Page 20 - Seniorstoday March 2022 Issue
P. 20
First Person
Getting Stented
Vinita Alvares Fernandes narrates her experience of undergoing a stent
angioplasty
Rewind to thirty or forty years ago — I often eating fruit, nuts and raw vegetables, cutting
wondered why a doctor would ask for your back on fried food and processed stuff.
family medical history on your first visit? No alcohol, no smoking (passive smoking
Especially when you have tonsillitis and you can’t be helped) no social drugs, except for
are eighteen years old. desserts in abundance, I thought I was doing
I now realize family history plays an all- pretty well for myself, only to realize that
important role for the early detection of genetics and hereditary are a complicated
diseases. When those early signs of disease matter and can hit you with any disease
do not show up or you brush them aside at anytime, often catching you unaware.
with positive thoughts or the feeling that Disease stemming from family history
you are invincible, I say this today — know should always be at the back of your mind,
how important it is to take these signs very this is something you need to live with, grow
seriously. with and address as you live. Coming from
a family history of heart disease from my
Here’s my personal experience — paternal side and thyroid issues from my
From the time I was asked to do an annual maternal side, I should have learnt from my
medical checkup for my first job and pregnancies when high blood pressure and
annually subsequently, (here in India we gestational diabetes hit me that I needed to
do take medical checkups for granted, often thread with caution and that daily exercise
stretching them to once every two to three and a few healthy option foods would not
years unless mandatory) I maintained a cut it. I did take good health for granted, not
pretty balanced lifestyle of daily exercise, having any major health issue since the birth
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