MOURNING....AN ORGAN?!

Today I am in mourning.  For a stomach.  Maybe that sounds crazy to you, but if they were going to cut your daughter´s out, you´d cry about it, too!

Can you mourn an organ?  Because that´s what I´m doing today.

I can´t believe this is modern medicine!  I can´t believe this is necessary!  We have tried to avoid this road, but in the end, counsel led us to this place.

It is a hard place to me today.

My daughter will lose her stomach.  Not that it´s a pretty organ.  It´s just functional.  You don´t think about it much unless it hurts you.  But most of us like to eat and my daughter is no exception!

She is one of those people you hate who can eat all they want and never gain weight.  She got this from me and I got it from my Dad.  When my Dad was in the army, they said he had the highest metabolism they had ever seen.  I´m pretty sure she outdoes him!  Now she will struggle to keep weight on.

The Drs. say she will live ¨almost normally¨.  What does that mean?!?!  Will she be able to fulfill her dreams to travel to distant places and fight for justice?  Will she still be brave and eat snails in the streets of Istanbul or fiery Thai noodles in Chiang Mai or spicy pickled beets in Beirut?

Or will she have to say, ¨Sorry, I can´t eat your lovely food; I have no stomach.¨??

Will she not be able to make a gourmet meal with friends and joyfully say (as she is known to), 

¨There´s a party in my mouth!¨??

Will she feel hunger if there is no stomach to growl?  If something sets wrong, can she throw it up?  Will she ever have that ¨butterfly¨feeling again?

I´m the mother and I think I´m supposed to have some answers - but I don´t.  Only questions.  And mourning...for a stomach.