Life goes on

Six, eight, five, four, five ... wait, what am I doing? I can't tell you how many times in the last few months this has happened to me, good or bad news to share, I always called mom. The realization hit me again today, I wouldn't get an answer. Here's what I would've shared with her ...

I entered the doctor's office feeling a little apprehensive, after all two weeks ago I was laid up in a hospital bed, hooked up to i.v. antibiotics and pain medication after another bout with diverticulitis. Another part of our journey I didn't count on. Now some of you may know what this condition is, but many of you don't, and believe me, you don't want to. Chalk it up to bad genes passed down from generations before, bad eating habits for most of my childhood and young adult life - no matter what the cause, it's a pain in the neck - well stomach to have. Diverticuli are little pockets that form in your large intestine over time. When one eats nuts, deep fried foods, stalky vegetables, seeds or anything hard to digest (and tasty j/k) these pockets act as safe havens for food particles to breed bacteria ... hence the infection! Altering your eating habits, plenty of water and exercise is said to be the remedy to keep attacks at bay - it's true, but I'm human and I might've turned a blind eye to a seed or two.

Fast forward two weeks and I'm feeling pretty darn good. I'm eating a normal diet again, almost done with the antibiotics and no more pain. Life's looking pretty awesome and now it was my turn to see the doctor.

I sat down and she proceeded to show me actual photos of polyps they pulled out of me in June. Not pretty and there were so many of them. Time is of the essence she said. These things grow back and until I don't have a uterus anymore, I'll have to keep dealing with them. "Well, call us next week when your cycle starts and we'll officially begin," were her last words to me as she held the door open. That's it? So the process commences almost immediately? I forgot how exciting it could be, the anticipation was a little intoxicating and my "woe is me, I'm a diverticulitis sufferer" went right out the window - life's moving on and I'm going with it. However, for some odd reason, the first thing that popped into my head was "I need to call mom and let her know." I'm not crazy, well at least I don't think so - but it felt real. As I bid the office staff an enthusiastic "aloha, see you folks next week," I began dialing mom's number on my cell phone ... and then it hit me as I hit the down button on the elevator - "Liz, you won't get an answer, girl get a grip!"

I could feel the tears well up, but I held back - I was on my way to meet Kauhi for lunch and I didn't want him to see me cry. When the elevator opened, I entered and stared at my phone thinking how I could be so detached from reality. I've had friends and family say it's happened to them - but it's different when it's you ... somehow we all think we're immune to episodes like this, but now I see I'm no superwoman, no one special, just a girl who misses her mother more than words could ever say.

So mom, even though you can't pick up the phone, I know you're listening, watching - I hope you'll get to see some amazing things happen over the next few months. As you would say, "C'mon, life goes on my girl, you can't watch it pass you by."