Fitness Check-In Day 87: When it Rains it Pours

On Sunday I had a rough day where my brother and I missed a class we had, but he reminded me to just be in the moment and let it flow.  He’s been reading a book by Shannon Lee who talks about her father Bruce Lee and his teachings, lessons he learned in life and how to use those to navigate this sometimes chaotic world.

The day ended well, spending time with my brother and just being in the moment. On Monday the stye in my left eye was worse and my eye was half closed, making it hard to do my work and straining my right eye staring at my laptop.  On a positive note, I was able to to do DDPY’s Stand Strong workout part of the chair to standing program.  When it came to fold forward I did feel more pain in that eye and on Tuesday morning I called to see if anyone had an appointment.  Normally I wouldn’t bother because I have had a few styes in the past but they were on the outside of my lower lid and this one was underneath my upper eyelid. 

Reading online about it popping and infection, scarring, vision issues etc…I figured to be safe I should get it checked and get some medicated drops to prevent any issues.  I come in to my appointment and I’m told that that the visit is $442.64.   THAT’S OVER FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS!!! $880 since I am a new patient in total, but insurance paid for half. I only got him because my usual doctor wasn’t available until next week and I did not want to wait as I didn’t know what was going on.

Now onto the prognosis. Turns out that I now have a chalazion which forms when a stye does not drain properly. In this case that was hard to do since it was on the top part underneath the eyelid. The doctor told me that as long as it doesn’t bother me, I can live with it forever, however since it is impeding my eyesight by making my eyelid droop further, I would need to have it surgically removed. SURGICALLY! I have never had any kind of surgery or procedure other than that boob biopsy, an endoscopy and colonoscopy. I don’t even know if I want to do this but it looks like I have small pebble in there and it bothers me right now. I did read that it may go away in a few weeks, although the doctor said once he glanced at my eye that it probably won’t. I am skeptical however.

With all of this hanging over me, I walked home from the eye appointment which is about 20 blocks away so I did my mile today which is good and it gave me time to think about everything going on this year so far. I may just wait it out because if he charged $880 and insurance paid for half, I can’t imagine how much a surgery albeit a small one will cost me. I not only have this on my plate, but I also have a surgery that was scheduled in May for the hyperplastic glandular mucosa (aka) lesion I have in my colon. The nurse practitioner who saw me stated that based on the test results, it looked like this was something I did not need to take out. It was a wait and monitor it type of situation, as these things come up due to trauma that going to the restroom due to gastritis and IBS can cause but that they sometimes go away. They also recommended I get my hems out. Yes I have hemorrhoids, super sexy right? Well on this blog I’m not shying away from much, because this is my life. These are things I have to deal with and I cannot be ashamed because what can you do? Sh*t happens as they say and we shouldn’t be ashamed of them.

What I told them however was that while I do want to remove the hems after they asked why in all the years I have had them (well over 12) I have not done gotten them removed? Well I had a handle on them and at one point they were going away due to constant exercise, and my stomach prior to the biopsy was getting better but then stuff happened and here we are. I also pointed out that there is no reason to get them removed if I’m going to keep going to the restroom as much as I do for as long as I do at times because they will come out again. I need to get better before I do that, but they scheduled both surgeries for the same day in July. I for one am getting a second opinion because it’s my body and I’m not doing something I can live with for a little longer so I can focus on healing my stomach which I have a bit of hope again for.

I do have an appointment with the actual surgeon this time in May and I will address these points with him, but I will not be pressured into something that is not necessary or can wait a little longer. If it can’t it can’t and I will have to get it done. However, I jumped into the breast biopsy without getting a second opinion (an MRI with contrast would have been fine according to others who have dense breasts with calcifications) and look where that got me.

So that’s where we stand as of right now and to be honest now with all off this on the horizon, going to NYC Comic Con this year really may not be in the cards after all. But, May 1st is tomorrow and I still have the entire month to see if I can afford to shell out the money for tickets in June when they go on sale.

You know that saying ‘When it rains, it pours’? Well its raining cats and dogs in my life but that just means I have to learn to sing and dance in the rain.

Until next time my Phoenixes, be kinds to yourself, especially in moments of stress and tough times. Keep this quote in mind, “Tough times never last, but tough people do” -Dr. Robert Schuller

We all go through things, sometimes it’s one after the other, but you can and will get through whatever it is you are going through.