Health and Happiness

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Clarissa

May 19, 2017

So I think I shared before that a close friend of mine was diagnosed with inoperable late-stage lung cancer at the age of only 48. She has very good healthcare and is battling it bravely. But here is the thing. Since the diagnosis, she’s become a different person. She’s so happy that there is a light that comes off her. She is literally luminous in spite of harsh and painful treatments that have destroyed her immune system and exposed her to serious viral infections. She is enjoying life the way I’ve never seen her do. All of a sudden, she has tons of friends and social engagements, and she’s doing amazingly well professionally and in what concerns her personal life.

A month ago, I got some really shitty test results. It’s nothing like what my friend has but the results are bad for diabetes and heart health. And I mean they are “Oh, Jesus, WTF?” bad. The first 3 minutes after getting the results I was scared and anxious. But then all of a sudden I felt really happy. I felt like I finally had an excuse to ditch the unhealthy lifestyle and all the bad foods that I’d been eating my whole life. I had to change my lifestyle completely and I basically have to live like an invalid not to be an invalid. But I’m happy in a way I wasn’t before the test results.

What I wonder is why it’s impossible to feel this way without a kick in the gut that one feels when seeing these shitty test results and getting bad diagnoses. It’s as if we all had a huge reserve of joy inside us that we are not tapping into until something forces us to access it.

So, folks, don’t wait for bad test results is what I’m saying. Go be happy now because it makes no sense to wait until things get really hairy.

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3 responses to “Health and Happiness”

Vic Crain

May 19, 2017

It takes a dose of reality to put daily life into perspective. A saying that comes to mind is “Don’t sweat the small stuff . . . and it’s all small stuff.” Lyn’s had cancer three times and nothing scares her anymore. Perspective.

In one of my prior blogs, I mentioned a green smoothie that a Turkish oncologist had recommended to us. He swears that people who have one of these each day don’t get cancer. If you didn’t see it, I can send the recipe.

Diet apparently does matter a lot. Lyn has a relative battling cholorectal cancer who was near death and bedridden back in December. After a diet change, he was out hunting last week with the cancer firmly in remission. Go figure.

Even good doctors don’t understand the human body as well as they think they do. And there are a lot of docs out there that just don’t bother to keep up with the rapidly changing literature.

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1. Clarissa
  
  May 19, 2017
  
  Please do link to the recipe. I’ll be very grateful.
  
  Cancer three times, that lady is a survivor in more ways than one. I admire her deeply. She is also a talented artist, in case people don’t know.
  
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Stringer Bell

May 19, 2017

So, through lifestyle changes I came very close to being medication-free for my diabetes. That was a few years ago. Somewhere along the line I got cocky, and stopped being as diligent about my health. Since I get my medication from India, I haven’t even gone to the doctor in a long time. Planning to do so in the next few weeks, after I get done with a project that’s been taking a lot of time.

The fucked up part is that I’m already starting to feel good at the prospect that the results will be horrible and that’ll kickstart my ‘comeback’. Just like you said, I’m scheduling an event that I know will be a kick in the gut. But if I know it’ll be a kick in the gut, why am I not doing something about it already? It’s like I need this totally artificial marker to trigger a behavioral change.

It’ll be the good old days again when I used to plot excel charts with my daily numbers, kept diligent records, and didn’t have to exert an ounce of ‘willpower’ to do all that stuff. The first time I met with a doctor here and gave my whole dossier, she actually asked me if I could be a motivational speaker to her other patients, haha.

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