would there be food I could eat besides just turkey? Would I hold up the line as I decided what I could/could not eat? Would I get hungry too easily again (as I had just been released to the diet for life 36 hours before and still wasn't sure how well that was working)?  I was so blessed by the way things worked out.  I went to my Mom's house and found that there really was a great opportunity to help her in the kitchen.  I was able to help set out all the food.  See it, evaluate it and make decisions about my plate before anyone else even got in line to eat.  It was like every food item that I touched took a bit of weight off my shoulders.  By the time the meal came I was prepared.  Challenge 4, check!!!

So, I think its about time I got back to the attitude adjustment.  You see, I saw each of things as a challenge.  Something that I had to work to overcome, a difficulty.  However, as I look back and see what has happened, I realize that they are not challenges.  They are bumps.  This is a long road.  I have a lot of traveling on this road still.  A challenge would be something that I have to find a way to overcome, like a hole in the road that would stop my travel.  A bump in the road means I have to slow down and carefully maneuver forward, but it doesn't stop my journey.

The attitude adjustment didn't stop there. The other attitude that I had to have adjusted was the one telling me that if I didn't do it exactly like you read about in "my book" or exactly like others, then I am doing it wrong.  Oh, how that has been a lesson to learn.  I am me.  There is no one who can give me a perfect example of how this should go for me.  I am creating that all on my own.

So, in the end, all these things that I started out thinking where challenges ended up being the things that created a while new attitude in me. An attitude that I nearly guarantee will need adjusted again!

I am excited to see what the next month bring to me...

The best workout buddy I could ask for

My mom, Paityn and I at the
Bariatric Center of the Rockies
Christmas Dinner.