Health Updates

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

Just a quick word on my health and my wife’s upcoming surgery this Wednesday. It’s been several weeks since I quit coffee and it’s been a bit up and down. That’s probably normal for someone who has been drinking one to two cups of coffee daily for years.

I also know that my adrenals still need healing and while they’re on the way, it can take two to three years for that to happen. In an attempt to make it go faster, I purchased a liquid supplement designed to soothe or calm the adrenals, to help them heal. After several days, I noticed that it was doing more harm to my thinking than not, so I stopped taking it and started feeling like my old self again rapidly.

This is the problem with supplements or especially pharmaceutical medications. The side effects from these can be dramatic so it’s good to listen to your body when it starts complaining. Most supplements, even though they might be devoid of gluten, wheat, corn, sugar, preservatives, etc., etc., are normally created in labs. They are synthetic, which is why most capable nutritionists will tell you to try to get your vitamins and minerals from the foods you eat. This is literally the best way under the sun. Daniel proved that in the second chapter of that book when he avoided the foods that King Nebuchadnezzar provided and simply opted for a vegetarian diet with water. The Bible doesn’t indicate how long Daniel remained on that, but the results of it are clearly seen.

I don’t believe the Bible was advocating a strict vegan diet though because there are plenty of examples throughout Scripture of people eating meat, fish and dairy products, as well as eggs. For Daniel though, he wanted to be healthy and there was a great possibility that the food prepared for Nebuchadnezzar was not the greatest in quality.

Having said that though, it’s also clear now that there are many proteins, minerals, and the like that are found to a greater degree in red meats, as opposed to vegetables. My whole point though is whether you eat vegan or include meat in your diet, you need to be aware of what you’re eating and if you choose a vegan lifestyle, you’ll need to add supplements to your diet to ensure that you are getting the full compliment of vitamins and nutrition that is somewhat lacking in vegetable diets.

Since most supplements are created in labs as synthetic, it is extremely important to learn to listen to your body when it starts complaining to you about something that may appear just after you begin taking a supplement. This is one of the reasons I avoid the multi-vitamin because it normally has so many vitamins and minerals in it it’s next to impossible to determine which particular vitamin or mineral is causing problems and it could be a combination of things.

Where supplementation is concerned, it’s best to go slowly and with one type of vitamin/mineral at a time. Once you’ve taken that one for a while and have not experienced problems, then add the next one in. If you start developing issues after that, then there’s a good chance that the second one caused the problem.

I found this to be the case with magnesium. It’s a wonderful mineral and aids in many of our body’s processes. However, I took one form and couldn’t tolerate it. Took a completely different form and couldn’t tolerate it. I went through three or four forms of it and couldn’t tolerate it. So now I use a magnesium spray which is absorbed directly through the skin and bypasses the stomach, intestines and liver.

Again though, if we can get our vitamins and minerals through the foods we eat, that is the better way. You may also think that processed foods you buy that are “enriched” with vitamins and minerals solve the problem. They don’t really do that because the very process of creating those foods at the processing plants usually destroys the natural vitamins found in the raw foods. Just because the companies add these vitamins and minerals back in doesn’t mean that your body will absorb them. They are synthetic and not the natural ones found in foods. Organic is best whenever you can obtain it. The less processed the food, the better.

As far as my wife is concerned, her next surgery is scheduled for this coming Wednesday. We’re almost having to start over because so much time has passed between her first operation and this next one. While the first plastic surgeon was able to save almost all of her original skin tissue from the mastectomy, the length of time in passing has caused that skin to shrink. In the meantime her first plastic surgeon has retired so we’ve been seeing a different one. He will have to put an expander in her right side to stretch the skin over a period of six weeks or so. We were hoping to avoid this but it cannot be helped.

So this Wednesday’s surgery will involve simply inserting the expander and possibly increasing its size by 30%. My wife will need to go back to this surgeon once weekly to have more fluid inserted into the expander until the correct size is obtained. This surgery should take about an hour and a half to two hours. Downtime after surgery will be minimal we’re told.

The surgery after this one in three to five months will remove the expander, replacing it with a small implant and possibly some fat-grafting. There will also be a “lift” on the other side to create a match. A few other things will be done as well during this second surgery. The third surgery will allow the surgeon to create the nipple and the final work will be to tattoo the color so that things match up.

I have to marvel at how far medicine and technology has come in some ways. Not too many years ago, women who had to go through mastectomies or double mastectomies had nothing. There was no plastic surgery that could be performed to help women feel more natural about themselves. They had to wear special bras with built-in foam padding to “look” like there was something there. Today, women are blessed with many options.

I know some folks wonder why go through all the trouble? Just accept what is no longer there and move on. That’s for each woman to decide for herself. As far as my wife is concerned, my love for her is no different now than it was before. I simply want her to feel good about herself when she looks in the mirror. There’s nothing wrong with that. It has nothing to do with ego and simply supports her mental health. Again though, this is a decision each woman will need to make for herself.

Will you please pray for my wife’s surgery this Wednesday? Specifically, if you could pray that God will guide the hands of the surgeon and be with all those who will be helping during her surgery, my wife and I would greatly appreciate it. We know that God already knows the outcome. He is in all things and controls those situations that come into our lives. He does so for His glory and our growth.

I’ve got another situation that I need to give to the Lord and it’s very difficult. I’d appreciate your concerted prayers to this end so that I can turn that particular situation over to the Lord and trust Him for His answer. It’s a situation that’s been bugging me off and on for a while now and I simply need to turn it over and leave it on the altar. Because of my type A personality, this has always been difficult for me to do. While some things are easier, the situation I’m referring to without going into detail is one that weighs on my mind from time to time over the past year or so.

I know the Lord has a plan. He has a response. I’m not sure what the end result will be but I know that I need to trust Him for His advocacy on my behalf and to work in and through me to ensure that His will, not mine is accomplished. Will you join me in that prayer? I would welcome that.

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective