What I Learned About Health and Wealth as a Caregiver
In the last 10 days, 3 people I love shared their most recent health issues:
Person 1, age 28: hyperthyroid issues, vitamin D deficiency, both requiring medication. Plus, high probability of knee surgery in the near future.
Person 2, age 60: diabetes is controlled. Needs 2nd hip replacement surgery SOON; roughly scheduled for mid-October. First hip replacement occurred June 2018.
Person 3, age 79: diagnosed with stage 5 kidney disease; making plans for dialysis. Recent tests also showed areas of concern on her lung and pancreas. Continued testing and biopsies are required.
That’s a lot to take in for any one of us! As the primary emotional support person for these 3, I have attended several doctor and specialist appointments. A chief portion of these visits includes education, followed by testing, treatment options, outcomes, follow up, medications, and so on.
It’s frightening for all of us.
Once any of these scenarios strikes us or our family, the first question we ask—ourselves and our doctors—is: how did this happen? Even during my years working in cardiac rehab, the question was always the same.
While each of their scenarios is different, the doctors and specialists most often have the same answer:
LIFESTYLE!
The biggest contributor is physical activity and diet.
These are so crucial, in fact, that two of the 5 medical specialists I’ve seen in the last few months told us, “As long as we’re feeling good, our lifestyle habits don’t matter; when we start feeling ill, that’s when our history catches up with us.”
This eye-opening statement has me wondering about my health, my family’s health and yours. Are you feeling good? If so, great! But one can’t help but wonder what issues are brewing just below the surface. What habits today are building a time bomb for tomorrow? Are we prepared? Is there anything we can do TODAY that will positively influence, delay, or eliminate issues for tomorrow? After all, once we’re diagnosed with something, we’ll have to make changes anyway. Just as with Person 3 above: already diagnosed with stage 5 kidney disease, we’re learning her typical diet was highly destructive. Who knew? NOW her diet is changing, but it’s really too late. No one wants to hear that news.
Health is Wealth
It’s easy to believe we’ll live a long life. Most of us want to. Yet there is nothing as scary as when you discover a lump, or your blood work causes your doctor alarm, or you are rushed to the hospital due to an unexpected health event. All the sudden, you’re thrown into a panic. Sometimes those panics cause a significant lifestyle change, other times they invite contemplation, followed by a return to the way it was. Here’s an example: my brother’s lung collapsed in 2000 (age 35). Mine collapsed in 2001, at the age of 37. While my brother was a smoker, the event had him swearing off of smoking as he attributed the event to his smoking. Six weeks later, he was smoking again and continues to do so. I am not a smoker, never have been, and still my lung collapsed for an unknown reason (p.s. no link it to family history; my brother and I are adopted.) While these events for my brother and I were unexplained, I have learned more about what it takes to have healthy lungs and do what I can to ensure my family does too.
What can be done?
Start early. The younger you are, the easier it is to begin and maintain a healthy lifestyle. If you aren’t so young, those habits you have maintained most of your life will be very difficult to break (sodium, sweets, smoking, for instance).
Busy-ness is the robber of healthy eating. The busier you are, the quicker you seek meal-time solutions: Eating out. Ordering take-out. Fast food restaurants. Packaged foods. They make for quick meals that curb hunger, but with that simplicity comes potassium, sodium, phosphates, added sugars, fats, and other chemicals to preserve the food. Simplicity contributes to the problems our internal organs don’t tolerate well. Depending on how sensitive your body is, you may develop problems sooner rather than later?
Busy-ness is the robber of movement. Sure, we rush here and rush there, but usually this rushing is by plane, train, or automobile. The thought of exercise repels most people, mostly because they don’t have time to fit it into a very busy day, but also because they just don’t like to exercise. We all know people like this and in my family, there are plenty. My degree in exercise physiology has resulted in a lot of teasing from family members, but when I see how crucial exercise is to a healthy body, I do my best to encourage any kind of activity.
Slow down. Do you enjoy what you have? Many times we’re too busy to take a moment to enjoy what we’ve worked so hard for! I’m thankful for my granddaughter who always asks me to play with her. Her play usually involves movement of some sort. I am guilty of delaying play time with her, but realize fast this is unhealthy for me and setting a poor example for her. Her vibrancy and joy of life is enough of a nudge to put all those tasks aside for a while.
Stress is a robber of health. Stress can strike at any time and rather than slow down to regroup, we speed up and drain our mental and emotional reserves. Then we’re full of regrets once we become ill and sadly discover how our life was wasted on issues that don’t—or shouldn’t—have mattered. I heard many stories like this while I worked in cardiac rehab. None of us want to have regrets. So what can we do today to prevent the stress that leads to health issues—and regrets?
A Lifestyle Return on Investment
In the entrepreneurial world, the buzz word is ROI, or return on investment. This is defined as the benefit (or return) of an investment divided by the cost of the investment. When it comes to your health, this can be viewed as everything you do throughout your life to be healthy will help you stay healthier longer. The sooner you adopt a healthy lifestyle, the healthier you are likely to be. Fast, easy, low-cost, and convenient is helpful, but what is the long-term cost? Are you willing to gamble with your health? And your life?
I didn’t think so!
The Money Factor
Healthy choices are not always the cheapest, but they are cheaper than repeat doctor visits, co-pays, medications, and sick time. And they are a whole lot easier to implement sooner rather than later.
The common statements I’ve heard from my loved ones (and my cardiology patients) are,
“I don’t know how this happened.”
“I should have tried harder.”
“I wish I would have taken the time much earlier.”
Perhaps you’ve heard these same statements from your own family members, or even thought them yourself. Or perhaps you don’t want to utter the same words.
What will your lifestyle ROI be?
Kristen Edens
photo credit: pixabay from pexels