LESSONS FROM MY CONVALESCENCE (AKA NEW YEAR NEW UTERUS)

By nature I am not an oversharer.  If anything I tend to keep my personal business completely to myself.  However, I do not feel I can adequately convey the message I want to share without exposing myself a bit.  That is why I am about to put my medical history on blast all over the interwebs. 

In December I had major abdominal surgery to remove fibroids from my uterus.  Because I am an obstetrician-gynecologist by training, I knew way too much about what was going to happen. It was quite a challenge to not be “that patient”.  The one thing I requested was some sort of visual representation of what my diseased organ looked like.  Because we live in the 21st century and I had surgery at a hospital where I used to work, I was able to obtain an actual photo.  It surprised me how disturbed I was by the appearance of my pre-surgical uterus.  It was a nightmare! 

As I reflected on the fact I had strongly considered deferring surgery or not having it at all, I determined my uterus was a metaphor for my life.  I have a self-limiting habit of convincing myself horrible things are not that bad.  While staring at the photo of my fibroids I made a decision not to let that happen anymore.  In more ways than one 2014 was going to be New Year New Uterus.  Here is what the process of preparing for and recovering from that procedure taught me about being true to myself.

Sometimes you have to choose the best of all the bad times. As an independent contractor, taking a prolonged leave of absence from work is never an easy choice.  If I do not work, I do not get paid.  Unfortunately, there was not a way for me to receive appropriate treatment for my fibroids without taking at least one month off.  I had to pick a time, and December was the least bad.  In many areas of the life, there is not always going to be a good time to make a necessary move.  In fact, every change is going to come at a bad time for someone involved.  Waiting for the best time is one way we responsible types camouflage procrastination.  Sometimes we just have to make the hard choice now and allow everything to fall in place after that.

It can be tough in the immediate aftermath of a right decision. Every good decision does not reap immediate benefits.  For instance, I like to exercise.  The circumstances of my recovery were such that it was around two months before I got back to working out.  It only takes about two weeks for the body to lose fitness conditioning.  My first post-op run was one of the more uncomfortable workouts I have had in recent memory.  There was literally a burning sensation in my chest for the first five minutes of jogging.  It was a reminder I had made a decision for my overall health that caused a short-term negative impact on my conditioning.  I knew it was reversible, but it was quite awful in the moment.  The important thing is knowing I can work through it and get back to a comfortable level.  The new perspective I have on coming back to fitness from medical leave also helps me to be a better personal trainer.  Preventing a limited period of discomfort is not a legitimate excuse to avoid making the correct choices for our lives.  If we allow it, the education we get from those tough times only serves to improve us.

Ignoring obvious signs may be hampering your ability to fulfill your intended purpose.  By design the uterus is meant to be a womb that gestates offspring.  I did not have my surgery with the expressed intention of preparing my body for child-bearing.  However, finally treating my fibroid symptoms made my uterus a much less hostile environment for any embryo that may reside there in the future.  I have cared for plenty of women who had fibroids and babies without issues, but pregnancy tends to be easier when the uterine wall is not housing numerous golf balls.  Downplaying my medical signs and symptoms was just the latest in a lifetime of rationalizing bad feelings.  Ignoring the significance of those signs can keep us from moving on to the satisfying and fulfilling existence we are meant to have.

When you make a tough decision other people will be scared on your behalf.  In their own loving ways, lots of people expressed their nervousness about my potential for post-operative complications.  Of all the concerns I had with regard to my operation, medical misfortune was not particularly high on the list.   I was confident God had a plan that would work out for the best.   Since others’ worries were manifestations of their experiences not mine, I chose not to embrace them as my own.  It reminded me of when I decided to stop practicing medicine.  While I found the decision to be remarkably liberating, many people in my life were worried about all the impending badness.  I could sense them trying not to freak out as they mentally calculated how I would maintain my mortgage, my school loans, and my prestige without a “doctor job”.  I had to learn to respect their opinions but not be unduly influenced by them.  The fact I was not scared by an objectively scary situation helped me to know I was making the right call.  When we make choices that are honest and authentic, we can be fearless.

My motto for 2014 is “New Year New Uterus”.  I never want to allow myself to get to the old uterus state again so I keep a copy of it on my phone.  It is a reminder to me of what can happen if I maintain the status quo when a change needs to be made.  It is not always necessary to know exactly what the result of a decision will be.  The important thing is honoring the instinct to make the decision in the first place.  Here’s wishing you all NYNU!

MOVE IT OR LOSE IT

I watch people move all the time.  As a personal trainer, I instruct clients on how to perform specific movements for improved fitness and function.  In general, I find it fascinating to observe how individuals get from one place to another.  It troubles me that many people seem to have difficulty moving while performing their normal activities of daily living.  Sometimes it is obviously due some injury or chronic impairment.  However, many times it looks like the body is just not used to moving.  This gives me some insight into why exercise can be such a daunting prospect.  If walking from the car into the grocery store is a challenge, getting on a treadmill would be completely unappealing.  Even those who regularly go to the gym are often culprits of being too sedentary for the rest of the day.  That is still a problem.  The human body is designed to move.  Here are some easy ways to add more motion to your day.

Take the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator.  You can ease into it by walking down the stairs for a week.  Many stairwells are located at inconvenient places in buildings which gives the plus of added steps to actually arrive to the head of the stairs.  Once you have gotten accustomed to walking to and down the stairwell you can add the anti-gravity portion of the movement.  If your destination floor is higher than you have the stamina to traverse, just get off the elevator a few floors early and walk the remainder.  This is a great way to move your body and strengthen your heart.

Park your car at the end of the aisle.  Those few extra steps must be of some value since everyone is always seeking out the closest spot.  It actually saves time looking for parking to just aim to be far from the front door.  This tip also makes it easier to find your car sitting by itself at the end of the aisle.  The fact that you now will have to carry your purchases a few more feet is just an added strength-building bonus on the back end.

Get up from your desk every hour.  Prolonged sitting in one position, especially hunched over a computer, is terrible for the body.  Backs get sore.  Hips get tight.  Bums spread out while the muscles get weak.  I’ll speak another time about the travesty that is the increasing size of the buttocks in the face of decreasing strength of the gluteus muscles with sitting.  Even if you just stand up for a few seconds and sit back down that is an improvement on the standard.  It is difficult to ask bodies to move effectively on demand when we keep them still all day.

Walk to your co-worker’s office/cubicle.  I must confess to have never worked in a typical office environment.  As I understand it, many people call/e-mail/text/instant message their officemates to communicate during the day.  That was not an option when I worked in a medical office.  You had to walk to where the person was with whom you wanted to speak.  There were a lot of steps accumulated over the course of a day.  I grant you it is not the most time-efficient way to communicate.  However, a walk to the other side of the office is probably a reasonable use of a few minutes for the sake of overall well-being.

None of these suggestions is groundbreaking.  The general principle is to try to incorporate more movement into your normal routine.  Even paralyzed individuals get physical therapy to keep their bodies from developing the complications associated with being still at all times.  Those of us with the power to put ourselves in motion ought to take advantage of the ability.  Your body will feel better for it.