I still remember our little cute cousin got infected with that red eye disease that she got from her babysitter. It was pity for such a little kid to get that illness. My sister was very susceptible to red eye disease judging from her many times having to deal with it. She made a short visit to the little cousin that time. Luckily she didn’t get infected. But that was only until she finally “bragged” about it 2 weeks later. She said jokingly, “Wah, she’s so nice she didn’t pass me the red eye.” Guess what? The next day after she said it, she got the red eye!!
Thinking that it was nothing new to her, she thought the disease was under control and not serious. “Ah, it was just a minor diease.” So instead of getting the proper medication, she just bought Cellfood, a liquid that they claimed could repair the cells. She bought the little spray bottle with RM10. After using it for the day, it didn’t show result. That time, I remember that the government servant received bonus for year end. She got a lot of extra money to spend, just that she planned to spend it on new clothes and shoes. When she suddenly got infected with the disease, she didn’t let that stop her from her initial plan to spend the money on. But she was wrong on one thing. Just because she took it lightly, she thought on saving up on treatment, but it didn’t work because she did not buy the proper medication or even go to the clinic. That could be her second mistake.
She found out that the red eye wasn’t getting better, but got worse instead. The disease was spread to both eyes instead of one. She got panicked. So she finally made the visit to the clinic and got the proper medicine. The clinic visit and the medicines cost her RM30. So it was almost triple from the first spending on the treatment. So thinking that she got the proper medication, she thought everything was now under control. I still remember that my mom was so concerned at her situation. My mom said to her that maybe she should watch what she eats. She said that the old belief says that one who gets this disease, SHOULDN’T eat chicken because this will make the disease worse. But since my sister thought she got the proper medication already, she said, “Who cares what the old belief says. I have the medicine from the doctor.” So without listening to my mom, she went to breakfast the next day at a restaurant with her friends, and she ordered a meal that has chicken. She didn’t care or believe what my mom told her. Guess what? Just after she had the meal and went to her car and started driving, suddenly her vision got really blurry. She said she almost could not see the road. She got so panicked and drove to the nearby eye specialist.
I remember reaching home that evening. I saw new medicines on the table. She told me she went to the eyes specialist because she almost could not see the road while she was driving, just after taking the breakfast. I asked her, So how much does it cost now? She didn’t reply. “You guess.” I didn’t have to guess. I saw the bill beside the medicine. It wrote RM390. Then I was like, “Omg! That expensive??!” She said she didn’t have a choice. She was told to do a second review visit to the same specialist to check her eyes back and that would cost her another RM50.
Only then she realized that Her Health is above any other things. She learnt it a bit too late that she didn’t mind not buying new clothes or shoes, just as long as her eyes could get normal again. Her mistakes were all started from the moment she bragged that she didn’t get infected, despite knowing that she was so prone to the disease. Second was when she bought a supplement that was not even considered a medicine – just because she thought she wanted to save up on the cost and that the disease was not serious since she had it more than once before. Third, she didn’t listen to my mom – even if she only needed to cut chicken from her meal, she thought she couldn’t even make that sacrifice. And to top it all…she thought that HEALTH is something that we can compromise on. Like even clothes and shoes are more worth it to spend the money on. Another thing is, we should be as humble as possible and take advice from the experienced people and never feel that we are too good for that. Especially when we only need to make a little sacrifice. We can’t compromise on our HEALTH.
Sometimes the people who are lacking in everything understand the concept better. I remember this one guy who had to leave his job to get treatment for a disease that was detected early. He had to stay out of town for a month without income. I asked him, “What about your job?” He said, “I have to take a month off. This treatment is more important. Cos if I have a lot of money, it would be useless if I’m sick. If I have a lot of money, I would spend it all just so I can be healthy again.” When he said that, I could not agree more. What happened to my sister really made me learn a lot that without our HEALTH, everything else seems to lose its meaning. So if you fall sick, don’t think that any price that you can afford to pay for the treatment is ever too expensive for your health. Nothing is more expensive than your health as long as you’re still alive. Those people who have been severely sick definitely know better. So don’t worry about the money. If you have health, you can make even more money than what you already spent for it. :)
Note: After that, my sister's approach towards handling illnesses has totally changed. That story was definitely an expensive lesson for her.
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