PP 275: Stop Shortcutting Your Healthcare

Kim Sutton: Welcome back to another episode of positive productivity. Over the course of the past year and a half since I launched the positive productivity podcast, I have realized that the pillars of the positive productivity brand are self care systems and support. And while they are the pillars, I will fully admit that I have not been perfect in any of those three areas. They are the pillars however, because I realized that added all together, these three allow us to take time away from our work, spend time with our families, and also make sure that we are the healthiest and most fulfilled versions of ourselves. With this said, it’s really important to me that I continue to be completely transparent and authentic with you to let you know what’s been going on in my life, so that you don’t make the same mistakes in yours. Now if this is your first time listening to an episode, I have shared in previous episodes that I do have hypothyroidism, which I’ve had since birth. I encourage you to go look up hypothyroidism if you want to know more, because I’m not going to get into the nitty gritty of it right now. But what I will say is that, when my thyroid levels are off, my metabolism gets totally messed up. And when it’s really off, which it hasn’t been in over a decade, hypothyroidism can actually lead to me or anybody else who’s faced the same type of circumstances with mental issues, including hallucination, depression, and or suicidal thoughts. The reason I bring this up is because I know so many of us can have medical conditions, which do need specialist care. And sometimes as entrepreneurs, we might get a little bit lazy as far as actually making the appointment with our specialists as often as we need to. I myself fell victim to that in the last three years since my twins were born. While I was pregnant, my OB/GYN was handling my thyroid and after I found myself going to the local clinic to have my thyroid levels checked. This was something that I definitely shouldn’t have been doing. A few months back, the local clinic told me that I really needed to make an appointment with my specialists, so I did. And just earlier this week, I went to see them. I need to tell you, though, that even before I went to see the specialist, I was starting to feel a lot of pain in my body. And by pain, I don’t just mean the aches and pains of being tired, or overworking, or exhaustion. I actually mean, I was feeling extreme pain in my chest and shooting pains going down my left arm. When I went in to see my endocrinologist just a couple days ago, I brought this up in the intern before I left and actually recommended that I go to the ER on my way home. Now my husband had already been recommending this, but I kept on putting it off thinking it was just stress, I don’t need to worry about it. But when the intern told me to do this, I realized I should probably listen. As of the day of the release of this recording, I have just spent two days in the hospital due to elevated blood pressure, as well as the chest pains and the arm pain. And this is something that I never want to see happen to you. At 38 years old, I definitely don’t want to have to be worried about a heart attack. And I certainly shouldn’t be dealing with elevated blood pressure or chest pains. While I am home now, I’m happy to admit that I did not have a heart attack. What the hospital did find was that my thyroid levels are way out of whack. And it appears that my body is not absorbing my thyroid medication. Had I taken the time to go see my specialist anytime in the past three years, then this would have already been picked up. If we’re going to be able to grow our businesses and if we’re going to be able to see our children and our grandchildren grow and thrive, then we need to take the time for ourselves. I’ve heard it said so many times that we need to put on our own oxygen masks first before we can take care of anybody else. I mean, we even hear this on airline trips right in the beginning from the stewardess or from the recorded message. Put on your oxygen mask first and then help the people around you. This needs to be the case with our own personal health needs as well. If you are listening to this episode today, knowing that you have a doctor’s appointment that you have been putting off scheduling, that I want you to stop this recording right now, and go do it. Trust me, no sacrifice of your own house is worth another 10 minutes of work or whatever else you may be doing. If you don’t take care of your health, then you won’t be around to be able to do everything else. Now with all this said, I want you to go forth and make it a positive and productive day.