Another First - but NOT a Good One

We had company from Japan this past weekend. We thoroughly enjoyed their visit – even though it was much too short. Our visitors included a 6-year-old boy and a 9-month-old boy. They were such a joy. The older child is learning English – and knows his colors and his numbers, as well as several phrases in English. He wanted so badly to play with our cats, but two stayed in hiding (except for the times he crawled under the bed with them). My cat, Sonny, decided that no HUMAN was going to keep him from going and being where he wanted to be, and he did a LOT of hissing at our visitor. That little boy wasn’t fazed at all – he just hissed right back. The 6-year-old had two speeds – turbo, and dead (asleep). While we loved having them – we also realized just how old we are – and really enjoyed the quiet when everyone was on their way back to Japan.

Saturday evening, they cooked for us. We ate with the new chopsticks they gave to us. The dish was pork, cabbage, onions, and carrots (purchased here) and noodles and sauce (they brought with them.) It was delicious, but halfway through the meal, I knew something wasn’t right. I excused myself, went in and lay on the bed, but only a few minutes passed before I was in the bathroom, throwing up. I was pretty sure that I wasn’t eating too fast – I do OK with chopsticks, but I would hardly call myself proficient. I don’t think I ate too much – although I did eat more vegetables than I am used to eating. (At first, I thought it must have been the noodles growing in my stomach, LOL!) It was the first time since my surgery that I have been sick. When the nausea continued into Sunday and Sunday evening – I figured it must have been a bug of some kind.

OK, I know – this isn’t pleasant to talk about – but I must admit, it was a real fear for me. I have heard horror stories of people who have had gastric surgery writhing in agony before they are sick – and that wasn’t my experience at all. It was unpleasant, but not gruesome, and best of all, I survived. I stayed home from work yesterday – and slept until just after noon. The good news from all of this is that it kicked the weight loss back into gear – I’m down a total of 195 pounds (135 since surgery). And while it is NOT the way I would recommend to lose weight, it is still a silver lining to being sick.

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34, NIV)