Life Experiences

Growing older for all of us is a blessing except when the unexpected happens and our health creates problems.  In 2006 I was misdiagnosed by a doctor who told me my stomach pain was due to food poisoning.  In 2007 I was rushed to the hospital and found out I had diverticulitis and had to have emergency surgery. My first surgery was in March when they had to cut a portion of my intestine out and then placed a colostomy bag on me.  Three weeks later the operation had to be redone when the stoma died. A major set back in my recovery and the pain this time from the operation was off the chart.  In September of that year I had the colostomy bag removed and when I thought life was getting back to normal I developed a sergical hernia and had another operation where they removed scar tissue and placed meshing inside me.

As the years passed I had hoped my stomach issues would go away but since my surgeries in 2007 my stomach had never been the same.  I would get bouts of pain but they would never find anything when they did the ultra scans.  I was then told that I was lactose intolerant so before eating any dairy I would take a lactate pill. Still, now and then the pain would return.

This went on for years and over this weekend I had another painful attack but, rather than go to my doctor I went to the ER.  There they gave me an MRI and they found that I have a hernia in my small intestine.  The surgeon opted not to do surgery due to the fact that I had meshing and there would be a chance that surgery would disturb it causing a major surgery.  She said that I can live with the new hernia but that I had to change my way of eating.  She gave me a list of foods to avoid and told me to eat very small meals so not to clog my intestines which result in it peeking through the hernia..

Being Italian I tend to over eat and love all the foods with rich sauces.  She said that as long as I don't eat to excess the pain will not return.  It's important to keep my intestines fairly empty and that eating smaller meals and avoiding the wrong foods would help me avoid another painful attack.  She referrenced a baloon filling up with air; the more air you put into it the bigger it will become until it eventually pops. 

So now I have to adjust my diet and how much food I eat.  This new journey isn't going to be easy but, if I want to avoid another attack or surgery, this is my new way of life :(  Hey, it could be worse, right?

And my new journey begins...........................