The past few weeks have been a rollercoaster! It has brought home to me how fragile life is. And it definitely has impressed me how important it is to do whatever I can to give my body the maximum chance for health and well-being.
Last week, my father-in-law went into hospital for what he thought would be a fairly minor operation. He had some adhesions in the bowel which caused him a lot of pain, and he decided he wanted them dealt with.
Even thought the doctors recommended him not to have surgery, he insisted they went ahead. On Tuesday they did key-hole surgery on his bowel, and on Wednesday morning he collapsed and had to be resuscitated. They operated again to find out what was going on, and found that his small intestine had perforated. This caused scepticaemia, and although he was given excellent intensive care, he passed away on Thursday evening.
It has been a very difficult time, and both my husband and I have said that we need to be even more diligent in keeping our general health and well-being in excellent shape. God created our bodies to be the most marvelous wonders of nature, but so many times we simply take it for granted!
Before I was told that my heart was in failure, I kept a gruelling schedule and worked 20 hours a day, seven days a week, ate over-processed, nutritionally-deficient, toxin-loaded junk food nearly every day of my life. With that kind of overload it is no wonder that my heart finally could not cope with the stress I was under.
Even just one thing could have ensured a completely different outcome: sufficient sleep! Our bodies repair and heal during our sleep. Most of this repair goes on between 10pm and 2am in the morning. By going to bed between 1am and 4am every night, I missed out on the optimal repair-sleep. And 4 hours of sleep is not nearly enough to keep the body healthy.
These days I cannot function without at least 8 hours of sleep. I have learnt to listen to my body and respect its needs. It helps me cope so much better with stress and with life in general.
I get really upset when I see how some youngsters overload their bodies with alcohol and drugs and late-night boozy-sessions without a thought for tomorrow. I guess it is because I have realized how precious our health is, and how it can impact us when we get older. Perhaps I can't save eveyone, but hopefully I can reach a few!
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