Is your life worth living?

No, it is not meant to be rhetorical.

I have seen poor people begging for food, while others couldn’t even remember the last time they were hungry. There are people who live in empty mansions, while some big families live in small apartments.

When I was in Kuantan, there was a patient with epilepsy who loiters purposely around the hospital on days that he isn’t compliant to his medications. He waits for the inevitable epileptic episode to take place, which translates into a few days of free meals and board in the hospital. Only later I realised that he doesn’t take his medications when he has financial difficulties, or when facing family problems, but smart enough to realise that there is no better place to have seizures than within the hospital compounds.

There was another 70 years old patient with an ailing heart, that swells every time he takes in more fluids. He spends weeks in the wards, longer than is necessary just so he has people to talk too everyday. He usually says this to me during my rounds, ‘Doctor, saya tau saya dah sihat, tapi boleh duduk lagi dua hari lagi? Rumah sunyi. Tiada orang.’(Doc, can I stay another two days in the ward? It is lonely at home.)

His two days will usually translate into an extra week worth of free board and meals, if the ward is empty that is.

The haves, and the have-nots.

Life isn’t fair.

These are all happening in a country where the young and healthy puffs away, perform circus stunts on busy highways, try to kill themselves with various cocktails and substances created by mankind.

Such is life, ample for those who do not care for it, and wanting for the unfortunate ones. Sometimes all you need is just a week worth of work with the sick in the hospital to count your blessings.

From those with End Stage Renal Failure, how we weigh and calculate everything they eat, to those with multiple medical diseases that needs oxygen to support each of their painful, laboured breath.

It is true what they say, their battle for life goes on. A friend of mine, in his early thirties died from gastric cancer a while back. He was a jovial, life loving person even when told he had a few more months to live. I tried, and was devastated just imagining what it is like to wake up knowing that your days were numbered.

It makes you appreciate life, and realise how priceless, invaluable and irreplaceable it actually is. It would seem unfair for someone like him to go through that when those who complaint about living day in and out gets to live on.

Appreciating, adopting a healthier lifestyle. Why take the risk?

No, I don’t wish anyone ill but perhaps we can all learn to appreciate our lives a little better.

Millions of people are diagnosed with cancer each year and yet we see children growing up seeing their parents smoke, and to rephrase John Mayer, treat their body like a wonderland. I have often said that parents who smoke in front of their children should be treated as a child abuser and be made to serve time in jail.

I won’t bother you with facts about passive smoking but suffice to say that passive smokers are also at risk of getting all the health bonus that comes with cigarette smoking.

We always take the ‘it wont happen to me’ approach in dealing with situations like this but little do we know that we are all very much the same anatomically, physiologically and pathologically no matter how much we want, or hope to be different than the others inside.

Yes people, no matter our skin colour, we are the same inside.

So cut down on the cigarettes, exercise a little bit more, watch what we eat every now and then. Put on your helmet, and fasten your seat-belts no matter how short the journey is. Say I love you to those that matter, and wish your friends well whenever you can.

Learn to appreciate life, and the present it brings you everyday for you never know what destiny has in store for you around the bend.

If your life is indeed worth living, then treasure it. Everyone dies, but don’t risk hastening it. -- The Malaysian Medical Gazette

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* Dr. Kamal Amzan is currently practicing Public Health in Sabah.

*** The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Astro AWANI.