One year ago today, I underwent surgery to remove fibroids from the uterus.
I felt calm as I was wheeled into the operating theatre, and even joked with my doctor when she arrived. But, once the anesthetist injected the chemicals through a tube to make me go to sleep, and my eyes started to cloud over, I felt a wave of fear and panic wash over me. I started sobbing uncontrollably.
All I heard was the anesthetist and his assistant saying, "It's ok, it's ok..." as I slipped into nothingness. My last memory was the gentle touch of the anesthetist assistant putting her hand on my shoulder to calm me down.
When I awoke, the growths had been removed and I was as good as new. (Well, almost.)
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| Flowers from dear friends |
The episode jolted me. I had to take better care of my health. It was obvious to me that whatever I'd been doing to take care of myself was not enough to counter the ill effects of the environment, and those times that I didn't take care of myself.
Medical research hasn't found the cause of growths like these. However, I think that all the stress that I had kept bottled up inside made me more susceptible to falling sick.
Now, I frequently remind myself not to take things too hard. And, I practise yoga to keep my body and mind in balance. :)
Which reminds me... it's time for me to get serious about meditation too.
Do you (did you) have any health issues that you think are caused by stress? What do you do to combat stress?
white hair, pimples (at this age!), nightmare, weak immunity (I can go on coughing for months when I never used to fall ill), gastric pain - all due to anxiety
ReplyDeleteWow. So many of these are signs of the body getting "messed up" inside due to stress and anxiety. Is taking a break helping alleviate some of these symptoms for you?
DeletePretty messed up yeah? Depends on what you call 'taking a break' - did you not realise when you suddenly take a short break, the whole body collapses? If u r talking about the 1 year off work, it has other sets of anxiety. Ha!
DeleteThe good thing is, I do realise the severity and I am learning to deal with it better. And I cannot agree more with your "I had better take care of myself". Love thyself.
Short breaks are great for me. Longer breaks are better though.
DeleteSounds like you were really high-strung, so much so that even a short tension-release break could give you problems. It's all the more important that you take a proper break now during your year off.
As someone told me before, only you can take care of your own health, and at the end of the day, that's all you're going to be left with after the job/career is over.