it’s not “official” official yet, but it will be in a matter of weeks; i’m surgery bound.

after a flair-up earlier this year resulted in a bowel obstruction which laid me up in a hospital bed for nearly a week, the news came that sooner or later surgery would be a necessity.

i’m assuming most of you have never had a bowel obstruction before, so let me tell you; it’s no fun. the symptoms are (or at least for me) were a loss of appetite and vomiting every few hours for no apparent reason. after the fourth or fifth time, i took a trip to the emergency room. the worst part of the whole ordeal was the NG tube they shoved down my nose and throat (to drain the fluid building up in my stomach) and kept there for three days.

initially, the impression i was given was that if i waited to have surgery, another obstruction would force me to have surgery under emergency circumstances, though that was clarified by a surgeon a couple of months ago. that correction made me rethink my plans and i, if only briefly, opted to “take my chances” and hold off on surgery. at the time, i was feeling good and there wasn’t anything looming that made me think there was any urgency.

then my brother told me the approximate date he’d be getting married and i started to second thoughts about my current strategy. if i wait, take my chances, and put off surgery until it is absolutely necessary, my fear is that another obstruction will occur at the worst possible time: just a few days before the wedding. under those circumstances, i would not only be unable to see him walk down the isle, but i’d also potentially put my parents in the uncomfortable situation of having to choose, between attending his wedding, or being here for my surgery. neither of those sounds good to me, so i’ve decided to preempt that situation by having the surgery at a time of my choosing. i won’t be leaving this to fate.

as it stands now (i don’t see the surgeon for about a month) i’m thinking the surgery will be either early december or early january, in attempt to be out of the hospital and recovered before the 2014 legislative session starts and before the election season (and convention season) kicks off. ultimately, i won’t really know when this is all happening until i meet with the surgeon.