Sick of being Sick

This week I learned a lot about how my stress affects my body. And I did it in a very unintentional and unwanted way. This week was AP exams and with 6 AP courses, I definitely had a lot on my mind. So needless to say, I got a little stressed out and felt like I would not be able to do as well as I hoped which lead to me studying for hours and hours without end. And where did that get me? A bad case of strep throat.

Now, I get sick very often. In fact, so often that I’ve taken medication, worked with my doctor about diet plans for immune system support, tried taking flu shots, tried not taking flu shots, and other ways to prevent me from getting sick so often. But most of the time they seem to fail. But one thing my doctor noticed is that I fall a lot more sick during the school year, than the summer time. He ultimately ruled that my body does not cope well under stress and my immune system goes down during high times of stress. This was sometime before my freshman year of high school. Not to victimize myself, it is not to the extent where I need to where protection devices, just that whenever common illness like strep comes around I'm more likely to receive it as well as be susceptible to more harm by it. At best it can be a cold that lasts a month. At worst it is two trips to the ER in a month.

Now where this relates to the medical field is that this was one fo the reasons I was so hesitant to get into the medical field. As much as I want to help, I am slightly afraid that my own health will get in the way of my parent care. Being a doctor is a high stress job. On top of that being sick during surgery could be deadly. This is something that my parents have talked to me about and was one of the primary reason I initially wanted to steer away from a medical position.

But it any job or any time of life, there will be some thing that can cause stress. What needs to happen is that I need to find better ways to make my work so that I do not get stressed out as much and that thus does not affect my immune system. That is something I will need to plan out and take care of myself so that I put myself in situations that are stimulating and not stifling. Even though stress is not the only factor since I’ve been sickly, even when I was a child, this could have tremendous effects if implemented. I hope that in the future I am not limited by this deficiency and I now realize that I shouldn't limit my future decisions by something that I could possibly and hopefully grow out of. So I am going to take the initiative to plan more and work harder in all that I do because by being prepared for everything ahead of time I can eliminate a lot of that stress. Hopefully, next year’s AP exam will be received in good health