Thankful Nov. Day 4: My Health

courtesy/www.homemakershangout.com

Last night I switched from watching the Sunday Night Football game between the Houston Texans and the Indianapolis Colts so I could watch real football – the L.A. Galaxy against Salt Lake Real, both vying for a chance to win it all in Major League Soccer. I’m a huge soccer fan you see. I played for many years and I just love the sport! I have talked about this some before and I’m certain it will come up again… possibly soon.

Anyway, I had chosen to somewhat follow the American football game by Internet and noticed a headline about head coach Gary Kubiak being carted off the field by ambulance and taken the a nearby hospital. I couldn’t figure out what happened. I had just been watching that game ad there didn’t seem to be any issues, but there it was. I have a particular fondness of Kubiak because my mom and I bleed orange and blue – we’re lifelong Denver Broncos fans and Kubiak had been the back up quarterback for several years. He would later return to be the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator alongside head coach Mike Shannahan. It was troubling to hear of his health scare.

It’s also interesting because this happened probably not quite 24-hours after Broncos’ head coach John Fox has had his own health scare. Fox, apparently, will need a heart valve replacement. To me, the slight good news is, he and medical staff (along with the Broncos’ organization) knew about his condition and it was caught before it could be too bad. It will mean missing time away from the team, but that’s fine. He needs to take care of himself first and be healthy. My thoughts and prayers go out to both men and their families and hope for speedy recoveries.

Houston Texans head coach, Gary Kubiak at a game against the Indianapolis Colts (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s a little scary to me that coaches, even young coaches like Kubiak, who’s only 52, is having this kind of trouble. To me, both Kubiak and Fox seem fairly healthy but I can’t imagine the stress they are under and the time they put into their teams. Stress is underrated as being a major factor in people’s health and health problems. Kubiak, in particular, I’m sure has been having extra stress because of all the problems his team has been facing and the pressure he’s under. It’s disturbing to me when I read articles and people are still bashing certain teams or making snide comments instead of focusing on the real issue – these men are having health issues and their person should be MUCH more important than any game, even if they are paid for it.

Their health scares just bring to the forefront how thankful I am that despite my best efforts in the last couple of years, I remain pretty healthy. Right now I have a cough I can’t seem to get rid of no matter how hard I try, but overall, I’m doing well. I have gained more weight than I care to admit to in the last few years or so, but again, I’m doing well. I feel good most of the time and I’m able to keep up and I haven’t experienced any scares… yet.

All of these things, along with hearing other stories of people experiencing scares, is certainly enough to bring to my attention the need to really take care of myself. To truly be thankful for my health, I better start taking better care of my body. I’ve wanted to, but been lacking the self-discipline to do so but as there seem to be more close calls for others, the more important it is for me to do something about my own health.

I’m really thankful that, given that I live on my own and away from any family nearby, that I’ve done so well. I’m thankful that I haven’t had any real health related issues as I really can’t afford that kind of problem. I love my job but I don’t exactly make a lot of money so expensive specialists and tests, etc., are not things I can afford to do. That being the case, it’s even more important to take care of myself so as to avoid having those circumstances. Again, actually taking care of myself is a much better way of showing how thankful I am for having good health. It’s time to get on the good bandwagon huh?

So as I said before, I want to also end these with a few interesting notes. For Nov. 4 – on this day in 1922, King Tut’s tomb was discovered in Egypt. I would talk about how it’s National Candy Day but I think I’ll avoid the candy for today (it’s also a bit interesting it should come just days after Halloween) and the first wagon train reached California in 1841.