A slow and steady recovery
It has been 12 days since I came home from the hospital. The first week home was a hard transition. I was weak a lot of the times, slept a lot and hardly had any appetite. I was also dealing with a lot of pain – mostly chest pain. I took the prescribed pain medicine and while there was one particular day that the pain was so bad we almost had to call the hospital, it was managed okay.
But I got through that first week and, fortunately, the chest pains are now no longer so prevalent. And when they do happen, they are not as intense, either. I had a long conversation with a nurse about how I was recovering and she gave us some good advice on what to do if the chest pain once again becomes difficult to manage. But the chest pains are not as bad now. Mostly, I have to deal with back pain. For some reason, I keep having pain in my lower back. I have continued to take the pain medicine but it’s a long time before it helps so I’ve used other things, like an ice pack, for that back pain.
Fortunately, though, I have started to regain my strength. As of Monday, I went back to my regular schedule, and while I am still very tired when waking up early, I have been able to get through my days okay. At first, my strength faltered here and there, but I have been able to get through a few days with my energy intact, so that’s giving me hope that soon I won’t have to worry about weakness causing any problems. I guess it helps that I’m eating normally again and getting the proper nourishment that I need.
I also seem to be getting my mental strength back, as well. When I was in the hospital, it was difficult for me to concentrate. I was just so “out of it.” I couldn’t even read in a book and one day that I tried to read in a book, it was exhausting. This trouble continued for a brief period of time after my return home. I was angry that I couldn’t really concentrate so well or focus on things. There used to be days I could fly right through 3 or 4 chapters in a book in a day and now I was lucky if I could even read one chapter of a book in a day. But as with everything else, I just needed time to get better and get my mental faculties functioning normally again. And I think I am getting there; yesterday, I was able to read 4 chapters in a book without it exhausting me. Yay! I am happy about this. I was also able to read a few articles on the Internet, too. So I am happy to have that going on again, too. I look forward to getting back to the writing real soon! Heck, I am writing right now, with this blog post. So I’m going to attempt to work on the nonfiction book later today. Hopefully, it goes well.
Aside from getting myself better, I have also tried to “get back to life.” It’s taken some time, but I have finally gotten caught up on all the emails that were in my inbox. I have also gotten back to doing the normal chores I do each day (it was a while before I had the strength to carry a basket of laundry into the house!). And I’m now able to run errands or drive my kids to and from school without any problems. And it was certainly nice to finally start drinking coffee again! I have certainly been enjoying my morning coffee just like before.
When I was in the hospital, I did have a couple of health issues I was concerned about (aside from the pancreatitis, of course!). For some time, I had some problems with my blood sugar. I have had this problem in the past and, when it struck again earlier this year, I did the same thing I had done before to combat low blood sugar: I ate something every 2 hours. But I didn’t want to be stuffing my face with candy all day. So I did research and learned that as long as the food I ate had 15 grams of carbs – with some sugars – then it was an ideal thing to eat. So I compiled a list of healthier foods to eat to combat low blood sugar and stuck to that. Whenever I mentioned this issue to medical professionals, however, I was asked if I had diabetes. I have heard that diabetes is a “silent illness” – in that you could have it without knowing it! But I never got tested for it. So, therefore, I could not really give a straight answer when asked if I had it. I just said, “I don’t know.” Well, while I was in the hospital, I took advantage of the opportunity to have my blood sugar levels tested (because you need to fast for 24 hours for that test and I wasn’t eating anything for longer than that!) as well as to be tested for diabetes. The test for diabetes came back NEGATIVE (yay!!) and they told me, after a day of monitoring my blood sugar levels, that they were normal. They were fine.
Again, YAY!!
So, apparently, I don’t have to worry about my blood sugar levels. However, I will continue to eat the healthy snacks every now and then during my day. Nothing wrong with eating more fruits and vegetables! I am just so glad that I don’t have to keep looking at the time and keeping tabs on the last time I ate something. I am very relieved that I don’t have to worry about that anymore.
So, I guess in the end, it was a good thing that this all happened. If anything, it has given me a new sense of respect for better health! I just really need to take better care of myself. I was dealing with a lot of guilt and anger that I let this kind of thing happen, but now is the time to move past all that. I was angry that my body was too weak to deal with the alcohol and also angry that I was in too poor of a shape to handle something like that. I just wanted to scream at myself, “Weakling!” But it is what it is. What’s done is done. Now is the time to take action against that fault. Now is the time to fix things. Yes, I know I am not healthy, that my eating habits and lifestyle were unhealthy, and that my body is in bad shape. I know I am overweight and not as physically strong as I want to be. I am going to change this. That is my resolve. That’s pretty much something I have been TRYING to do all year. Something that I WANT to do. This experience has given me the kick in the pants I needed to make that happen. This experience changes EVERYTHING now. Now I will work on making myself stronger and being healthy. Now I will go after that goal to be physically fit and strong. This is the time for me to take action on that goal and I hope to one day make that goal a reality.
But I got through that first week and, fortunately, the chest pains are now no longer so prevalent. And when they do happen, they are not as intense, either. I had a long conversation with a nurse about how I was recovering and she gave us some good advice on what to do if the chest pain once again becomes difficult to manage. But the chest pains are not as bad now. Mostly, I have to deal with back pain. For some reason, I keep having pain in my lower back. I have continued to take the pain medicine but it’s a long time before it helps so I’ve used other things, like an ice pack, for that back pain.
Fortunately, though, I have started to regain my strength. As of Monday, I went back to my regular schedule, and while I am still very tired when waking up early, I have been able to get through my days okay. At first, my strength faltered here and there, but I have been able to get through a few days with my energy intact, so that’s giving me hope that soon I won’t have to worry about weakness causing any problems. I guess it helps that I’m eating normally again and getting the proper nourishment that I need.
I also seem to be getting my mental strength back, as well. When I was in the hospital, it was difficult for me to concentrate. I was just so “out of it.” I couldn’t even read in a book and one day that I tried to read in a book, it was exhausting. This trouble continued for a brief period of time after my return home. I was angry that I couldn’t really concentrate so well or focus on things. There used to be days I could fly right through 3 or 4 chapters in a book in a day and now I was lucky if I could even read one chapter of a book in a day. But as with everything else, I just needed time to get better and get my mental faculties functioning normally again. And I think I am getting there; yesterday, I was able to read 4 chapters in a book without it exhausting me. Yay! I am happy about this. I was also able to read a few articles on the Internet, too. So I am happy to have that going on again, too. I look forward to getting back to the writing real soon! Heck, I am writing right now, with this blog post. So I’m going to attempt to work on the nonfiction book later today. Hopefully, it goes well.
Aside from getting myself better, I have also tried to “get back to life.” It’s taken some time, but I have finally gotten caught up on all the emails that were in my inbox. I have also gotten back to doing the normal chores I do each day (it was a while before I had the strength to carry a basket of laundry into the house!). And I’m now able to run errands or drive my kids to and from school without any problems. And it was certainly nice to finally start drinking coffee again! I have certainly been enjoying my morning coffee just like before.
When I was in the hospital, I did have a couple of health issues I was concerned about (aside from the pancreatitis, of course!). For some time, I had some problems with my blood sugar. I have had this problem in the past and, when it struck again earlier this year, I did the same thing I had done before to combat low blood sugar: I ate something every 2 hours. But I didn’t want to be stuffing my face with candy all day. So I did research and learned that as long as the food I ate had 15 grams of carbs – with some sugars – then it was an ideal thing to eat. So I compiled a list of healthier foods to eat to combat low blood sugar and stuck to that. Whenever I mentioned this issue to medical professionals, however, I was asked if I had diabetes. I have heard that diabetes is a “silent illness” – in that you could have it without knowing it! But I never got tested for it. So, therefore, I could not really give a straight answer when asked if I had it. I just said, “I don’t know.” Well, while I was in the hospital, I took advantage of the opportunity to have my blood sugar levels tested (because you need to fast for 24 hours for that test and I wasn’t eating anything for longer than that!) as well as to be tested for diabetes. The test for diabetes came back NEGATIVE (yay!!) and they told me, after a day of monitoring my blood sugar levels, that they were normal. They were fine.
Again, YAY!!
So, apparently, I don’t have to worry about my blood sugar levels. However, I will continue to eat the healthy snacks every now and then during my day. Nothing wrong with eating more fruits and vegetables! I am just so glad that I don’t have to keep looking at the time and keeping tabs on the last time I ate something. I am very relieved that I don’t have to worry about that anymore.
So, I guess in the end, it was a good thing that this all happened. If anything, it has given me a new sense of respect for better health! I just really need to take better care of myself. I was dealing with a lot of guilt and anger that I let this kind of thing happen, but now is the time to move past all that. I was angry that my body was too weak to deal with the alcohol and also angry that I was in too poor of a shape to handle something like that. I just wanted to scream at myself, “Weakling!” But it is what it is. What’s done is done. Now is the time to take action against that fault. Now is the time to fix things. Yes, I know I am not healthy, that my eating habits and lifestyle were unhealthy, and that my body is in bad shape. I know I am overweight and not as physically strong as I want to be. I am going to change this. That is my resolve. That’s pretty much something I have been TRYING to do all year. Something that I WANT to do. This experience has given me the kick in the pants I needed to make that happen. This experience changes EVERYTHING now. Now I will work on making myself stronger and being healthy. Now I will go after that goal to be physically fit and strong. This is the time for me to take action on that goal and I hope to one day make that goal a reality.
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