And You Should Live: My Bout of Bell's Palsy

I used to tell myself that I could walk miles, I could run for hours, I could forget hunger. I would think that I was able and strong and ready for anything. In my mind, I would imagine a life-changing event where my physical strength and will shall be put into test. Be it getting lost in the wild, alien invasion, the great flood, falling off a cliff, or the end of the world. Crazy..I know. It is because I am full of pride. I am proud that in my 5 years of working in Cebu I've never been hospitalized. I am proud that I never get sick. I am proud of my health. But this is really nothing but a big illusion that I clinged into.

There are facts I disregarded. Bout of asthma in the first 13 years of my life, the worst kind. My parents thought I would die one day of that disease. Episodes of headaches, sleeplessness, irregular bowel movements, dizziness. I suck at taking care of myself. I don't take vitamins, I don't eat regularly, no exercise. It's no wonder I woke up one day with this Bell's Palsy.

I take this incident as a reminder, that I was simply, cruelly, abusing my self. This condition didn't choose me. I kinda invited it. I opened a door for it to get in. I'm not saying that I could have prevented it. I know healthy people get sick. But there's a lot of small everyday things that I could have done to help my body. To take care of myself, this was all that I could have done.