Happy New Year to all!
To help set some perspective for 2016, I thought I’d write about an experience from a few months back…
This summer I was at the airport getting ready to board a plane after being on vacation for a week. While boarding the plane, I was waiting in the aisle in the first class cabin while others ahead of me stored their overhead bags.
Though I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, I overheard one side of a phone conversation from a person sitting in first class. He was a man in his mid to late 40s, tall and slender – generally in good health from an outward appearance standpoint. However he was sharing with the person on the other end of the phone that the doctor’s aren’t sure what’s wrong and that he has to go back for monthly monitoring. Mentioned Sloan Kettering which makes me believe it could be rather serious in nature – perhaps cancer related.
I’m not sharing this to break any HIPAA rules or to speculate on someone’s medical state. I’m sharing because we often get caught up in life – job, work, family challenges, money, etc. We don’t often place enough focus and attention on our health and well being. We take for granted our health and stress about things that – in the grand scheme of things – just aren’t worth stressing about.
This experience help set some perspective for me – a person sitting in first class, looking fairly healthy to the eye at first glance, could be facing a terrible illness with an unclear outcome. My hope is that he will be OK.
As we begin a new year, let’s remember this: health affects everyone. Though we can’t always control what happens from a health perspective, perhaps the importance of health and taking care of yourself should be higher on the old priority list than it sometimes is.
So if you’re looking for a resolution for 2016, why not this: make health and well being a priority.
Wishing you and yours the very best in 2016. Happy New Year!
Dave
A Musing Healthcare Blog 