I had my physical last week with a new doctor. The annual exam is never fun, but this new doctor made it easier with her lighthearted sense of humor and down to earth approach to healthcare and wellness. Nothing out of the ordinary going on. Routine exam, blood work, and flu shot. No biggie. Then I got the results of the blood work a couple of days later and something that was never an issue before suddenly became one. My cholesterol was slightly elevated. Now that may not seem like a big deal to most, but for me it was. You see, stroke runs in my family, and after seeing the crippling effects of a stroke with my ex-husband as well as other members of the family, this was an alarm bell. I never had elevated cholesterol before, so I ate whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. All I had to deal with was the excess weight. That has now changed and I realized, for the first time, that my choices were actually killing me slowly. Wow! And if they weren't going to kill me, they were certainly setting me and my family up for some hardship should I follow in my ancestor's footsteps and survive a stroke, be it minor or major. Talk about a wake up call!
I don't want to be a burden to my family. It is one thing to lean on each other from time to time. It is another thing altogether to have to depend on them for day to day care. To lose my independence is something that I dread. To prevent that, it looks like this detox that I started will become more of a permanent change...with some minor tweaks in that it is not so restrictive in some areas, but more so in others. It's a process, but now I am learning to be more mindful with my choices, and intentional with those choices. I still have my stumbling blocks, but I can see them sometimes before I fall...and sometimes right after. Tomorrow is a new day.
