Stream of Consciousness Sunday: What’s a gallbladder for anyway?

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In case you missed it last Sunday, I decided to resurrect my stream of consciousness series on Sunday mornings. I started it a few years ago and then turned it over to someone else who isn’t doing it anymore. I don’t know if I needed permission to take it back but I decided I needed the weekly writing exercise anyway.

And go…

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Perhaps I’ve just been coasting along the good health highway. Or maybe I’ve been speeding down the expressway of oblivion. But I know that all good things must come to an end. Like a sedentary lifestyle and the all-you-can-eat buffet.

I make myself sound like a couch potato, which I am not, but when you spend your life online, you tend to be less active than others. I know it. But lately my weight gain and fatigue has been over the top (for me, anyway).

It wasn’t until I woke up on Thursday morning with pain in the “upper right quadrant” of my abdomen that I realized real things are happening in my body that I can’t see and maybe I should be worried about them once in a while.

Although I was headed in to the office, I thought a quick trip to the doctor might be more important. One visit later along with several blood tests and an ultrasound, I went home convinced I was going to die. More importantly, it made me realize I really really don’t want to die.

I have no idea what the results will be. In the back of my mind, I’m think it could be diagnosis: gallstones. I’m not too terribly worried. At least not as much as I was on Thursday when I was convinced I was spending my last few hours on earth. But having just one little thing go wrong with my body reminds me that even though I’ve never suffered any major physical ailments, I’m just as susceptible to them as anyone else. And maybe it’s time that I start to treat my body with a little more respect.