Why Don’t We?
Today I wanted to address the topic of why some people don't get a wake up call when things go wrong. What I mean by this is when you have a major catastrophe in your life, why doesn't it spark us to make some changes? Being humans, we do have the tendency to get comfortable with where we are, what we do, and things we enjoy. But.............
Dealing with so many different illnesses in the therapy world, we tend to see similar occurrences and the problems they cause. Some of these things are so simple to fix, but again as humans we tend to ignore the little warning signs until the crash. Even then some of us are still too set in our ways to make changes.
Currently on my caseload is a diabetic female. She has had two strokes, diabetic neuropathy of both lower extremities, and many other conditions related to diabetes. Her first stroke caused left sided weakness. Her last stroke caused weakness of the right side, including her hand. As much as she is a hard worker and somewhat compliant with exercises, she just doesn't get the fact that the strokes have caused permanent damage and exercise is not going to fix everything. I imagine both of her strokes have been caused by her non-compliance with the diabetic conditions. This past weekend she was found in bed after consuming an entire package of chocolate chip cookies. Now I also blame the family for bringing the cookies to her, but not having the restraint to manage her consumption of what is bad for her doesn't help either.
Another case that comes to mind is the male who has a balance disorder, but refused to go to the hospital despite several falls. That is until one fall caused some pretty severe damage. The entire time we dealt with him his main concern was the money it was costing him to be in the nursing home. With just a few days of therapy behind him a phone call prompted him to tell me he was going home regardless of what anyone said. When questioned why, he reported that one of his investments was in trouble and had to get to his home office to make calls and fix things. My answer was this; if you go home and have a fall and it kills you, will the investment matter then? Fortunately, after thinking on that for the rest of the day, he decided to stay.
I also remember the fellow I knew long before I became a COTA, who daily would arrive at the club after work for a few drinks. At least that was his intention, but by 8 or 9 o'clock his wife would be calling and he would tell her he would be home after he finished the drink in front of him. That usually prompted him to order two more drinks. His alcohol consumption was probably close to a quart a day, and his chain smoking really didn't help either. Then came the heart attack, a pretty major one too. He began to come to the club again after recovering, but one or two drinks and he would be gone. He had stopped smoking too. After a few months of good health though, the bad habits began to return. He started smoking again, his alcohol consumption increased to near his previous levels until boom, another heart attack. It was sad to see such a young man destroyed by bad habits.
Now there are so many other things in life that can draw us in to a comfortable level, such as drugs, food, driving too fast, and on and on. We believe that if it's not causing us harm immediately there shouldn't be a problem. I also think about the many people I've worked with who refused, or forgot, or otherwise would not take the medicine prescribed by their doctor. They took the first step to find out there was a problem, but then ignored the cure.
With medicine so advanced these days, and the easiest access to information ever, why do we as humans continue to slowly harm ourselves? Why don't we take notice, learn, and make changes?
Until next time, hope all your thoughts are good,
Tim