Update on Health

I figured I would give a quick update on my health.  I went and had an endoscopy to see if that was causing any of my recent health issues.  It turns out that almost all of the biopsies they took are precancerous and they think I might have Celiac Disease (allergy to gluten) and I have a hiatal hernia.  So I am going to have to make the decision if I want the surgery or not.  I have a follow up with them in May.  He put me on some new meds to see if that will help with some of the reflux problems I have been having so he wants to see if that helps out or not.

I am really nervous about the precancer stuff because of my family history regarding cancer.  Both my Dad's side and my Mom's side have had cancer, in fact my Grandpa has had it 6 times.  I have to go in every 2 years to get the scopes done again and any precancerous items removed.  I keep going through good moments and bad moments.  I think of my son and what if I do get cancer and putting him through all of the pain of that.  I don't want him to see me weak and in pain.  I think of my husband having to take me to Dr. appts and watching me be a shadow of my former self.  If I do get it will I be strong enough to fight it or will I give up like my Dad?  The hubby says not to think about it and that we just need to do everything we can to get healthy and eat cancer fighting foods.

The Celiac Disease is a bit of a bummer.  I know a lot of progress has been made in foods and options for gluten free, more so than there was even 5 years ago.  The first thing I looked up was if I can have cheese because I LOVE cheese :)  Luckily if I do have it I can eat most cheeses.  The one thing I will miss is Mickey Pretzels :(  They took some blood work today and hopefully I will get a call soon letting me know if I do have it or not.  When I looked up symptoms it would actually make a lot of sense if I do have it because it can cause low iron, and a few other symptoms I have been having.  Now comes the nerve wracking part, waiting.

As for the hernia I will probably opt to have the surgery because I don't want to be medicated for the rest of my life.  I have done a ton of research on diet changes and such and most of what I read has been "Once I stopped eating everything but chicken and apples and only drank water I have not had any problems".  I don't want to only be able to eat two things for the rest of my life either and I don't know how I would give up tea, but surgery is so scary.

Going through all this health stuff really reiterates how glad I am that we made the choice to travel and have these wonderful memories with my family.

The only thing I can do is take it one day at a time, and do the best I can to stay healthy.