Leaves of Change

Last year at this time I was forced to leave work due to Crohn's. I was doing some serious thinking about having an ostomy and although I knew it was the right thing, I was a tad nervous about the prospect of forever having a "bag." The time to myself gave me a chance to weigh all my options and really feel good about one decision or another, the following is what swayed my choice.
We live in a mature neighbourhood ie: BIG trees, and at this time of year we have mountains of leaves that need to be bagged. Since I was home I decided to bag the leaves and do my good deed for the day. Between washroom breaks, fatigue, dizziness and the every day malaise I felt, raking and bagging the front yard took 5 hours. 32 years old and I was having difficulty throwing some leaves into garbage bags. My 80 year old grandmother has just as many leaves in her yard and she manages.
I sat on the front porch last year and cried, the tears falling just like the leaves I had so valiantly tried to contain. I realized I could not go on like this. I marched into the house, picked up the phone and called my surgeon. I made an appointment, the first step in Oscarness.
Yesterday I took the day off and decided to tackle the leaves. I raked the back yard into piles, romped with the Pug's, chided my cat for catching and then eating a poor little bird, raked the front yard & the street in front of the house, bagged the front and made "bag" pumpkins and stuff a spiders, cleaned some ease troughs, Windex the windows in the garage and swept all the pathways. About 5 hours into the day I sat on the front porch and marveled at all I had done. I STILL had energy and went inside and baked 2 banana bread's and 2 Skor Blondie bars.
One of the first things people who receive an ostomy will tell you is the amount of energy they have. I never realized just how much energy Oscar has given me.
Thank you Oscar for letting me bag leaves and for giving me the energy of a 4 year old on caffeine.