By Olivia Norah Ochor.
In today’s business, many people are faced with lots of responsibilities and pressures on daily bases. Career cum housewives, especially the career wives have a torrid time combining their job with domestic responsibilities. Coping with such situations could pose serious health challenges if they don’t know how to balance up their conditions.
In one of my antenatal days in the hospital one certain time, something terrible happened that I almost went into labour immediately. A lady was rushed into the hospital half dead. There was confusion everywhere as the relatives of the lady were panting and pacing around the ward as they waited for the life of their sister to be resuscitated.
It was bad that a woman in labour forfeited her pain to see that she was attended to. I didn’t wait for the gossip story to flood my ears; I got the first hand story from one of the brothers that brought her to the hospital. Her name was Angina; a classic banker with one of the commercial banks in the city. Everything around me is actually a reason to tell a story because I know one day somebody will have to benefit from it.
This was what Kenneth said; nobody had any idea of what was going on with Angina behind the counter, not even her closest friend; Glory who sat by the next counter making a small conversation with her.
Everyone was bustling around, smiling, laughing and chatting. Nobody noticed her disposition. Of course, she wasn’t the kind of person to complain or excuse herself from work, even when she is indisposed; one would have noticed she wasn’t her usual self. She was trying to say something to Glory when she fainted and slumped to the floor.
It was Glory’s shouting that drew the attention of everybody as she held her head in her arm on the floor. Somebody help me! Somebody please help me! She yelled. Her wailing and weeping and shouting suddenly sparked off pandemonium as everyone ran helter skelter round the hall, assuming the building had been held by bandits. Their fears were quelled by paramedics who arrived and whisked Angina to the hospital.
So, what is wrong with Angina Mandana?
Angina Mandana; a mother of three was considered fortunate by her friends and neighbours because she works with one of the foremost commercial banks in town. Everyday, she leaves home for the office at 5:30am in order to beat the morning traffic on the road. Most times she takes a cab instead of driving because it is easier for her to hop from one cab to another rather than be stuck in traffic in her own car.
As a daily routine, she wakes up by 4.00am, manages a quick quiet time and runs off to office leaving the preparation of breakfast in the hand of her house keeper who feeds her children with junks.
Sometimes, she wakes her kids up to have the morning family devoution with them, and other times, she leaves them to have devoution with their father who is equally busy and time conscious. She starts her day in the office with the early morning staff meeting by 8:00am, before setting down for the real day’s work by 8:30am.
A Teller; Angina attends to many customers every day that she hardly has time to eat. As an alternative to visiting the cafeteria or café, therefore, she loads herself with snack and carbonated drinks. Most times, to eat breakfast and lunch, and only manages to snack anything edible. She skips her supper too because she gets home late at night. She takes shower, and slumps on her bed, with an alarm set for 4:00am the following day.
Even on weekends and holidays, she prefares to visit eateries where she and the kids eat fast food instead of cooking since she has adapted to such lifestyle. Aside her bad eating habit, Angina never takes enough rest and never goes on leave. She refused to go on leave for four years in spite of pleas and entreaties from family and friends; she monetized it instead.
As usual, this particular morning, Angina had many customers to attend to, some of them with unusual complaints about their accounts. She had just had a bottle of soft drink and meat pie, and felt a little queasy after the meal. But she waved off the feeling as just a minor discomfort, perhaps from indigestion. Moments later, she had a seizure and slumped down.
She was in the hospital for three days during which period her family suffered the trauma. Her husband could not go to work and her children missed school for three days. They were traumatised because they thought she was she was not going to survive.
Angina’s vital sciences showed she had developed high blood pressure and diabetics due to poor brain function, inadequate rest and bad eating habit. She had to learn a bitter lesson before coming to terms with the benefits of living a healthy life.
Only healthy people talk about success. If you are not healthy, you can never be wealthy. You need to help nature help you stay in a glorious state of health; health is wealth. Your health should be of importance and the level of priority you place on your health should be high. Is your health as important to you as you long for success or do you compromise your health chasing shades of dollars and naira?
- Culled from the book: “Standing Out”
