What does a gallbladder even do???

So…there I was, feeling all proud of myself. Sticking to my meal planning, exercising every day and even getting 8 full hours of sleep (and that’s a biggie – what with the hot flashes, the dogs wanting to snuggle and my kids coming in a different hours). Yup, I was flying high…feeling my oats…sitting on top of the world…I was in my feels…OK, you get the idea.  I was having a good day. Then I flew too close to the sun…i was dogged by misfortune…I was behind the 8-ball…(you know I could really go on and on with this).

ANYWAY – I started feeling a pain in my side. So, of course, I did what every other person would do in my situation: I ignored it. So the pain got worse and worse, until I ALMOST went to the emergency room (and you have to understand – for me to go to the emergency room is a BIG deal. I calculate the price before I even consider walking out the door!)  I made it through the night and went to see my doctor to find our what was causing this pain.

The pain was so severe, I thought it had to be a pregnancy that my doctor had missed and I was in active labor. I mean, it felt like I was 100 centimeters dilated. They performed an ultrasound (no baby and no alien) and determined it was my GALL BLADDER!

My gall bladder!! What?? I said, “no, no, no… I am eating NO fried foods and nothing bad for me! I am exercising! I am losing weight! I am getting up and actually fixing my daughter’s lunch before school…this can NOT be my gallbladder!”

The doctor smiled and said, “this damage to your gallbladder was probably done years ago. Now that you are getting control of your body, your gallbladder is realizing something is wrong.”

The doctor told me they wanted to remove the gallbladder as soon as possible and set up an appointment with the specialist. My initial reaction was “CRAPOLA!”  I kept thinking how miserable it made me, how I couldn’t exercise for a while, how this would affect my eating program and how could this happen right now? I was really feeling down.

I talked to my sister and she said, “Isn’t that amazing? You have lost so much weight and now your body is starting to respond!” I started thinking about that. You know she’s right. There will be a lot of bumps along the way, I mean, I haven’t been treating my body very respectfully and I cannot expect my body not to voice its opinion every now and then. It reminds me of a little kid – giving them candy all the time instead of meals and then telling them they can only have spinach and carrots. Of course, you are going to be greeted with a lot of yelling and kicking and screaming. That’s what is going on with me now.  My body is starting to protest: Where’s the fat? Where’s the fried chicken? Why am I pedaling this bike?

My body and I will get through this, we will come out on the other side smiling and loving each other. Some things are not easy but you cannot give up. There are times you will want to, you will want to throw in the towel, to give up the ship, give up the ghost but you just can’t do it.

It’s like that song…”oooh child, things are going to get easier…” It will. I know that.