The Scars From The Past, Part 1

Do you suffer from an odd ache here and there in your body?

You’re not alone. We plant the seeds of our future small, annoying afflictions when we’re kids, and those nasty seeds grow into full-blown weeds that can smother our blooming health right on the root.

Perhaps I’m being too poetic here, in a blog article intended to promote our everyday and urgent care services, but this is relevant. What we’re talking here is healthcare for kids and youth:

The Pediatric Healthcare

But that stretches further into life. The habits we establish as kids go far into adulthood, and one of those habits is lack of respect and appreciation of our own body: Of how fragile it is, and how much the damage we do to it will stay with it. As you want your kids to be careful around expensive furniture, or driving your expensive car on a weekend, so you want to make them appreciate that they only have one body and that body must be treated with proper care.

Childhood traumas – of mental and physical kind – should not be underestimated; they may affect the rest of our lives!

Here’s a story from my own life, I hope it resonates with you. Trust me, you don’t want this to happen to your kid.

It’s a commonly known fact that death comes after life. Sadly, this doesn’t happen to be true for most people – who don’t take the trouble to enjoy life to the fullest, and so, the live as though they’re already dead.

(That’s pretty much what I told myself back when I was a little younger.)

Back then, I was reckless, impulsive, and out of control. I embraced every moment as if it were my last because I was fortunate enough to have the foresight that life is short and should be lived to its fullest.

However…

The decisions I was making and the circumstances that I was allowing myself to fall into were significantly more harmful than rewarding.

In my youth, I didn’t think of my future. Honestly, life seemed like it would always be the same and I was the only person to ever live that Father Time wouldn’t harm. Yes, I was delusional and, in many ways, naïve and arrogant but it molded a very important journey that led me down a destructive road that would eventually transform into a more purposeful life. But I had to fall many times before getting there.

For some reason when you’re young, seeking advice, medical assistance, or simply asking for help can be difficult. You think you know everything there is to know and it’s nearly impossible to believe that someone else may be smarter than you. I have lost track of the number of times when my impulses got the best of me, but one memory comes to mind.

Misguided Youth

Growing up, there wasn’t much to do in my rural Pennsylvania town. My friends and I loved watching action movies and would always reenact intense and dangerous scenes from them, wanting to be as bold as the stars in the films. But then things escalated into full-blown stunts. No harnesses, green screens, or stunt doubles to protect us. All of us were constantly banged up, scratched, and bruised but none of us wanted to look soft, and as silly as it’ll sound, we thought that made us cool.

Our most dangerous and idiotic exploits took place on the local train tracks. Every Friday at 5 PM a massive freight train would speed by transporting who-knows-what. Normally we would play a game of chicken with the steel tube but would make sure to give ourselves plenty of time to hop out of the way before impact. But that got old quickly. The daredevil in me took over and I came up with the bright idea to dangle myself from the bridge above the tracks as the train whizzed by. Even my adventurous pals knew better and warned me not to try it. That only excited me more. I patiently waited for the train to come my way and when I saw the smoke in the distance, I prepared myself. When it was about fifty yards away, I lowered myself, realizing I was not dangling above the train but hanging directly in front of it. I was soon to be a splattered fly on the windshield. My hands were sweaty, and I overestimated my strength. Pulling myself back up to safety was impossible. In a split-second decision, I let go and dropped. One of my friends was brave enough to help me hobble off the tracks just in time before getting crushed, just like our favorite action heroes.

The pain in both my knees, ankles, and back was unlike anything I have ever experienced yet when my buddies tried to call an ambulance for me, I wouldn’t let them. I tried to laugh it off even though my bloodshot eyes said otherwise. After a few more attempts to call for medical attention, they stopped trying and assumed I was OK. Deep down, I wished more than anything that someone would come to my rescue.

Scarred for Life

Still to this day I have back issues, weak knees, and ligament damage in both ankles all because I was too stubborn and proud to see a medical professional. It’s hard for me to stay seated for long amounts of time and jogging is completely out of the question because my body hasn’t healed in the ways that it needed to. 

If only technology was quicker then I would go back in time and grab that kid by his filthy shirt collar and tell him to stop being so foolish. There was no point to it all, no one was impressed and all it left me was a life of pain. Sure, we were bold and maybe brave at times but in the long run, none of those stunts were worth it.

We are fortunate enough to live in a country where we have access to essentially unlimited amounts of medicine, hospitals, urgent care facilities, and clinics that will help us heal our bodies when needed but also supply us with proper information on how to live proactively.

Pediatric traumas of today do not need to remain untreated, and I implore you, the reader of this article: If you know a kid who needs proper care after playing or doing sports maybe a little too recklessly and having been banged up in the process – please, send them to get checked out. You’ll be surprised how much a basic urgent care visit can do for preventing the kind of recurrent pains in the joints or ligaments that too many people suffer absolutely unnecessarily!

But back to my story – unfortunately, I wasn’t as wise in my past as I am now, and the experience I described to you wasn’t enough for me to learn. That wouldn’t come for some time…

* Legal disclaimer: The content of this article and the entire Chai Care blog is for educational purposes only; it does NOT constitute medical advice and must not be considered as such. Please consult a medical professional regarding any symptoms or health concerns you or your loved ones.