Elaine Waples
Posted 2/16/12 on Care & Cost
Our bodies are pretty savvy in sending us messages about taking care of ourselves. Most of the time the messages are simple and informative. Like when we’re tired, we get a signal that tells us to go to sleep. Occasionally they are a slap on the head because we’ve done something stupid. These come in the form of things like muscle strains, hangovers, or sunburns. Then there are the warnings that alert us to things that just aren’t right. They make up the lists of maladies we commonly refer to as symptoms. The real question is how much attention we pay to them and what we do about them.
My epiphany happened after my body had been delivering a cautionary message for over a year. I was having some very annoying digestive problems following months of chemotherapy. To put it politely, food was traveling through my system like an express train. Since chemo is the granddaddy of side effects, I just assumed my system had been compromised and there wasn’t much to be done. Nevertheless, every meal had me worried that I would spend some unpleasant time in the bathroom. I didn’t want to eat out because almost all restaurant food caused misery.
