A Slight Detour from the Normal Posts
So, as the title states, this post will be a little change of pace from my normal, mindless ranting about the goings on in the world. Instead, I'm going to use this post to talk about something personal that has been happening over the past few days. Boring, I know- who wants to hear about my life? But give it a chance, maybe it will make you take a second to think about things as well.
So on Monday night, I got the unfortunate news that my dad had three blocked arteries in his heart. The blockages weren't bad enough for bypass surgery, which I guess if there's a silver lining on the cloud, that would be it. However, he was going to have to undergo a procedure where doctors inserted what they call "stents" into the blocked arteries. These stents are then expanded, pushing the blockages against the wall of the arteries, thereby freeing them up for blood to pass through as it normally should. These stents are also coated with drugs to prevent the blockages from reforming, provided the patient takes their medication and sticks to a proper diet.
Now, this might not seem like a big deal to some people, but for me (and my family) it was. My dad has always been the rock of our family, and the strongest person I know. He served twice in Vietnam, seeing things that I couldn't possibly even begin to fathom, and has worked in the same job for the past 30+ years, countless hours to make sure that my mom, my sister and I always had everything we needed, went to the best schools we could, etc. , etc. My dad's also an intimidating guy, so I'd never want to be on his bad side- even though I have been a few times. Luckily, neither of my parents have ever been seriosuly sick, so up until now, I've pretty much seen my dad as immortal, so hearing this news was a little bit of a shocker for me.
It also made me take stock of my life a little as well. We all go through life, living every day as if it will never end. We never really think, or at least I don't think that much, about how what we do everyday or what we put into our bodies affects our overall health. My dad is a huge smoker, has been for over 40 years, so I thought if anything would get him it would be lung cancer. But he's always eaten whatever he wanted, worked tirelessly for how many years and always outwardly appeared healthy as an ox. And since I've got his genes, why shouldn't I be the same way?
When I go to the gym, or choose the salad over the hamburger, I find myself questioning a lot of the time, "why am I even doing this? what does it really matter?" I guess what I realize now more than ever is that it does matter, everything that I'm doing does have an effect on my overall health. It might not mean that I'll never get sick, but anything I can do to keep me out of a hospital, especially after waiting there today for close to 8 hours, is a good thing in my book.
So on Monday night, I got the unfortunate news that my dad had three blocked arteries in his heart. The blockages weren't bad enough for bypass surgery, which I guess if there's a silver lining on the cloud, that would be it. However, he was going to have to undergo a procedure where doctors inserted what they call "stents" into the blocked arteries. These stents are then expanded, pushing the blockages against the wall of the arteries, thereby freeing them up for blood to pass through as it normally should. These stents are also coated with drugs to prevent the blockages from reforming, provided the patient takes their medication and sticks to a proper diet.
Now, this might not seem like a big deal to some people, but for me (and my family) it was. My dad has always been the rock of our family, and the strongest person I know. He served twice in Vietnam, seeing things that I couldn't possibly even begin to fathom, and has worked in the same job for the past 30+ years, countless hours to make sure that my mom, my sister and I always had everything we needed, went to the best schools we could, etc. , etc. My dad's also an intimidating guy, so I'd never want to be on his bad side- even though I have been a few times. Luckily, neither of my parents have ever been seriosuly sick, so up until now, I've pretty much seen my dad as immortal, so hearing this news was a little bit of a shocker for me.
It also made me take stock of my life a little as well. We all go through life, living every day as if it will never end. We never really think, or at least I don't think that much, about how what we do everyday or what we put into our bodies affects our overall health. My dad is a huge smoker, has been for over 40 years, so I thought if anything would get him it would be lung cancer. But he's always eaten whatever he wanted, worked tirelessly for how many years and always outwardly appeared healthy as an ox. And since I've got his genes, why shouldn't I be the same way?
When I go to the gym, or choose the salad over the hamburger, I find myself questioning a lot of the time, "why am I even doing this? what does it really matter?" I guess what I realize now more than ever is that it does matter, everything that I'm doing does have an effect on my overall health. It might not mean that I'll never get sick, but anything I can do to keep me out of a hospital, especially after waiting there today for close to 8 hours, is a good thing in my book.
posted by IMan883 at 10:30 PM
1 Comments:
Interesting to know.
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