Just like cholesterol

We are all in pain, in one form or another. But pain is just like cholesterol, there is good and there is bad.

Recently I have experienced real physical pain that actually prevented me from getting out of my seat when we landed in Cebu City. I had a sudden and unexpected attack of gout and it was worse than any of the more than 20 serious ankle sprains and injury I have experienced in basketball.

Realizing my agony, the caring crew of PAL immediately lifted me out and put me on a wheelchair. As I found myself being wheeled out of the Mactan Airport, my mind was whirling at warp speed realizing the mental and perhaps even emotional pain that people experience being suddenly handicapped or incapacitated after being healthy or mobile all their lives.

Somehow, it seemed more preferable to limp in agony and utter pain than to give up ones’ mobility and ability.

After the initial “shock”, I holed up at the Marriott Hotel in Cebu and transformed myself to both patient and Medicine man. Although the managers and staff of the Marriott went out of their way to help me, including sending the hotel nurse along with a get well card, this attack somehow stirred my instinct of self-preservation and I was determined to heal myself.

After sending up three buckets of ice, depleting my travel bag of every pain killer and anti-swelling medicine, and a couple of plates of Cebu Lechon as tranquilizer, I managed to get myself back on my feet well enough to give a lecture on behalf of the Philippine Star.

But pain has a purpose and you would be wise to learn it.

Whether we admit it or not, we all know our respective bodies very well. In the same token our bodies habitually remind us of its needs such as water, rest, exercise and even medication. Pain as we all know is that point in time when our body decides to fight back from the abuse we do to it, or to get our attention after we ignore it to the extreme.

Rather than self-medicate, I knew it would be wise to get a blood test, show the results to a doctor and then deal with the problem. If blood is the life of our body, it can also be the profile of our sins.

What I noticed about the complete blood works was that the test results showed all the good grades first then whacked me with the bad ones later. My cholesterol indicators were all OK and my blood sugar levels were also OK.

Even before the results came, I knew I would register a high Uric Acid level. I was not surprised to discover that, as well as an infection and bacteria indicator that I suspected took place a week before while camping at the beach. What really got me were my elevated readings for liver, indicating that I may soon be the equivalent of a Goose whose liver would be cooked for “Foie Gras wrapped in bacon”.

I knew all along that it would come to this. I used to be in great shape not very long ago. I walked everyday for at least an hour sometimes two, and in between I did a lot of physical work at home and in our small farm. Then one day I had an injury. I slipped down the stairs and found myself perennially having back pains.

Then it was about work, the weather, trips etc. Today I realized that my “accident” was two years ago and I have since recovered but have not gone back to my “No pain- No gain” lifestyle.

It took an encounter with pain to realize and to admit what I suspected and expected all along would come to haunt me. Being fat is one thing, but having a fatty liver for a Hepa-B patient can be the equivalent of tempting faith or hiking along the Iranian border.

But this experience with pain does not end with me, or you for that matter. Many of us loose control or let go of our health because we mark it as “OURs”. Reflecting on this threat to “MY” health, I realize that it also threatens “MY” wife and “MY” daughter at the very least.

Any personal finance expert will tell you that one of the most destructive things to personal and family wealth is often a “medical situation”. Disease and medical emergencies often depletes so much money and family assets that families end up with a double death; a dead relative and dead finances.

Between procedures and medications my medical bills are now at 12 thousand and will go beyond the 15 grand mark. That alone gives me reason to get back on the track and exercise, not to mention start watching my diet. But the biggest reason to endure the pain of exercise and diet is because I’m better off huffing and puffing than to leave my wife and daughter as widow and orphan.

I think it was our Pastor Joey Bonifacio who said, “Pain is the gift no one wants”. When I reflect on the thought, I would rather take the pain than leave my loved ones suffering. Thank GOD and I mean Thank GOD as he helps us endure the pain.

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