The other day I had a pretty drastic medical emergency. Well, I thought it was drastic. The reality is that I won’t be sitting you down and telling you in hushed tones that, “I’m not feeling very well lately.” and “I’m going to have to go away for a little while.” Anyway, I noticed something wasn’t very right when I woke up to go to the toilet at 7:30am* and I made a couple of panicked phone calls. I was told it wasn’t enough of an emergency to go in very quickly, so I calmed myself down by having a bath. That stopped me from crying uncontrollably, because I have this irritating female instinct of falling to pieces whenever something a little pressuring or upsetting happens. This worked out well because I was phoned back up and asked to go in, just to check it wasn’t drastically urgent and that I wouldn’t have to start practising my hushed tones at any point.
I got dressed and went to town, which also meant that I was unfortunately hopping into the surgery because I had to give up a limb in order to be able to afford what they mockingly call public transport. I opted for my left leg, just below the knee. It was a neat cut. So I hop in, wave hello to my aunty, who was one of the people that I made panicked calls to and who was probably surprised to see my cheery demeanour, what with my medical emergency and missing leg and all, and hop up the stairs. The reason I was so cheery is because I’ve decided to be happy lately, as a new year’s resolution. That’s it: Be Happy. Although there are always going to be days where it is rainy and your bus is late and you didn’t sleep well and your hair didn’t go right and so you feel you’ve earned the right to scowl at everyone who looks vaguely cheery, a lot of happiness is choice. So I have decided to Be Happy and although I had a medical emergency which meant I had to lose my left, lower leg in order to fix what was originally wrong and it was rainy, I was still Happy because it was being seen to and this all happened while I was home from university, so I had support from my family and it was Okay.
I got seen to and given antibiotics, which were the seriously hardcore ones you couldn’t drink with and my medical emergency has slowly, slowly slid down the scale. I would say it’s now amber, bordering on green. I finished my course yesterday and today I have felt like I have been living underwater, which is not a pleasant sensation. Nor, I decided, was it urgent so I have dealt with it by lying in bed and practising Being Happy while ill and it’s fortunately gone away. Dad said it might have been a reaction to finishing the antibiotics, which I sure hope so, because I couldn’t face crawling into the surgery after another bus ride, (I opted to hop home in the rain rather than pay for a return and I did so with great cheer. This Happiness is a great thing!) and be given more medicines.
Lesson I have learned from this: My medical emergency was one that was, in part, caused by being run-down and stressed, because your body misplaces your immune system in those times. (Has anyone seen my keys?) If I had to describe my feelings towards last semester, ‘run-down’ and ‘stressed’ would definitely be high up on the list, and ‘my fantastically healthy diet’ would not be seen anywhere. So it’s a simple lesson, but I have realised that my health is important. So being silly and frivolous and unemployed will help with part of that because I won’t be rushing everywhere, and becoming a super-fit muscle man (another resolution. well, not quite.) is another. So I should be Okay from now on, un-stressed, healthy and happy.
It’s amazing how much it takes for that realisation to sink in.
In unrelated news, I read somewhere that someone placed ‘amazing’ in their top ten list of words to eradicate from the English Language. My vocabulary would be dramatically injured as a result. I should probably find some new words.
*Editing is a wonderful thing. I re-read this part and realised I make it sound like my medical emergency is part of my going to the toilet! It is, in fact, NOT. It is something that was dealt with while I was fully clothed, with no alterations of any clothing whatsoever. I’m just being mysterious because I’m quite proud about my health. The going-to-the-toilet was the reason I was awake at 7:30am, although that got waylaid somewhat.
0 comments:
Post a Comment