Plateau Be Gone! Week 3

I don't think anyone would really want me to represent my week pictorially, so instead I give you a picture of a funny cat from the internet (not one of mine). 

http://www.1stfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Funniest-Cat-Pictures-14.jpg

It is only Wednesday and I have already had 3 different appointments with health professionals this week. The first one was the orthodontist, who was kind enough to bestow braces upon me. The second one was a radiologist and the third was a medical specialist/ surgeon. The upshot of all of this is that my ability to deal with solid food is somewhat compromised and that I will need to have surgery in March. 

I am less than thrilled with this situation. I also don't want any medical or allied health professionals to come near me for quite a while. I have had a health problem for a while that had been worsening but I kept trying to ignore it and convince myself that nothing was wrong.  I was hoping that the scans would come back normal, alas they did not. On the other hand, I'm glad that there seems to be an identifiable cause for these problems and whilst the condition is unpleasant, it is certainly not life threatening. I'm just not thrilled that addressing them will involve surgery. 

The specialist was fantastic. She was so frank and forthcoming, which I found very helpful. I find it really frustrating when doctors will advise you of your options but will not actually give you their opinion as to which option they think is best. I realise this is a cultural shift as a result of patients complaining that they felt pressured into taking their doctor's preferred course of action, or instances where alternatives have not been clearly explained. 

Whilst I certainly believe in the patient's right to make an informed choice, I don't think this means that doctors should present all options neutrally. From my perspective, I want to know which option my doctor thinks is best and why, given that they have spent all those years studying and practicing medicine and I haven't. I did not feel any pressure to do what my doctor suggested and she presented the alternatives as being legitimate and perfectly acceptable. But by knowing her opinion of the options, I felt that I had a clearer understanding of what she thought would procure the best outcome for me. 

This doctor also emphasised the importance of looking at health holistically. Even though she will operate on one of my body's systems, she talked to me in some depth about the importance of being active, eating well and in particular getting enough sleep. This made me feel validated in the efforts I have made to improve my health, whilst reminding me that there is still some way to go.

I am frustrated. Over the past year I have been trying harder than I ever to be as healthy as I can be. Since I have been doing this I have felt more well and have been sick far less frequently. I guess I have come to expect that because I am putting in the effort to be healthy, I feel in some strange way that I don't "deserve" to have health problems. I know this is not entirely logical and that whilst a healthy lifestyle will improve many things, it will not fix everything. 

I expressed this thought to my mum, who very wisely suggested that I see this surgery as fixing a problem as a part of the health improvement process, rather than a setback. This is now what I will try and do. 

In terms of weight loss, I am satisfied with my efforts this week. I have not been all that well, but I still managed to register a "green light" on the scales. It was not a huge change, but another small but sizable step in the right direction. 

Life is full of challenges, great and small. In order to achieve my goals I don't need to be making earth shattering progress each week, but I do need to make sure I'm always moving in the right direction. A steep part of this learning curve for me has been about making positive steps in instances where I have had a number of legitimate reasons not to. 

My overall goal is to continue to craft myself into the kind of human being that I am proud of being and comfortable to be. Part of that is to continue to develop my resilience and become the kind of person who ceases the opportunity for success in situations where you don't just have an excuse, but a valid reason not to do your best. This is a big challenge, but little victories like this give me the hope that one day I might get there.