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Original Writings, Images, Video and Artworks of Mike Hartley


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Health

The daily prompt asks – What is the biggest challenge you will face in the next six months?

I guess it’s the same biggest challenge we all face every day. Our health. From the dangers of getting in a car and entering a highway to the doctor’s test results you get.

No day is guaranteed for any of us at any age. Some of us, including myself, didn’t think like that for a long time. After a few battles with cancer, I stopped taking health for granted. I will have another test in 6 months, nothing unusual, have been tested for many years now. But that will be my biggest challenge. It helps me appreciate each day now like I didn’t before.

It helps me think about time and how I use it. I can put things in a better perspective and order now. I wish someone would have shared that nugget of knowledge earlier in life with me.

Biggest challenges used to be helping raise a family, my career and keeping the bills paid. Now it’s just making each day count. Be it a conversation, a photo I take, a hug from my children, a laugh with a friend. Simple but very important things to me.

Lots of us work a very long time and very hard making other people lots of money. I didn’t learn that one till almost retirement. I was out of balance with work and life. Maybe that is why retirement is so sweet to me.

Health will always be our biggest challenge. Without it everything else can be more difficult or impossible.

If I were to put the test aside, my biggest challenge would be getting all my ideas and projects completed in that timeframe. And fit in a lot of love. I look at life from one test to the next and fit as much as I can in between those dates.

I wish I could eat healthier. Photo by Mike Hartley


2 Comments

6 at a time

What is the biggest challenge you will face in the next six months? Asks the Daily Writing prompt.

An interesting timeframe to pick for this question. In just less than 6 months, a follow-up doctor’s appointment, and if I ring a bell again more tests and maybe more problems.

These tests are for an opponent that I have kicked its ass twice already. It was nasty and I have many scars from the battles and cancer messed me up pretty good. So the challenge is living like a normal person thinking everything will be OK and relaxing and enjoying the day as everyone else.

Or start to fret and try to cram in as much of life as I can into every day. I fight every morning to just relax and let life come or go balls to the wall to get all the stuff I want to accomplish and as much fun fit into every day.

While cancer is a physical battle it’s a mental one also. Once it visits you, your mind is changed. Your eyes start to look over your shoulder. You hear footsteps. Little whispers of caution. Some days it’s like this building drumbeat. You’re on edge. And while there are days you’re successful at pushing it completely aside, there are few, even when you are free of it.

There are constant reminders of the many people also facing the same battles, some of them family or close friends. And then if someone isn’t successful in their fight, it somehow seems to chip away at your armor.

There are medicines on your dresser. Lab appointment reminders. Medical insurance is a critical factor. Constant reminders.

As I look up just over my laptop screen is a pile of wristbands that I keep as souvenirs of past surgeries. They remind me to get out and enjoy the day and that I can survive. I have a ton of stuff from work about certifications or classes but I only keep one Diploma on the wall, from the University of Maryland Medical Center from the department of radiology.

You live from doctor tests to the next test. Hoping for the best news and a smile from the doc saying you’re good to go, fist bump and I’ll see you in 3, 6, 9, or 12 months. It’s those few where they say let’s run some more tests that give you pause.

I’m one of the lucky ones so far. So I’m very thankful. My Mom would remind me often when I was young that many are worse off.

So let me get busy living and doing what I think is important. I hope everyone has a great day also.

I can’t wait for the first warm sunny day to put the top down and point my Miata to the east and not stop till I get to the beach in OC.

Cast your line today. Photo by Mike Hartley