Importance of Health
Back in July, I had a pretty serious medical procedure, kind of leading me to reconsider overall health— physical, mental, and emotional. I don’t want to get into the details of the procedure, because yeeek I don’t know, feels kind of controversial and a little too personal. Regardless, I want to share what I’ve learned from it, my thoughts on health in general, because it is something that a lot of us take for granted I think, I know I do at least.
So pre-procedure, way back in May, I started feeling very off symptoms— sleeping all day, having no energy, not being able to keep food down, throwing up, feeling sick quite often, having a lot of emotional anxiety, feeling much more low than usual, just very emotional overall— and if you can tell where I’m going with this, then I don’t know, good for you? Anyways, I had been feeling this even through June, where I had gone home to get more tests done, like, lots, and nothing came back too abnormal. Even going home, I thought I would start feeling better, like maybe it was just an environmental factor, and being that I had gone through a lot this past year I might have just needed a change of scenery or a place I could have some quality rest and relaxation. It didn’t do much. So I came back to orange county for the summer, to work, to move, whatever I needed to do or work on before school and traveling for the rest of the summer.
When I got back to California, I felt almost worse than I did leaving, I was quite literally sleeping all day, not able to work because I felt so physically and mentally out of it, all I could do was stay at home and rest. I could barely keep food down, just feeling awful. I went back to the doctor and my provider gave me news that something was indeed wrong and I needed to take care of it as soon as possible or it was going to progress in a very bad way. So, I ended up getting that medical procedure, and I pretty much had no choice, there was no other solution to help the state I was at.
I didn’t have any actual thoughts about the procedure, any objections, mainly because I knew I needed to do it, or else I would be in quite a pickle. The procedure seemed routine and simple enough, not including the physical, mental, and emotional toll it could take on me following it, so I continued with the plan to have it done.
Post procedure, aside from the expected physical discomfort and pain, I immediately felt different. And just, better in every way. The day following I was up and running around, back to my old self. I felt physically so much better, like I was able to get up out of bed and even just go for a walk. Mentally and emotionally, I felt much more regulated, very relieved too. Everything just felt better. I was lucky my experience had me feeling a lot better after. I’m not gonna lie, the procedure itself was the most pain I had ever felt in my life, and I regret not preparing for it better, but at the same time, I’m just glad it gave me my life back.
Following those three months of extreme discomfort was a lot better. I felt like I had missed out on life for a bit. It made me reconsider how I was taking care of myself, how I was respecting and nourishing myself, how I wanted to take care of myself moving forward. I will say, I am very lucky to have the support system I have around me. The couple people I had told about this entire situation were very reassuring and helped me through every step of the procedure, recovery, even before the procedure as well.
But as much as I think support system matters, regulating and maintaining health is a solo journey too. I think it’s important to stay on top of yourself when it comes to staying healthy. This entire time, I found it so difficult to do absolutely anything, school, work, or socially related. It was very, very hard. Learning how to best navigate your own body and its needs is most important though in allowing yourself to lead the life you want. It takes work, a lot of work. And apart from getting the procedure, I will also mention I had a lot of support through therapy during the entire period before and after, actually still to this day. Mental impacts emotional impacts physical impacts everything else. So yes, I do think keeping in touch with your health and managing your health is important, in every way. Health is indeed wealth. Stay wealthy everyone.
