One lesson that I have had trouble getting right is listening to my body's cues. At the start of this most recent mess I wasn't listening to what my body was telling me and it got me into a dangerous situation with the blood clot.

The other night I had the house to myself for the first time in months so I decided to have a beer and movie night. I haven't been drinking much at all since the end of May when this all started and I hadn't had a drink since the week before my surgery. I had one beer during the movie  I was watching and when I stood up I felt very weird. My body almost felt drunk but my mind was fine. I was dizzy and my vision was shaky. Since my awareness is heightened since the summer, I was feeling really nervous. Then I had what was similar to a panic attack which was awesome and just what I needed at that moment. Not actually. I was only 2 weeks post-op so I decided to be safe and go to the hospital just so they could check my vitals. Thankfully everything was fine and the ER doc said that it was likely a drop in blood pressure and that the vasodilating properties of the beer didn't help.

I could have felt embarrassed by this over-reaction but with my chronic history of ignoring warning signs, I am glad that I am progressing and learning to listen to my body more :) Needless to say, this has scared me off of drinking for a bit longer.