Health and Happiness Part II

Should I see the glass half full or half empty? That’s really how I feel these days about my health.

Now I know I should be appreciative of the fact that I am still in the land of the living, that I am still able to walk and talk and sense and laugh (I can even walk and laugh and talk, I hope, sense all at the same time), but for someone that is known to be rarely sick, so far 2008 has been my annus horribilis on the health front. I so wish 2008 can rather turn out to be an annus mirabilis.

A few days after I completed my chemical war during January against H.pylori (see a previous post) I went to Mexico to address a serious bug in our system. Two days after my return home I became sick with the flu. Now most of the US (47 states) reported serious outbreaks of the flu in February because the flu vaccine this year only protects against about 40% of the flu bugs going around. I never got a flu shot this year. Maybe that’s why I experienced the flu so severely this time around. I was really down and out with the flu. For 3 days I struggled to get my temperature down and it kept me out of work for a week. Even now, nearly two weeks later I still have some lingering effects and my energy level is still very low. At home I jokingly said I brought back a foreign bug from Mexico, which of course is not necessarily true because I could have pick it up anywhere. After all, I spent many hours in an airplane breathing recycled air, probably the easiest way to get the flu.

Pille & Brille

Barely out of the flu sickbed and now it seem that I will start March off with a hernia operation. On Monday, for a Computed Tomography scan, I had to drink 2 bottles of Barium Sulfate, which didn’t taste as bad as I heard some people said, but man, did it clean me out afterwards. I will know on Thursday what lies ahead for me and what kind of approach the surgeon will take to fix the hernia. During my visit to him last week he has hinted he will use the less invasive, faster healing laparoscopic method and that I should be back to normal in one week. Surgeons are such optimistic people. Two years ago one told me my knee operation should heal within 4 months. I still can’t run.

I sincerely hope this surgeon is right this time because Spring is coming and I have a big garden that will be redesigned and many plants need to be replanted. I really don’t have time for incapacities when so much work lies ahead. I guess that makes the glass half full.