What will the future hold in store for me? I do not know. God has brought me here this far and I am thankful for everything I have in this world- My friends, my Family, my life and goals to achieve. Yet here I wait, thinking, what the future holds in store for me.
A question I now ask myself is, "Where do I go from here? What will I do further down in life?" I don't know if I can go on as a sportsman anymore, unsure about where I'll go as an athlete. To a certain extent, it pains me to know that there are others out there in the world who have been given that privilege to be called the world's best in their respective sports; those who have achieved the highest echelons of success and glory.
But then it comforts me to know that if it is God, who requires me to make a sacrifice, then it shall be so.
Every test at the medical went fine. The ear and eye tests, the blood and urine tests, the height and weight and blood pressure measurements, none of which, gave any form of negative results. I even had the prepared medical report written by Dr. Cormac- my sports doctor- documenting my entire injury history; with the most current being a hyper-lordosis (excessive inward curve) of my lower lumbar spine along with a partially degenerated disc which I'd at least admit, causes a fair bit of pain and discomfort. And that's not counting the MRI I'll soon have to take. Cool.
And everything went fine until my meeting with the medical officer. He had whipped out the chart taken from the ECG (elctro cardiograph) conducted earlier and on it displayed my results. He asked me if I had any history of heart problems and even though I had the impression that I was a relatively healthy specimen, I did give it some thought.
But I thought of it as nothing serious before passing it off as nothing harmful and I replied, "No. But I do have a history of having a heart rate which is slightly faster than most people I think."
It was funny because I'd never knew such a thing really existed and because it never seemed to do me or anyone any harm, I figured having a pulse of 80-85bpm wasn't as bad as it would be. Funny how those words came back to haunt me.
I'd left the pre-enlistee medical with a Physical Enlistment Status(PES) 'D', which meant that my status governing which vocation and how much training I'd receive was still pending further investigation. Therefore, they requested for me to come back for a review, which was yesterday.
It was serene as I could remember, no worries in the world. As I stepped through the doors and met the doctor in charge of assessing my status, I never expected to hear what he told me. As he looked at my ECG, he told me that my heart rate was not usual. It was then I was diagnosed with Wolfe Parkinson White Syndrome. A heart condition in which only 4 in every 10,000 people get.
He explained that my chart showed distinctively short periods in between each ventricular contraction. This was caused by the presence of an extra nerve fibre conducting extra electrical impulses to the heart, causing irregular and increased heartbeats (palpitations).
As I stood there not knowing what to say, all I could ask the doctor was, "What does it mean? What's NS going to be like?"
But I was ushered out the door and the medical officer came up to me and said, "We will mail you a personal memo".
I didn't know what was happening. To say it was surreal seemed to fit the description yet I began to think if my PES would be brought down to 'E' status because of my syndrome. If it didn't, I would most probably end up in PES-C.
As I opened the door to my house, booted up the computer, and googled the effects of my syndrome, I never expected to discover that the ultimate effect of my condition would be "Unexplained sudden death". Other symptoms included, palpitations, constant light-headedness and unexpected black outs. And I had encountered all these before.
And it is here I sit, wondering what it would be like if I left the world suddenly, to be called home..But I am not afraid, because I know God is with me.
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Thursday, November 24, 2005
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