You say Gastritis, I say Stomach Erosion
[in an effort to continue with the attempt to add variation to my writing style this year, this post will be written in third person]
Sara recently put a name to the stomach pain she has been experiencing for over a year. After realizing the constant, severe hunger-like pains weren’t going away she finally went to the doctor to figure out what was wrong thinking the pain might be caused by an ulcer due to heightened anxiety. Then after taking over-the-counter medication and the pain not easing she went to see a specialist and then had an upper endoscopy performed, whereby the camera showed evidence of esophagus and stomach erosion. Biopsies were performed and medicine prescribed. Sara looks forward to the relief from constant abdominal pain. Sara is also relieved to not have to get a camera inserted through another part of her body.
And with the unknown pain given a name she is able to move forward with her future plans. After a quiet winter hibernation, she was looking forward to being active outdoors again and had planned to return to Arizona to thru-hike the Arizona Trail. After weeks of not committing fully to the hike due to medical uncertainty she quickly packed her backpack and was ready to hit the road. Well, she was up until the coronavirus pandemic put her plans in an upheaval. She spent a day reading everything she could find about the virus, contacted trail associations, and communicated with fellow thru-hikers to help make a decision on whether to go through with her hike. She went back and forth, one minute deciding that the trail would be a great place to be since you aren’t around many people, then the other minute figuring she wouldn’t want to put others in danger because she wasn’t self-isolating, and the next minute thinking she would most likely not be affected by the virus, and then worries about potential lockdowns and the possibility of not being able to resupply while on trail. It wouldn’t be such an issue to postpone starting, but the Arizona Trail has a certain time-frame to hike due to the climate in the desert, and if she missed a Spring start she would have to wait until later in the Fall. And with her unplanned open lifestyle nothing is guaranteed as something else could arise before then. She prioritizes not pushing things off because she tries to live a life whereby you never know what might happen.
Thus leads our protagonist to present day and still uncertain as to what is to come. She feels great pressure and anxiety after a less-than-hoped for past few months where she was self-isolating for months before it became popular, which is then doubled with this disappointing delay in action.
Stay tuned to see what Sara does next.
Some may think showing photos of your stomach lining is oversharing, but Sara would say, “How often do you get pictures of your innards? This is cool.”