Highs and Lows

November wasn’t an ordinary month for me and I had to admit, there were significant highs and lows in my life that I want to share with you, my dear readers.

Let’s start with the lows:

I experienced hypertension episodes for two weeks of November and I am just 31. I knew I had previous episodes on this but this, by far, had made me bed ridden for a few days. I was experiencing throbbing pain on the back of my head, at the same time, felt like my brain was subdued to a head crusher. My tears were just mindlessly falling and everything seemed blinding bright. I couldn’t drive myself home and had to call for help to fetch me from the office. It happened twice and I felt so helpless during those periods. On my normal mind response, it kept on enduring the pain but subconsciously, my body has its own limit. Whenever my body reaches its pain limit, I will start feeling naseous and won’t even accept food that comes after that. It was definitely a terrible experience.

I had to be home for the longest during that month and not even to work, but to recuperate. I had to sleep and rest and whenever I open my eyes, my room must be dark in order to help my eyes recover as well. I took some medical tests and the results showed significantly high numbers in my cholesterol and blood uric, also my eyes are still 20/20. My mom doesn’t want me to take any meds for these because she knows this can be controlled and managed naturally. Praise God for the wake up call to be healthy and to not always give in to what I sometimes call “comfort foods” It is difficult to eat bland foods and to limit my caffeine intake had me at my lowest. Well, people are saying that I can still drink coffee and basically can eat anything but in moderation.

“Everything is good but in moderation.”

I am not sure how much of this I could take and how to manage this condition but it’s not as if I am the only one in the family that has hypertension. Some says it really runs in the blood but, I hope I could have this condition manageable if I would want to tick more of my bucket list. Presently, I am doing better and I think I have lost some weight, though not that significant loss yet, but some are already noticing it.

Now for the highs:

I was invited to be a plenary speaker to Philippines Society for IT Educators (PSITE), touching on mental health in this pandemic. It was an honor to do it for them but since I couldn’t attend virtually, I sent a recording of my talk to not disrupt their program flow.

I also graduated from the Global Leadership Center of CCF! I finally graduated GLC 1 and GLC 2! Again, praise God for the technology because I couldn’t attend on the virtual graduation due to work. Still I was able to rewatch a recording and receive my certificates <3 God did not just allow me to graduate but He gave me a graduation with distinct merit! I couldn’t understand at first how I got it but I was able to find in the recording what was it for.

My VERY FIRST SIGNED Mitch Albom book entitled, “The Stranger in the Lifeboat” also came last month! Not only that but Mitch Albom, knew I existed! He liked and retweeted my post! I was totally head over heels on this man! He is truly one of my influences in writing and I will read ANYTHING that this man would write. This book is so special that I would buy a paperback edition and read it. I’ll probably store this signed copy in an acrylic case as a family treasure. Lol. But hey, where is the lie though? He is truly one of the greatest authors of my time and I am not ashamed to say that I am a fan of his works.

I never expected some highs on my month due to the hypertension episodes but God is indeed, Faithful and an Intentional Father. He did not allow me to be at my lowest for the whole month and I felt how He reminded me to take it easy, rest if I can, and in obedience, there will always be His promise of redemption. He is my greatest healer and I know He not done yet with me.

Please continue to pray for me as I try to be disciplined in my food intake and for my heart to obey what is right and healthy for me and my body.