I had to put my foot down
Dear Editor,
The phrase “I had to put my foot down” really refers to immediately implementing a strong stoic no-nonsense approach to an unwieldy problem or situation. In the field of health care it is quite important that all players get serious about redeeming the time and maintaining the best health outcomes.
Surgical firms have to make calculated decisions to save a patient’s life. The patient, too, literally has to “put foot down”. Rest and recover. Forget about all other obligations and focus on self-care.
Traumatic events and earthshaking diagnoses can rip the wallet and the heart. However, even in these potentially tragic moments a clear and calm mind is essential to tread through the roughest seas. “Cool yuh foot!” Not even feet, you are barely limping.
All in all, it is a humbling experience. The limbs, the arms, the body cannot function due to just a brush with the common cold. Even if you have been through all known maladies, as my mother would say, “It is the straw that breaks the camel’s back.” So take that vacation, rest and avert “arrest”.
The office will not burn down because you are not there. At this time, you have to ease the reigns. Always have a succession plan. When that music of emergency surgery hits, you feel true pain. So today, do yourself a favour, don’t miss or willy-nilly reschedule health appointments. Do not ignore the call to repeat tests, do your annual medical, pap smears, mammograms, or prostate test reviews. Prevention is always better than cure. Take the advice of the ages: “All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again.”
Listen to that beautiful body of yours. Some activities must remain on the shelf. That is until you can lift that load without aggravating a current injury. When you resume duties, take each task in stride. Ease your way in until you regain full strength.
Major or minor illnesses require rest. While all the vital medications can be useful, appropriate distance from other responsibilities will see a brighter day when the morning breaks.
Putting the “foot down” is not pressing gas recklessly. Avoid the ambulance chase. Calm down, it will get done; eventually the trouble will be resolved. Everything else is recoverable, but not life if you lose it. Live to see another day. None of us are indispensable, so loving yourself and preserving the greatest gift — life — is true wisdom.
As Christ admonishes in Luke 12: 23, “Life is more important than the body and the body than clothes.”
Happy to be alive!
UI Jem
jem.ul@yahoo.com