Allow me to digress a little from our usual stories about animals and talk about fitness and health, because as caregivers, we really need to be as fit and as healthy as we can in order to look after our animals.
This is about my mother, who turned 91 today!
On 1st May 2024, just 6 days ago, she had a fall in the bathroom. We rushed her to emergency and the doctor ordered brain and cervical CT scans and X-Rays of her affected leg. Her face had a bruise too. But she was in good spirits.
I was worried about a hip fracture or any fracture or a brain bleed. When my father was in his late 70s, he slipped from a low stool and fractured his hip which resulted in a hip replacement surgery. Then, shortly after, he bumped his head on some furniture and had a brain bleed. Refusing a check-up and insisting he was fine, it was weeks later that I noticed he was getting very incoherent, so I rushed him to the hospital. Doctors discovered he had a brain bleed and he needed an emergency burr hole surgery to drain off the fluids from his brain. He survived it but with the hip replacement and not wanting to exercise, his physical wellbeing deteriorated and he passed away at 83. But his mind remained sharp until the end.
The difference between my father and my mother is that my mother loved to exercise while my father did not. He was as sedentary as they come.
So, back to my mother’s fall 6 days ago. Believe it or not, the scans and X-Rays all came back totally clean. There was no fracture and no brain bleed. She was kept at the hospital overnight for monitoring and the next day, the surgeon ordered a lung CT just to cover all bases. The lung CT also came back clean. And she was discharged without the need of any medication.
The nurses asked me what her secret is.
Well, there is actually no secret at all.
It must be her good genes. Now, that’s something I did not inherit from her!
But, my mother also used to be an exercise buff.
When she was in her forties, I remember she took a short community course in taiji. We were living in Kampar at the time and a taiji sifu was passing by. After that, her interest grew and she learnt taiji from books. My mother relied a lot on books. Videos came much later.
But my mother was also a very gifted teacher, so after she learnt, she started teaching it for free to anyone who wanted to learn. When we were in Kuala Kangsar later, she commanded a student number of more than 200 every morning at the padang beside Sungai Perak! Everyone was learning taiji from her. Even the friendly local police came to help with crowd control. That’s the beauty of a small town.
My mother taught me how to swim at the Malay College pool where the shallow end was 6 feet. I learnt to swim in just six days, coached by my mum. It was literally “swim or sink” because you cannot stand (6 feet)! And thereafter, my mother and I would go swimming as often as we could, at night.
Later on, when I learnt yoga from books in university, my mother got interested and learnt it too. Then, she started teaching yoga at the padang in Ipoh! Come every morning, neighbours would gather at the padang, learning taiji and yoga from my mother!
A few years back when I organised a community taiji class for my neighbours, a medical doctor joined. She told me later, after more than a year, that she had her bone density measured and taiji really does wonders for bone density.
My mother has been a vegetarian for 25 years now. She still is. (My father was too.) But now, she eats whatever vegetarian foods that her trusty Indonesian helper cooks for her. The food is really high-carbohydrate, deep-fried, spicy, and going by whatever we know about “eating healthy”, it isn’t exactly the healthiest foods, but she’s thrives on it! Truth be told, I get diarrhoea every time I eat the food when I visit, so I guess my mother must have a very strong stomach!
So far, my mother does not have high blood pressure, diabetes or heart disease, which the doctors say is wonderful, given her age. But she does have ridiculously high cholesterol which she has had all her life. And of all things, that’s something I inherited! But having had it all my life, I have my own theory about high cholesterol. Cholesterol is manufactured by our body, so I guess if our body makes it, we need it? And I think as long as we do enough rhythmic exercise to convert the LDL to HDL and monitor the Total/HDL ratio, we are pretty safe. But who am I to say? I’m not a medical doctor!
And today, my mother turns 91!
Four generations!!
 
Reminder to myself: Put on taiji shoes, do yoga, walk, and learn ballet diligently.
We all have to keep moving for good health.
Our animals need us!
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