side effects of surgery

While the Filipinos are busy reacting on Mrs. Arroyo's State of the Nation Address (SONA) and despite that I was watching it at home with the slightest feeling of boredom, my mind was off somewhere else.

My mother just had a hysterectomy this morning, a surgical procedure removing the uterus. Although my mom looks ten years younger than her age, this wasn't really a surprise for us. We just saw a menopausal episode of her friend earlier this year and we knew it would be coming to her soon. My dad seems extremely worried and I'd have to admit, I am more concerned with my dad than with my mom.

She has been visiting her doctor for some time now and the doctor would also usually talk to my dad, especially when the option of hysterectomy came up. Since an important part of the woman's body is to be removed, there will be changes with her hormone levels which also meant changes with her mood.

Now, I have to say this. My mom has very obvious mood swings when she has her period, which is not different from the ones her daughters experience like extreme depression (and liters of tears), easily irritated, sudden outburst aggravated by almost anything and the list goes on.

I guess my dad is very worried on how extreme unreasonable she could be and this could affect almost everyone, her family, the people in the church, the children of our preschool & their mothers. and god, there's even one kid who's an extreme brat.

However, her other doctor also told her that she was already medicated with some hormone medicines which meant the side effect of her surgery will most likely be similar to what she is now. Let me tell you, my mother has been extremely happy these past few weeks.

So now, I'm torn. I don't know which one to believe, my dad or the other doctor. At some point, I want to deny the idea that it could be worse but logically speaking, I have not heard of a hormonal imbalance story that turned out positively. yeah, yeah, me and my over concern for details. But then, I still have to prepare myself if it gets worse.

Now I'm thinking. I am no fan of my mom's mood swings and ever since I graduated, I would usually opt to either keep quiet or stay away when my mom bursts. Maybe this time, I can no longer escape that. Since she might explode at anyone, anytime, I feel like I have to be there even more, to mediate or worse, do the things she's suppose to do so that others won't be prone to her outburst.

details, details. Sometimes God reprimands me of my overly concern with details since it puts Him out of the picture. My mom works full time at the church and if this surgery will negatively affect how she relates to other people, I think it's a crap if God doesn't think of all these. He will never put things to worse (Jer. 29:11).

Then again, I'm just plainly worried.