An Apple A Day ...I've always taken my relative good health for granted - my annual "ailments" can be counted on one hand - seasonal cold being the most frequent and perennial baby fat (wink!wink!) being the most persistent :-) 3 years ago, at the young, giddy age of 25, I'd never been hospitalized, never been operated upon and never had to curb my sinfully eclectic diet and similarly sinful lifestyle ... (hey, consecutive years spent doing overtime in audit, sales finance and planning equate to an equally driving need to compensate through food and gimmicks!) ...
And then the bomb fell on my head, literally. Late in 2004, I started experiencing polyuria - excessive urination and polydipsia - excessive thirst (Don't be impressed, it was necessity that drove me to brush up on my medical vocabulary!) At first I ignored these symptoms and tried to cope with the long commute to my office in Laguna by taking frequent "pit stops" to "unload" and "refuel" :-)
By 2005 it had become too inconvenient and I subjected myself to medical examination. Diagnosis: Diabetes Insipidus. Yup, there is another kind of diabetes ... one that occurs in a measly 0.01% of the world's population ... instead of the hormone Insulin, I lack Desmopressin - the dictator that commands our kidneys to concentrate urine so that the bladder can, metaphorically, "hold the fort."
Next ensued the search for the culprit: Kidneys - fine, Blood - normal - nothing left to check, really, except for (drumrolls please...) my brain. I'd suspected it for years ... now I know for sure I had a screw loose ... :-) Morbid humor aside, my neurosurgeon was impressed - he wanted to take a picture of the teeny weeny mass nestled cosily beween my hypothalamus and pituitary glands (it was quite rare for a "baby tumor" to be photographed in full glory - I'd had to autograph my MRI for him). Anyway, surgery and blasting it to bits with laser were not safe options (given the size and the location) so I had to periodically ingest hormone supplements to restore my urine function to normalcy (yey, no more broken sleep and embarassing outdoor accidents!).
More than a year passed by without any further incident and I reverted to my relatively normal lifestyle, subconsciously forgetting about my achilles heel - until another symptom arose - highly irregular periods. Having to undergo another round of tedious tests did a thorough job of sobering up my usually effervescent psyche.
I am about to be married. I want to have kids immediately after. Now I might have to choose between postponing the wedding or walking down the aisle going skinhead with a face bloated from surgery ... and there was also a question mark on the baby production line inside my body...
I was kinda depressed for a while ... wedding preps ground to a standstill ... my work productivity suffered a bit ... but then I realized, despite everything, I was not alone and won't ever be so. I was surrounded by people who love me no matter what. I only had to look around to be reminded of my many blessings. And I started to fight back, adopting a healthier lifestyle in preparation for any future battle with sensitive surgical procedures. I started reading up too - knowledge is indeed a great fear-extinguisher.
Call it divine intervention, renewal of faith, or whatever, things started to fall into place again ... so far, my test results are encouraging - so no need to postpone tightening the noose on my h2b (harhar) :-)
But my unsolicited advice to everyone reading my monologue is: don't ever take your health for granted! Prioritize getting or staying fit. It's the best gift you can ever give yourself and your loved ones. So take that first step - if an apple a day is what it takes ... life is too short for regrets :-)
