PATIENT, HEAL THYSELF

Recalling an old and obscure adage learned many years ago, and which to this day has not really gained much traction or acceptance.  That still in any final analysis, your health or medical condition is best served and attended to by yourself.  And not by any other.

Especially in these uncommon times when medical services are being pushed toward the path of dreaded rationing, resulting in shortened and less frequent visits and care.  We are beginning to witness situations where  harried medical professionals can only devote or do so much or so little for each individual case, caused by unprovided piles of cases caused not only by exploding populations but by such catastrophic calamities as pandemics, shooting wars,  natural disasters, etc.

Realizing such incumbency, one is then disposed to undertake personal analyses and assessment of one's own overall health, in light of these impending shortfalls.  And one already in his waning years, has to also contend with the many concomitant  issues inherent to the geriatric phase of life  Current technologies have of course made this task easier and more accessible. Within reach by most everybody in the world today.

And this we, both I and the wife, try to do with our own situations, hobbled a bit by our having to travel from afar to have access to medical care.

Thus so far, we are in the midst of those required visits, eschewed as they have been because of the ongoing pandemic and its constraining mandates world-wide.  But so far, things continue to be okay and we continue to be upbeat.

And we certainly take full advantage of the shortened visits,  encouraged by some preparation and being attentive to the facts and advice coming from the health providers.  And this attitude has been quite helpful and productive for our purposes, resulting not only in timely and efficient medical care, but one as affordable as it can get during these times.

In the case of the wife, she has been a given a clean bill of health for all her prior issues and a thorough-enough going-over of the likely events she can expect will eventually visit her life at these latter stages.

Mine gets a little more complicated, having gone through more medical gauntlets, aggravated by an age seniority of close to a decade.  

A life lived with  pacemakers (2) for over 15 years, one among a score of medical experiences, may not reveal much from the outside.  But one never gets used to the idea that a man-made device hums inside of you, ever watchful and needful when the expected challenges show up.  The device may be viewed as so wonderful, reliable and awe-inspiring,  but still one cannot disregard the fact that it is coming from the fragile hands of man who is heir to errors and failures.  Still a far cry from our body and its life which were designed, created, and sustained by a Higher Power.

Anyway, I too was given a good report on that score.  Rather, the device inside of me which is powered by a long-lasting battery got the good report.  Functioning as designed and configured electronically, save for one issue, or make that, two.

The lesser and not so new finding has been that usage on the atrial lead has been maintained at 100 percent, while the ventricular one is still at 6 to 9 percent.  To explain, it simply means for the function of the atrium that my heart is now completely assisted by the pacer.  It now relies fully on the pacer for that electrical spark to initiate its pumping function.  The crutch is now deployed on a permanent basis.  Not a very good development!

While that may not be a rosy revelation, the other one may be just as grim.  The charge left in the battery as signaled by the interrogation, could suggest that there is an unexpected accelerated discharge that could be caused by one factor that is hydrogen-induced.  And this accelerated depletion could render the pacemaker inoperative.

Or quoted exactly,  "...exhibiting hydrogen-induced accelerated battery depletion."

Language couched in such a manner as to immediately trigger countless questions from any typical patient hearing it for the first time.  Huh?  But I kept quiet and deposited that in my best memory cells.  And the session  ended as the unmentioned (but understood) alloted time came to a close.

Thankfully, it was found that the pacemaker installed in me was not among those models or versions flagged by the advisory.

Still we will continue to monitor the accelerated depletion to forestall any catastrophic incident brought upon by a dead battery.

And in the quiet of my room, I learned more than enough about the latest developments  and made my notes. 

Quietened and assured in the fact that life is proceeding with sufficient foreknowledge and design.

For that is the lot of man.  He proposes, but God disposes. 

Musings On The Go

 

When In Doubt

During bouts of sleeplessness or idle times, one scans through social media groups to pass the time.

And invariably one inherits  the feelings of helplessness and depression.

For what we read are mostly a litany of the things that are observed as being wrong, both in our city and in the whole country. 

Do we need to be constantly and incessantly reminded?

Do we really need to know all the wrinkles we can observe in and around our surroundings?

Isn’t it sufficient especially after all these times to keep those in mind and accept them as there. 

But then start unobtrusively doing whatever little things we may be able to do  both individually and collectively.

In our lifetime and beyond, most of these things observed will still be with us.

There is nothing humanly possible to remove all of them.  

As one problem is resolved, another one pops up. Life is meant to be like this.   

So judge rather the efforts expended than the problems solved. 

There is no going around that.

Much like we are admonished,  lighting that solitary candle rather than loudly cursing the darkness may be more cleansing.

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How Things Have Changed.

Not too long ago drilled into our minds was this pious thought.

That the  Holy Week of Lent was a season for fasting, abstinence, and sacrifice. 

An opportune time for  reverential solitude amidst the din of daily living.  

The time to bear all possible tribulations, doubts, and vicissitudes we could all possibly  endure.

Cramped in those few days of the Lenten season, in imitation of the examples set by Christ.

But now when Semana Santa rolls along, our harried mind wanders elsewhere.\

It starts dreaming of the possible hideaways and getaways that we can sequester ourselves and our families.

All  to escape the hustle and bustle of city life, the torrid summer heat and deafening chaos of urban living.  

In other words, with sacrifices bearing down on all, we seek to enjoy the few days in ease and comfort.

Yet He did counsel and admonish, take up my cross and follow me!  For this leads to eternal life.

Thus, we have to empty our vessels with the temporal pursuits and cares of this world, so we can let Christ in.

SUDDENLY THEY STIR UP OUR COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS

February 2015

But aren't  we STILL missing the bigger picture?

Words heated to red hot when China started reclamations on some atoll islands (called shoals, really).

When the Chinese started its clandestine incursions into some atoll islands geographically close to our shores, we immediately boiled up with passionate and nationalistic protestations about violations of our precious sovereignty, over some outcroppings of land in the vast expanse of the China Sea.  Lands that probably have very little value for agriculture pursuits not only with regard to fertility but because of their miniscule sizes.  Of course we may say that there is always the possibility that valuable mineral deposits could be found in those tiny dots of islands.

Or fishing rights that would be curtailed. But if they are close enough to our national boundaries, then can we not surmise that whatever they’d got there could also be possibly found where we are?  Anyway, all these long years, what have we done in and about these suddenly now famous shoals?  Nada.

Anyway, to this day this is a daily thorn in our national discourses which have of late then at helter-skelter.  Heated words burned continue to spew out of the mouths of our government officials, the media, and from many of us.

Then picture the big and lush island of Mindanao, long heralded but neglected as the land of promise, a veritable goldmine of natural resources and vast fertile lands and valleys.  And what do we do?  

We want to slice and dice it so a good portion of it could be handed in a platter to a minority that has not much to show with regard to democratic governance, no worthy credentials to vouch for its financial cognitive abilities to manage an economy much less a complex political system, and that has always been regarded dating back to the Spanish times, through the American regime and as late as yesterday, as bellicose, troublesome, untrustworthy, and from past labored experiences as unfit for the rigors and demands of civilization.

Why, only last week or so our eschewed national discourses have suddenly been fused into one focal subject – the massacre of 44 of our elite policemen out to arrest a known international terrorist, a bomb maker responsible for the deaths of many innocents, domiciled and coddled right in the heart of the benighted place where some kind of a new state is supposedly to be constituted under some negotiated agreement with our duly-constituted government.

Anyway, while we hem and haw about some bleached shoals out there in the vast China Sea, our resource-rich Mindanao is laid waste with strife and neglect.

Shades of some forgotten facets of our history?

Of Flooding And Self-Awareness

January 22, 2017  · 

After the latest flooding this week, one that brought so much devastation to places not otherwise familiar with or visited by unwanted water, can we declare that the city is now prone to flooding?

I have no answer, except to imagine a scenario that could apply here.

Man breaks into a pristine place blest by nature with bounty and beauty.  It had hills and valleys, meandering waterways, flora and fauna of diverse kinds, balmy and hospitable weather.  Etc. All perfect for human living.

Yet, nature being what it is did provide some cautionary caveats.  There will be rains, tides, and fires, to provide risks for human living, but man is expected to adapt and learn to live side by side with them.

But man is never contented, nor is he a prudent and diligent steward of nature. He did what he could to degrade and alter nature’s provisions.  To a point that nature lost its balance and became a hostile force to man.  And freaks of nature became the norm. Flooding in places where man had chosen to live, harsh typhoons and torrential rains that damage altered topography obliterating humans in the process, deadly diseases in places where humans live in  despicable congested conditions, etc.

Given that, can we humans then declare that our place is prone to hostile flooding and its concomitant miseries?  

Like blaming nature for what is happening?

Rather than pointing the blame to ourselves?

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 SELF-AWARENESS

Self-awareness is one vast and hazy territory to cover and learn.  It encompasses knowledge of one's character, feelings, motives, and desires.

How does one even start learning about all these things?

For one thing, we know that we can detect if a living organism has it or not.  We have tested certain "lower" forms of animals and find them as self-aware, too.

But in humans, the greater challenge is how do we measure it and is it quantifiable?  Thus, some are more self-aware than others?  If not, then why do people differ in their understanding of many things, say even about certain but common facts?

I believe this innate consciousness is very elemental, maybe even non-judgmental, generic, and maybe even, morally indifferent.

Thus, I do believe we need to differentiate between knowledge and wisdom.  Knowledge is raw, unrefined, indifferent and maybe unsorted and unvetted.  Wisdom (and even prudence in the ethical sense)takes the extra and more involved steps to refine the process, sifts through extraneous details, and attempts to arrive at the kernels of truths.

How we are able to delineate and navigate between the two differing notions I do believe accounts for the differences of opinions, notions, and beliefs in man, even among those who may share so many things in common, like family relations, environment, same educational backgrounds, etc.

This is not to say that those who have gone through the process of pursuing and acquiring wisdom are necessarily better of, only that it is incumbent upon all others to initiate those extra steps to try and unify the thoughts of the community of man.

We are all self-aware humans, gifted with the same amount and degree of it, but it is what we do beyond or omit to do that we now find division, tension, and dissension amongst us.

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I thought this observation I discovered today important enough for this medium.

"It is usually futile to try to talk facts and analysis to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance." -Thomas Sowell

In my blog profile, I declare:  

"By discoursing together we seek comfort from one another. But let us speak of things that edify."

How can the twain meet?  Without discourse, it truly is a desolate world.

Begin with humility, with the premise that we can all learn from one another.  No one-way street for an open mind.  

Our beliefs stand on their own, and not leaning on somebody we are trying to push down.

Where Turnest Thou?

 In the Year of 2019 one Sunday morning,  thoughts given life by a mind that just awakened from a state resembling death.

Where Turnest Thou?

When the swirling winds of temporal anxieties buffet your hapless soul, where turnest thou for relief and comfort?

To the entrancing and hypnotic allures of worldly cares that provide immediate and placating ease to your labored soul? 

But how truly in a moment we find that these only provide temporary surcease, that the pains go deeper in our souls.

For we also learn that there is no escaping from ourselves and our daily crosses, that best to face them head-on.

And search for promised remedies that assuredly work for our eternal benefit, and not be blinded by snares along the way

When itchy problems appear to sap our resolve to rebuild our tattered lives, then it is time to do violence to outsized egos.

It is ripe to turn to Christ to seek redemption and grace, in holy imitation of His enviable life here,  the self-same life that we all now are dreading and fearing.

There turnest thou.