Health is Wealth

~ 99 weeks to my 'Tees' (30th) ~

Clearly, a late post - because not unexpectedly, I've been rather busy.

But I want to rid myself of excuses and blog however little, every weekend!
(So the next post shall come sooner than next weekend and then hopefully, I'll be on track henceafter)

The last week - a lot of focus was on health actually.

I was down with sinusitis; the husband had just returned from a work trip in Manila with a stomach bug and then I had just returned from a morning shift at the Children Emergency (CE) to find that my toddler had started vomiting non-stop too.

I wasn't too bothered initially but when he couldn't keep even sips of water/ORS down - I decided it was time to take him to the CE to get a dose of anti-vomiting medicine to arrest the puking. So that's what we did. Thanks to me working there, I could go in right away and my consultant could attend to Ayaan - within a couple of hours we were headed home. The next day I stayed home and attended to the little one, thankful that his spirits were still high, and he wasn't bogged down from all the times his diaper had to be changed thanks to the diarrhoea that had begun too.
But in a day or two all of us were back to normalcy.

And that's when I spotted the TIME magazine cover at the 7-11 stand one afternoon- and flipped through the pages.

I often share with my family about the sick kids (maintaining patient confidentiality throughout) I attend to at the CE and how strong the parents I meet are ... and how every day, I only feel more grateful for the relatively unperturbed lives we lead (touch wood)

This year in fact, on occasion of Ayu's travel-theme birthday, we sent monetary funds in aid of children refugees. Last year, it was a panda theme party - so we had donated to the Save Pandas fund (under the WWF banner). Little drops - but they say little drops make the mighty ocean - so we got to keep at it.

But just seeing this, made me sick in the tummy like nothing else. Seeing how children, who should be attending schools, playing on the streets and enjoying their childhood (the way we did)- all from the same family infact, were victims of war - some crippled for life, and stuck on hospital beds or wheelchairs, in much agony.

I remember discussing with the husband, how we must seriously think about how we can do something, however small, for children like these. We can't stop crime and war, but nothing should stop us from being peace crusaders! It was a nice chat, with a lot of wishful thinking, as we chased sunset, on our unusual ride together post work, headed home.

On the positive front, this week saw us celebrating some good health numbers too. By numbers I mean those on the weighing scale :D So the husband was down by 8 kgs since he first started hitting the gym with a personal trainer and watching his diet, lowering his carbs intake and upping the protein content specifically; while the father-in-law was also down by 10kgs, thanks to a month-long retreat at an Ayurvedic centre, which comprised of strict diet control with only plant-based salads etc for food and a lot of yoga, breathing exercises etc in addition to some herbal medications. Without any conscious effort, I realized I was 3kg away from my own weight goal too (yes! I still had my pregnancy and post-partum weight on me :D)

Coincidentally, I also happened to attend to a friend's daughter at CE and they were very grateful and appreciative of how I spoke and managed to calm their nerves. That was reassuring obviously, for what makes a good doctor isn't just medical knowledge but as the friend said, how you make your patients and their families feel.

So by last weekend, we had come a full circle - from reversing roles by being the patient's mother to being the kids' doc on other days; from recuperating from sickness to celebrating small victories on the health & fitness front. As a doc and mother - I cannot emphasize more "Health is indeed Wealth" - so let's be more mindful of how we treat our bodies and as the husband says, if we can spend money on other wordly things, shouldn't we invest so in our health as well, instead of spending much more later when sick? Wise words eh?