To be honest, I have not paid much attention towards health issues, being fit, physical appearance or anything that concerns with my body. One reason for this negligence may be the fact that nothing serious has happened until now to coerce me towards putting more time and money for health. To answer the question whether I should have put more attention on health, I remember one incident in Hyderabad- I had one of my ears got suddenly blocked for nearly a month. I was forced to hold mobile phone only on my left ear. One fine morning, when the lady doctor (at Kothagua Apollo clinic) removed the waste from my ear, I realized how great it is to be healthy.
The above paragraph, in no way, should mean I never had any diseases. In fact, I have several memories of being ill. Let me try to recollect:
- I had pox while in school at Agia. I still remember collecting the leaves of a particular tree (from Prabin Da's home) and how Maa took care of my body with all 'home medicines'.
- Just before starting Cotton College chapter, Maa was hospitalised and I was an attendee at Solace Hospital(old building). One fine morning during dressing, I was watching the blood and I almost collapsed. On that moment I decided I can't be a doctor. Eventually at Cotton College, I stopped attending the Biology classes without telling Deuta.
- Toothache has tortured me like anything throughout my life. I have around 6 filling + artificial teeth in my mouth. This is one area that has kept my association with hospital/medical active. Even as on today, I need to undergo root canal treatment in one teeth (something I have been postponing since Aizawl days).
- The eye swelling in Oxford was scary one. Without any identifiable reason, I suffered from the possibility of remaining with a bulgy eye for the rest of my life(Curtsey- Mehreen's prediction). But with God's grace, the swelling decreased and now I don't have that at all in my eyes.
- Blood pressure is another area that has been a concern for me. First time, I discovered my high blood pressure during 2002-03 period. The intense mental pressure for IIT/AIEEE made my life hell. After that, my blood pressure became fixed on 130/90. It affected my lifestyle as well; during moments of intense decision making, I sensed hot ear and blackish surrounding. I invested lot of time and energy in changing my way of thinking and procedure for decision making. I have not experienced that black out type moments for quite a few months now. But the inherent psyche that I have high blood pressure, keeps me composed in the moments of extreme agony, which I think, is a good thing.
- On physical appearance, I think I started losing hair when I had started working in Microsoft. But the rate of losing hair was so slow that I did not even notice and never spent time to find ways to stop the loss. Once the hair-loss became prominent, I remember of visiting Dr. Batra's clinic for a free check-up in Hyderabad. They did some checking with a machine and informed me that I had already lost a lot of hair. Now, they can try to keep the status quo, but can't do anything to grow new hairs. The alternate was hair transplant, which was quite expensive. Since that day, I have never spent even a minute thinking about hairs. But sometimes, I think it does give me an unattractive look and dull personality. I don't know what I should/can do.
- On physique aspect, I have not given serious efforts, but, of course, little bit of attention as and when the urge came. First time I ventured into that territory by enrolling for gym (yes, by paying fees) in the last semester of NIT Durgapur with the Robo wing mates. It was in the evening time near City Centre. I started eating chickpea every morning to balance my diet. I can't remember why and how I stopped going to that gym. Later,I started attending gym in Microsoft office- mainly to run away from the office stress and to respect the repeated request from Latif (the gym instructor and Akash's friend). I was quite regular, but those were the worst days of my life, and eventually I dropped off to cater to the needs of GMAT preparation. During the Aizawl days, the 302 steps took care of my health and I lost the weight I put on during Hyderabad. Recently, Karuna Da (IIT Guwahati) introduced me to the world of Yoga. I became so passionate that with Jitu da, I made a habit to visit the block field every morning. At present in Delhi, the home-office walk has been quite effective. In fact, my search for rented house had a big component of health i.e. finding a house at walking distance to office. I realize and appreciate myself for the fact that I have become more concious of my health now-a-days. I am also thinking of purchasing a walk-measuring wearable device.
So, in summary, with no hospitalization and no piercing of any body parts, I have lived a disease-free life until now. May God bless me! Health is Wealth! However, this also makes me a bit paranoid about hospital/surgical operation etc. I want to live a life with no hospitalization and with no lifestyle initiated diseases.
While doing the mandatory health check-ups before joining NISG, one idea came to my brain. Since India does not have a life long profiling system of all citizen's medical records, why can't and shouldn't I try at an individual level?
Hence in my first post under health label, I am also uploading the medical reports I received recently (health tests before joining Delhi ) as below:
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My last point is on my preparedness for any sudden health disaster. Apart from my NISG medical insurance, I have two other-- the LIC's section 80D one where I pay INR 8000/- as annual premium and Pradhan Mantri accidental insurance one (only for accident) where I pay INR 12/- as annual premium (I am not considering the life insurances here). The sad part is that most of my medical expenses are on teeth and OPD, where I (in fact majority Indians) don't have any insurance policy.
All the best for a healthy living!
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