My Seven-Month Surgi-Versary And An Epiphany

A Date That Will Live In Gratitude...


Seven months ago today I had my weight loss surgery.  The world was a different place.  It was warm and humid even before sunrise when we arrived at the hospital for registration and pre-op festivities.  The Hubs and my brother kept me company in the pre-op holding area before they took me back for the operation.  Dr. Williams came back to chat with me before the procedure and I asked him if he had slept well and if he was in a good mood.  One does not want their insides cut up and messed with by a sleep-deprived, cranky surgeon, after all.

Today, on my seven-month surgi-versary, I am most grateful to report that I have lost a total of 100 pounds.  I've been hovering close to that mark for a couple of weeks and obsessing a little bit over it, thinking, "Is it ever going to happen?!"  Again, God's timing is always significant, and always best.  I had hoped maybe by New Year's Day that hundredth pound would be gone, but it didn't work out that way.  I suppose it makes sense that it should be on a surgi-versary.  I'll for sure always remember the date this way.

In the Christian calendar, January 6 is Epiphany, traditionally observed as the day the Wise Men arrived to meet the Child Jesus and His mother.  In modern parlance, we often refer to an epiphany as some sort of major revelation.  The Merriam-Webster Dictionary has the following as part of the definition: 

(1) : a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something 

(2) : an intuitive grasp of reality through something (as an event) usually simple and striking 

(3) : an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure

 Or:  a revealing scene or moment

So I suppose it is only fitting that this 100-pound milestone epiphany should fall on the calendar date of Epiphany, which happens to be a surgi-versary as well.  It is indeed a revealing moment.  This journey is teaching me that I am not beyond hope, not beyond redemption, not too old or too tired or too anything else to reclaim health, strength and a better quality of life.  God is indeed The Great Physician and, while miraculous, spontaneous healing sometimes happens, He often uses human doctors, nurses, therapists and other specialists to accomplish the healing we so desperately need.  I am roughly 2/3 of the way to my goal; the journey is not over.  In many ways it is only beginning.