By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
One day last week I had a nice breakfast. Two hazel nut chocolate (courtesy of relatives who came a visiting from Canada) sandwiches. Nice for the taste, not for the health. Then Thursday came and I had to attend a lunch meeting in a hotel with college buddies. The only thing I could eat there was broccoli. “Buttered or with sesame oil?” the waiter asked. Sesame oil.
The next day was Friday, it was blackout all day. I was going through the ringer of stress on how to finish the issue of this paper. Had to give up a scheduled fellowship dinner with another college buddy who relocated to the States who just came for a short stint and was leaving the next day. I texted, “Sorry. Can’t make it. Going to SM in search of the light. .. ….. and Internet service.”
It was 7:30 p.m. already, our deadline to email the issue for the first step of the production process, and there was still work to be done. So we packed our layout laptop and to SM we went. Luckily there were vacant tables at the only internet shop.
On top of all the stress, I misplaced my reading glasses in the darkness of the office. At SM, I edited, rather I was trying to edit the last portions by peering at the letters and I was already developing a headache due to the lack of reading glasses. By the time I thought we did a passable job, I already had a full blown headache. Luckily, the issue was successfully emailed. By the looks of it, we will hit the road for home at 1:00 pm., still under stress as there was still no electricity and we heard the announcement that chances are, power will be restored the next day. So how could we print?
That night, not much sleep for me as always every Friday night. Was always going to the john due to the volume of water I drank to keep my blood pressure down. Morning came, no light or power. So I was still in the ringer of stress.
I tried to keep busy by working on the car where I introduced some re-engineering that failed. Finally the power was restored late afternoon and, expectedly, we would be done in the small hours of the next day. So no deep sleep in the horizon.
Long story short, the issue was ready to be picked up and shipped out at 4:00 am Sunday.
But wait, that Saturday, breakfast was again hazel nut chocolate sandwiches that tasted good. Also that Sunday.
Then I worked in the yard to finish what I set out to do. After lunch I resisted the need for sleep and went back to work. Then the tragedy.
When my wife came to see how I was doing she noticed, “Your mouth is skewered. As if your Bell’s Palsy recurred.” Then I became aware of my difficulty in pronouncing words. It was already late pm Sunday. I had to stop working. Yes I had the Bell’s Palsy again.
I knew from the first time I had it that modern medicine does not know much about the disorder. It was acupuncture that straightened out my face (it gets deformed like that of someone who suffered a stroke) and my screwed up speech (nabubulol).
So that night, I texted an acupuncturist friend for an appointment the next day, last Monday. I already had my third session this morning. And things are getting better.
Yesterday, I surfed the internet on Bell’s Palsy and I was dumbfounded on what I found out. There is supposedly a chemical in wall nuts, hazel nuts and sesame oil that the virus that causes Bell’s Palsy need in order to multiply.
And stress and fatigue causes depletion of some nutrients that might lessen the body’s resistance to viruses (and perhaps bacteria) such as the one that attack facial and nearby nerves that results in Bell’s Palsy.
Yes, I had them all last week and these were all arranged.
Whenever we encounter an unfortunate incident like accidents and diseases, we blame everything or everybody else including viruses and bacteria. But we never look at ourselves.
How about this question. “What did I do in the past that made God to arrange all the factors for a disease or an accident to happen that will make me suffer?”
We have a Cordilleran word, “dusa.” But it need not be negative. We can associate it with cleansing or God’s way to prepare us and those we love for a good thing.
**
