Ash Wednesday

It's Ash Wednesday. Normally, this would constitute a fast day for me, as well as being a day to abstain from eating meat.

But it crossed my mind a few days ago that until the cause of the medical issue that was discovered in December is diagnosed, treated, and resolved, I am most likely exempt for health reasons from fasting or going meat-free today or on Fridays in Lent. I need to get iron via diet as well as pills, and as of tomorrow, I actually have to stop the pills for five days. I need to be off the iron pills and aspirin for several days in advance of the endoscopy/colonoscopy combo next Tuesday.

Given the fact that for the next five days, my ONLY iron intake will be via diet, this is not the time for fasting or avoiding food that contains iron.

If the testing on Tuesday reveals the cause of the problem, which I hope it will, and it's successfully treated and resolved fully before Lent is over, I'll go back to abstaining from meat on Fridays and I'll fast on Good Friday. But I'm not going to do that until/unless I get a clean bill of health from the docs.

Freaking unknown issue. I hope it shows itself on Tuesday so we can get the REAL treatment under way. The iron pills treat the symptom, but not the underlying issue. I want the whole issue resolved so I can get everything back to normal and it'll stay that way without daily meds. Wish me luck.