The Construct

I so swear that, when I get to have kids, I wouldn’t scrimp out on their health. Given the possibility that I might give them some of my crappy genes, at least I’d owe it to them to make sure that they will be in tip-top health.

My folks used to think that dental work (braces and such) were just for. Frustrating to have to deal with these issues now that I’m 26 and paying for, I don’t know, 20 times more today for stop-gap treatments.

Last Friday, I had to undergo a minor operation to get one of my impacted molars out. I have four but my age and the complicated placement of that molar made it quite a tricky process.

I used to think that root canal therapy is one of the most uncomfortable things that a dentist can do to you. Found out that was wrong. At least in my case. Having that impacted molar out was the worst experience of my life, well, at least physically. And I already broke an arm.

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August is marked by health issues – clear signs that I have taken very little care of myself. I have gained back all the weight I’ve lost during those bouts of weight-loss regimens over the past couple of years. Thing is, I’m already in my mid-20s and that’s the age range where it’s critical to get fit.

For the past seven months, I’ve been immersing myself into the whole making money thing that I’ve entered another phase of sedentary living. I practically spend all my waking hours in front of a computer even eating breakfast, lunch and dinner in front of the monitor. Sure, the money’s good from all the projects but August served as yet another warning that earning big bucks is moot if you’re going to spend it all away on health care.

So here I am again trying to re-assess my short-term goals health-wise. My stepper machine and sit-up bench are both gathering dust particularly because I’ve grown bored with them. I used to play basketball but since I don’t live in a secluded neighborhood where I can use the community ballpark by myself anymore, that too isn’t a viable option.

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Just this month, I’ve been in and out of clinics for a couple of ailments. I have to admit that I’m not taking pretty good care of myself recently. So much pressure to work and earn. So doctors got to love me since I’ve been handing them hard-earned money to write me prescriptions and I got to hate myself for that.

I had been experiencing some weird sensations in my ear and a trip to an ENT revealed that both of my eardrums were perforated due to a prolonged bout of allergic rhinitis. I’ve been under treatment for a week now. And just last Monday, I had to visit the dentist to perform root canal therapy on me due to an inflamed and infected tooth nerve due to a botched filling job by my old dentist.

Too bad for me, one thing that I don’t have is a health care plan aside from the government mandated Philheath and that you can’t seem to rely on for emergency procedures. I do have access to cheaper and free medical services from the UP infirmary but my past experiences have made me wary of defaulting to that privilege. The thing is, quality health care never comes cheap. Indeed, I have spent quite a lot on consultation fees and medicine these past weeks.

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Who said a career based on speaking doesn’t have hazards? For speakers and lecturers, contracting anything that affects one’s ability to speak is catastrophic. Sore throat and upper respiratory infections can render you useless. It takes quite a lot to shut me up but I guess one gets to meet his match once in a while.

In my case, it’s a canker sore (singaw). I do have a tendency to talk fast which means that whenever I speak, my tongue, jaw, and lips move quickly. Unfortunately for me, my folks never invested in braces so my teeth aren’t perfectly aligned (sungki). Never thought it’d get the best of me until I accidentally bit one of the plica fimbriata.

As with most oral traumas, it resulted in a nasty singaw which I have been nursing with a regiment of Betadine mouthwash for the past four days. I thought it was healing nicely until I aggravated it eating some muesli yesterday. I woke up this morning with it hurting like a real bitch.

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The good thing about science is it keeps on interpreting things that make me understand a bit of myself better each day. I have always regarded myself as a bit of a masochist. I never thought of relating that to my curse-dominated ideolect but science has.

Keele University researchers studied the relationship of cursing with pain tolerance and they found that those who curse can endure pain nearly 50% longer than those who don’t. This result gives everyone who gets hurt some good reason to belt out expletives.

On average, the students could tolerate the pain for nearly two minutes when swearing compared with only one minute and 15 seconds when they refrained from using expletives.

Researchers have yet to explain the link but they believe that it has something to do with the human beings’ flight or fight response. For a more detailed, check out this article on BBC.

Anyway, at least this gives me a bit of license to skip the PC bullcrap and curse whenever I want. I’ll just pretend that I stubbed my toe or bit my tongue.