Without your health, what do you have?

Without your health what do you have?

There’s a famous quote by Confucious:

‘A healthy man wants a thousand things. A sick man only wants one.’

***

Today was one of the more interesting days of my life.

I was getting ready for a meeting with my colleague when my sister called me really worried.

She asked if I could get over to my grandparent’s house as soon as possible because she heard from my aunt, who’s a doctor, that my grandma sounded confused.

I didn’t think much of it and thought she was probably groggy from a nap.

Thankfully my grandparents live a few streets down from us so I was there in a few minutes.

As soon as I walked through the garage, I knew something was up because no one was answering me. When I walked into the hallway, I heard my grandfather screaming ‘hey, we’re up here.’

I raced upstairs and found my grandfather trying to give my grandmother orange juice. This was strange to me because my grandmother is a diabetic. If you know anything about diabetics, you don’t give them orange juice because it has too much sugar. So why was my grandfather trying to give my grandma orange juice?

I rushed to the bed and I knew. She was having a hypoglycemic attack. Her blood sugar was too low.

She had no idea where she was, she didn’t make any sense, and she was shifting all over the bed.

I knew we needed to get sugar in her as quickly as possible so that’s why we were giving her the juice.

At the same time, my aunt rushed back from her office and came in yelling. She was hysterical like I’ve never seen her before. She was screaming ‘call 911, call 911.’ I calmly called them and gave all our information while she was being hysterical in the background.

She’s been a doctor for 25 years so she’s dealt with situations like this before. But it’s very different when it’s your own mother, so I obviously understand her concern. 

My grandmother was confused for several minutes before the ambulance arrived but while that was happening, all I was doing was sitting behind her trying to give her as much juice as possible.

As soon as the ambulance arrived, they took her blood sugar and confirmed that she indeed had a hypoglycemic attack. Thankfully the orange juice and half a cheese sandwich was enough to bring her back to normal and she was totally fine after half an hour.

We later found out she took her insulin before her lunch, had her lunch, vomited it all out and then went straight to bed. If you know anything about diabetes and blood sugar, no wonder she was crashing.

Let me explain it as easily as I can:

Your body naturally produces insulin in the pancreas, an organ in your belly. When you have a meal, this insulin digests your food into glucose, a fancy word for sugars that your body uses for energy.

For diabetics, they don’t produce insulin naturally so they need to take it artificially to regulate their blood sugar.

Because she took her insulin with no food, her blood sugar level dropped considerably to the point where her brain couldn’t function properly. That’s why she was so loopy and confused.

The treatment in that case is to give the body sugar, which is why giving diabetics orange juice and a cheese sandwich was enough to bring her back.

It helps being a doctor sometimes.

***

After reflecting on it, I realized a few things.

When everything around you is in crisis, keeping a calm and cool head makes all the difference in the world. It doesn’t cloud your decision-making; it doesn’t make you emotional and you’re able to think clearly. I realized that all the meditating and reading I had been doing for the last several years was paying off. If I were in that situation several years ago when I was a medical student or even just graduated, I probably would’ve been like her. Yet all this effort of working on myself was actually paying off, particularly in crisis situations.

Also, what are you without your health?

You could have all the money in the world with nice cars, nice watches, beautiful house, beautiful family, great friends, amazing experiences and yet if you’re unhealthy, none of that matters.

Your health is the most important thing in your life and people often don’t realize this until they get sick. Once people are sick, the only thing they want to feel is to get better. You don’t know how valuable something is until it’s gone.

Your body is your most important asset and if you don’t take care of it you will suffer the consequences. It reminded me that no matter what you do in your life, if you’re not healthy, it doesn’t matter.

Make sure you make the time to exercise and keep yourself healthy. If you live in a country with access to healthcare, don’t forget to visit the doctor once in a while. It could literally save your life.

Remember, without your health, what do you have?