Q&A Lessons from past mistakes

[Suresh Naresh]

LESSONS FROM PAST MISTAKES:

1. Sometimes even legitimate sources of income have hidden financial cost.

2. Try as hard as possible not to neglect health issues even if you have worries of other problems and/or your schedule is hectic.

 

[Old School]

Unfortunately, most people pay attention to health only when it's too late. Damage has already been done, and very little can be repaired. Health is like any machine, which can last very long with good regular maintenance. Some people bring their machines to a workshop only when something has already broken down. Everyone knows this fact, but very few will practice it. It has been like this for thousands of years.

 

[Suresh Naresh]

2. Try as hard as possible not to neglect health issues even if you have worries of other problems and/or your schedule is hectic.

Examples for point 2 (the quoted point):

Example 1: My spectacles were broken in 2013/2014. Due to worries of other problems like job security etc I delayed buying new spectacles. After a few days I stopped bothering about spectacles. For many years I didn't wear spectacles. Only in 2019 I was forced to consult doctor because my vision in one eye had become blur. But by then my vision had deteriorated. Earlier I could sit before computer system daily for as many days as I wished. Now if I sit before a system just for one day my eyes and/or head begins to pain. With such deteriorating vision/eyesight, how to find a job? Nowadays, every offices use computers. But regardless of brightness/contrast settings and anti-glare screens, I get headache and/or eye pain after just 5-7 hours of computer use and I need 3-4 days of rest to recover.

Example 2: Till my father's death in November 2015 he would regularly take my mother to doctor for diabetes checkup. After his death I kept postponing my mother's diabetes checkup due to following reasons:

i) Anxiety about other problems like job security.

ii) I was under the impression that diabetes consultation is expensive. In fact, as early as 2018 or even 2017, I had once taken mother to ESI doctor because I thought ESI option costs less. Later I found out that regular diabetes checkup is affordable. What is expensive is treatment of complications arising due to diabetes but the regular checkup of sugar levels and regular medication for many diabetes patients is affordable.

For a long period from early 2016 to mid-2021 I allowed her sugar levels to rise extremely. I excuse myself for the month of December 2015. The increase in my mother's sugar levels happened because there was neither restrictions on her diet nor medication. She would eat rice items like dosa, idli, anna-sambar and sometimes high sugar stuff like mangoes. This harm stopped only in July 2021 when I finally took her to a proper diabetologist. After that I would give her only the right food and also the newly prescribed medicines.

Nowadays I am furious with my relatives for spiking my mother's sugar levels by carelessly feeding her rice, mangoes, tea containing sugar etc. They don't listen when I forbid them. They are also unwilling for doctor's consultation. They have been causing the spike in sugar levels since 5-6 weeks.

But I forgot that I did the same for 5-6 YEARS!! Later it occurred to me. If I had controlled the sugar levels when the situation was in my control, the current spike of few weeks wouldn't have mattered much. The difference between relatives and me is that they are doing it wittingly whereas I did it due to worries about other problems.

Anyway, I like to imagine 'what if I had controlled my mother's sugar levels during all those years'. The following thoughts occur to me:

1. The current spike in sugar levels would have been acceptable.

2. The question of current spike in sugar levels being acceptable or unacceptable wouldn't have arisen. Below is explained how:

Due to neglect of sugar levels during the period 2016-2021, complications about my mother's health started. Due to these complications I was forced to take help of relatives I don't like. Thus the root cause of relatives messing up the sugar levels currently may actually be MY negligence during the those years.