By Barb Nadeau –
It seems that every cause needs a day on our calendars. We have special days, holidays, days of remembrance, awareness days, there is always something that we humans want to celebrate or acknowledge on any single day.
June is full of special days, such as: Flip a Coin Day, National Doughnut Day, Hug your Cat Day, Name Your Poison Day, Donald Duck Day, the first day of Summer, and most notably Father’s Day. It’s the month to enjoy camping, country cooking, the great outdoors, Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month, Papaya Month, Turley Lover’s Month, and Dairy Month.
June is a time to bring attention to many different health concerns. June is Men’s Health Month. June is Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month, Aphasia Awareness Month, Cataract Awareness Month, and Hernia Awareness Month, too. It’s the month the Veterans Administration has marked for PTSD Awareness. We have Blood Donor Day, Healthcare Risk Management Week, and cancer survivors, health care recruiters, community health improvement workers, and nursing assistants are all acknowledged or celebrated in June. So, perhaps June is a good time to take a moment to consider what we can do to take better care of ourselves.
As a wife and a mother of four sons, I can attest that the men in my life always have been most reluctant to consider their health or to concern themselves over better eating habits, or exercise. From my experience, it’s the women in their lives who tend to counsel, may I even say nag, the men in their lives to take care of their health.
June just happens to be the month that I find myself following through on my commitments to better health, too. After seeing the doctor for a physical, and following through on mammogram and colonoscopy appointments, I am making a date with my eye doctor. We all have reasons to put these chores off, and perhaps special days on the calendar can act as reminders to us to do more for ourselves.
Visiting a health care provider can be stressful, but we have to view it as just information. I can remember watching my father steel himself to visit his cardiologist, and then after his visits to almost dance out of the office feeling light as a feather. The fear of what we may learn is often worse than the information we receive. I have experienced the same type of anxiety, too, and then was gratified to hear the doctor’s words that the good things I have been trying to do actually have helped me be a healthier person.
Trying to stick to eating good healthy foods, such as fresh vegetables and fresh fruits and home-made non-processed entrees, and keeping myself physically active has had the desired effect. I am healthier in many ways now than I was 10 years ago! That is incentive enough for me to continue enjoying a healthy lifestyle.
The information we receive from our doctors is just that, information. We already know well our own life story. We recognize the things we have done wrong for our bodies, and although we hope others won’t notice, we know we have to wake up tomorrow, face the facts of life, and make decisions day after day for our future.
When we hear a threatening diagnosis, our first thought may be why is my body betraying me? In fact, we should ask ourselves, “Why have I betrayed my body? The day to start anew is today. The month to start anew is June. Right here, right now.
Barb Nadeau works for Senior Services Associates of Kane, Kendall, and McHenry Counties as a Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) & Transportation Coordinator. She is a freelance writer and television host. She can be reached at bnadeau@seniorservicesassoc.org.