World Health Day

World Health Day is recognized each year on April 7th, bringing attention to global health and the importance of well-being.

Most of the conversation focuses on awareness, prevention, and access to care.

My reflection isn’t about advice. It’s about what it’s actually like to live it.

As for some of us, health isn’t something we think about once a year. It’s something we live with every single day.

The Mornings I Wake Up To

I wake up sore most days like an old man in pain. My shoulders, neck and knees ache even before I even get out of bed. When that happens, I already know what type of day it’s going to be.

Then come the pills.

Thirteen in the morning.

After that, I make my coffee. Tim Horton’s. Every morning like clockwork. Even if I don’t venture out until later, I still use their K-Cups at home. It’s a Small thing… but it’s mine and it’s one thing I don’t compromise its cost on.

If the day drags on, it’s one extra pill in the afternoon. It helps with the pains that haven’t worked themselves out.

Then there are four more at night right around dinner time.

What Health Used to Mean

There was a time I didn’t think about my health. Didn’t think about what was growing inside me or needed fixed. And I never thought how far I could go or how hard I could push. I just lived.

But even before the cancer was announced, my heart had me doing things differently. Not always in big, obvious ways—but in the quiet one’s people don’t see.

Living With Heart Disease

Living with heart disease isn’t just about your heart. It’s awareness. A constant, low hum in the background reminding you—you’re not invincible. Some days it’s subtle. Other days it’s not. It shows up in the pacing. In the second-guessing. In the moments when I stop and ask myself, “Is this too much today?”

And then there’s the ICD. Always there. Quiet… until it’s not. It’s meant to protect me—to step in if my heart decides to do something it shouldn’t.

But it comes with a thought that never really leaves: what if today’s the day it goes off?

I’ve learned to live with it because I don’t have a choice. That awareness… it never disappears. It just becomes part of the background noise of my life. A safety net—that I hope I never to have to feel. But have too often.

Cancer Doesn’t Feel Like the Past

And cancer. (My two-word sentence) It’s not something that sits in the past. Nor something neatly tied up. It’s still there. And that changes the way I look at everything.

Neither time nor energy feel the same. Even “good days” have a different meaning as well.

Mental Health

The cancer knocks on my mental health’s door throughout the day. Just to see if I’m still home and aware it’s there.

I’ve learned to answer it differently now.

I tell it I’m out…somewhere on vacation. Because if I didn’t—I’d lose my mind.

The Body I Live in

People think I’m healthy because of how I look. If I’m up, moving and smiling they assume I’m fine. But health, at least for me…isn’t something you can see that easily.

It’s managed daily in routines no one claps for and in the pills, that no one counts but me. But mainly it’s in decisions I’ve made no one else has to think about. And I pray they never have to.

There was a version of me that didn’t think about his body. I vaguely remember what that feels like anymore. Now I wake up and check. Not out of fear, just awareness. And the truth is some days a win isn’t progress. It’s just getting through it.

Maybe that’s what World Health Day really is. Not a reminder to be perfect but a reminder that showing up still counts. Because health isn’t something we’re all given. For some of us it’s something we fight to hold onto every single day.

If you’re interested in more on mental health, please check out some of my other stories involving it. It is the toughest battle to fight no matter what you’re going through.

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