The Fearful Journey Toward Health
You find yourself bracing for a doctor’s appointment. After two decades of daily vodka consumption, you expect the prognosis to be grim. Earlier online results of blood work confirmed your worst fear: cirrhosis of the liver. Now, you’re about to discover the extent of the damage done to your organ, so enlarged and calcified it protrudes from your abdomen.
For moral support, you bring along your significant other. Your doctor gives it to you straight: continued drinking will be fatal. This conversation occurs in November 11, 2022, and since then, you haven’t touched alcohol. You’re a 43-year-old pipe fitter from suburbia, Phoenix, who now remembers the date of sobriety as quickly as your birthday.
Getting through the Rough Stages
The early stages of sobriety are challenging. While dealing with restless sleep and other physical effects of alcohol withdrawal, you didn’t work for a month. Your despair deepens when a liver specialist diagnoses your cirrhosis as stage 4, a condition that’s irreversible even with medication. You also discover you have type 2 diabetes. You barely eat and motivation seems scarce until you find your fuel for change.
You have a 16-year-old son, from a previous relationship, and a five-year-old son, who has periventricular nodular heterotopia, or PVNH, a rare incurable brain malformation. Your younger son’s condition is as incurable as your stage 4 liver cirrhosis. This realization hits you one day as you sit on your sofa, suffering from withdrawal. You understand that your addiction prevented you from truly connecting with your sons.
Considering your younger son as a miracle, you use your fatherhood as motivation to change. You call your boss and return to work. You also start hitting the gym, working out three times a week with resistance bands. You then ease into weights, mindful that your cirrhosis and high blood pressure could potentially trigger a stroke.
Adopting a Healthier Lifestyle
In addition to your new exercise regimen, you adopt a healthier diet. You fuel your body before and after workouts with plant-based organic protein powders plus greens, zero-sugar Greek yogurt, and plenty of grilled chicken and rice. You avoid sweets and red meat, except for the occasional steak on date nights.
You take medications to help process what your liver can’t and prevent “foggy brain,” a condition caused by a buildup of ammonia from diminished liver function. Despite the daunting diagnosis of stage 4 cirrhosis which typically requires a liver transplant, you’ve lost 95 pounds and dropped to a 31-inch waist. Your doctor urges you to continue your healthy lifestyle based on encouraging blood work results.
While the health benefits are rewarding, the most fulfilling aspect is your newfound ability to be fully present for your sons. The highlight of your day, is spending quality time with your younger son at bedtime. This peace and joy have become your motivation.
Looking for more inspiration? Learn from others’ journeys towards health in this year’s Ultimate Men’s Health Guy competition. READ MORE
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