Actively Participate in Your Health
by Susan Tate

I know a story about a woman who walked into the hospital room to visit her friend. When she asked her friend how she was feeling, the patient replied, “I don’t know, the doctor hasn’t come in yet.”

In contrast, I have a different story. In 2004, I was sitting on a porch swing that collapsed, propelling me backward. My head violently made impact with the house. It was quite metaphorical at the time, as I felt the house “hit me on the head” while my husband and I were painfully discussing our upcoming divorce. I felt an excruciating pain in the back of my head and a sparking of electrical impulses shuddering from my spine through my limbs. My teeth momentarily clamped shut and I was understandably stunned.

After hours in the emergency room and many tests—all of which I insisted they show me the results of before I decided to approve the next test—the doctor came in to report the results of the CT scan and MRI. He told me I did not have a brain bleed (which he had been concerned about), but I did have a pretty serious concussion. He then cleared his throat and looked at me quite seriously. “The tests also show you have cervical degenerative disease in your neck and this will only get worse at you get older.” I returned his eye-to-eye contact and said firmly and simply, “No it won’t.”  As I kept his gaze with such determination, he slowly began to smile and contritely replied, “Well, okay.”

I then told him he didn’t know what I did for a living or how I thought and that I personally had no plans for my head to begin drooping or for my neck to hurt more every year as I aged! I share this because if someone had pronounced this diagnosis to me decades ago, I would have been the perfect patient and a textbook case of someone with this condition. (I was in a nasty car accident in my twenties and suspect the initial damage to the cervical vertebrae in my neck had been done long ago. Just for the record, this wasn’t the result of the porch swing accident.)

With the amazing advancements in the field of medicine, surrendering your power to a medical professional often comes easily. Fortunately, many health care practitioners believe they work better when the person being treated feels powerful in choosing options for treatment. How do you heal? Do you let someone else choose for you with or without asking questions? Do you actively participate in your health?

Valuing your own inner healing process is essential. For example, if you’re getting a cold, do you go to the store and buy the latest cold medicine and pop it down as you continue your busy pace? Or do you pause to nurture and treat your body to a warm bath, soothing herbal tea, and the comfort of your bed? If you are at home with small children and a warm bath sounds like a great fantasy, do you call a friend and ask for a bit of a respite, even an hour’s worth? Do you moan and groan and tell everyone how terrible you feel, or do you consciously choose to acknowledge your illness but attempt to move through it with optimism?

Many years ago, an insightful family practitioner told me either he could give me some cold medicine and I would get better in seven days, or I could pamper myself, rest, and drink lots of fluids and get better in a week. Try observing (without judging) what you do the next time you become sick or injured. I am not suggesting that you should deny you are sick. I am not suggesting that you shouldn’t seek appropriate medical care to partner in your healing. I am suggesting that you become the writer of this script. Practice loving self-care and self-appreciation—listen to your body’s wisdom. What is this injury or illness telling you?