A crippling band of pain creeps beneath the doorjamb and seeps into my torso, infiltrating my every receptor. I crumple forward, attempting to alleviate the pain, only to feel folded in on myself. A bit of jostling running steps on a fuzzy storage cube's lid gets my mind off the pain for a short while, but then quickly the excruciating devil is back, and both its horns have stabbed into my gut, wrenching the thorny exacerbation to my back. The day after, I am completely back to normal. But, sure enough, with a minuscule amount of food, the monster has crept into my bed again and is gorging on my sanity. This is the attack of gallstones, and an inflamed gallbladder.
Just recently, I had emergency gallbladder surgery. It was quite the experience, having never been through surgery and being quite shell-shocked the entire time. Blurred was that day after the initial statement that I would have to have the organ removed. But, just as a hint to other victims, eating with only a liver can be painful; in a different way, but still painful. I've learned to eat a little healthier, watching my fat intake and keeping up protein and fiber so as to keep my health in check. I can't say I saw the light or really remember any revelation of any sort, but I do know that losing an organ to bad habits killed those old habits quicker than a sharpshooter in a Wild Western movie.
I suppose, in Americans's busy lives, with easily accessible healthcare, surviving every day isn't hard for the average middle to upper class citizen. But with a wake up call such as I had, sometimes, it seems, one must stop and smell the roses we ingest; else we may just be swallowing thorns.