What really matters…

I’ve come to realize just this week more than ever that if you have your health you truly do have EVERYTHING. While I was at my doctor’s getting my annual pap I mentioned I had been  having heart palpatations on a fairly regular basis, so she suggested I have some tests done to rule out any problems.  She ordered a chest X-ray and an echocardiogram to check my heart and I  also scheduled my annual mammogram for that same day.

When it comes to my health, I am a bit of a hypochondriac-I imagine these irrational scenarios of getting a bad test result and finding out I have a fatal illness, and more.  It’s just the way I am.  I never take my health for granted.  So for the entire week as I waited for my results I stressed over the slim chance of getting abnormal x-ray results back-my big fear is lung cancer. I validate my fears from the fact that I had two pack a day smoking parents, only to grow up and get married to a man who chain smokes pipes and a few cigars a day.  Not to mention, I watched helplessly as my father died of lung cancer at the young age of 52.  No wonder my fears got the best of me.  I prayed often, and asked friends to pray for me too, hoping that I’d be healthy and normal and that all would be okay.  I must drive God absolutely crazy with my worry and requests for something I tend to not be aware I already have.  I did get my results back and all was normal and fine except palpatations were picked up on the echo-which I knew I had anyway, but there isn’t any other heart abnormalities that should suggest I worry.  I believe the palpatations are caused by a combination of perimenopause setting in full time  with an over stimulated heart from too much coffee.  The remedy-limit my caffeine and stress and palpatations will subside.  They already have.  The worry of that week caused my heart to palpatate more, and funny enough after the doctor called with the thumbs up, all was well and returned to normal.  Whew, what a relief!

In the week of imagining having a pseudo illness, I thought about how incredible it feels to be given a clean bill of health. I really believe if you have your health you have everything.  The way I see it, being healthy is more important than having lots of money or taking nice vacations and living in a nice house.  Simply put,  if you aren’t healthy none of that stuff is going to do you any good.  If you have your health, your house can fall apart around you and you can stand triumphant in the aftermath knowing you can survive it and anything else that comes along because you are all good on the inside.

Now that I’m getting older I’m really becomming health conscious-making an effort to work at keeping my body healthy for as long as humanly possible.  My plan-eat antioxidant rich foods like blueberries and broccoli, exercise regularily but not too intensly and work full time getting my weight down.  I don’t ever want to get a bad diagnosis if there’s something I can do to prevent it.

Do you tend to be a hypochondriac like me and what do you do to talk yourself out of it?  What kinds of things do you do to keep your health alive?