For the past 7 years, I have more and more issues with my health. It started with my hips, and then it was one thing after another. At this point, I don’t too many active health concerns. My labs say I’m more or less in the normal range. Yes, my body composition is off with too much weight and in particular too much fat. But other than that, conventional wisdom would say I’m “healthy”, AKA not sick. Yes, there are aches and pains, but that’s all part of getting older, right?
What Does It Mean to Be Healthy?
Do you also qualify as “healthy” according to your doctor or insurance company, but still feel like you’re falling apart? Or is that just me?
It’s hard to find and good definition of “healthy” or “good health”. I think we all kind of intuitively know how it looks and feels, but it’s harder than you might think to come up with a satisfying definition that isn’t just something like “not sick or injured.”
I don’t know the best definition of “healthy”, but I do know that I don’t feel it. By the end of the day, I’m DONE. Forget all the things I’d like to do, I’m most likely on the couch watching TV, because that’s where my energy level is. If I’d been able to sit down a couple hours sooner, I probably would’ve.
Insurance Health
Having worked in healthcare for over 15 years, I can tell you a little bit about how insurance defines “health”.
Can you do your activities of daily living? This includes things like eating, grooming yourself, getting dressed, driving, etc.
Can you perform your work activities? Unless you’re on work comp, good luck on insurance caring a whole lot about this, but MAYBE if you’re lucky.
I will never forget one patient that I had who had had shoulder surgery. Prior to her injury and surgery, she was lifting weights regularly and working out a lot. After her surgery, as soon as she could put on her shirt, insurance decided that she had good enough recovery that she no longer needed PT, never mind that life was still difficult due to shoulder pain and weakness. She was not able to function anywhere CLOSE to her prior abilities, but insurance did not care.
Doctor Health
Doctors tend to be much better than insurance, and I do believe that they WANT to help. But they are constrained by many factors, such as insurance. Therefore, if you are like me, and your labs are normal, they’re likely to tell you that you’re fine. You still don’t feel great? Eh, it’s part of aging. They don’t seem to have a lot of tools beyond that.
Survivor Health
I wouldn’t make it on Survivor right now.
I hurt my neck sleeping wrong on nice pillows and beds to the point I could barely move or function. And when it started feeling a bit better? I made it hurt even worse getting up off the floor. It hurt so badly, I couldn’t function AT ALL. It was almost a week before I could wash my hair. I still have to be careful about how I move or how much I lift. You think I could run a challenge or help build a shelter?
I highly doubt it. And my people skills need work, so I’m not going to be delighting everyone into keeping me around, and if I’m unable to help around camp or in challenges. And my neck is just one of the problems that would get in my way!
Y’all this is a thought exercise. I’m not going to be on Survivor, now or ever. (I have asthma and campfires kill me.)
But if I look at health as the capacity to be able to live life well, if I had the capacity to try to compete on something like Survivor, I think I would be doing pretty well generally. I like the idea of training for Survivor even though I won’t be on it, because it gives me a very specific picture of things I need to do. My previous idea of “getting healthy” has been vague enough to keep me from making it very far.
To be on Survivor and give myself the best chance of thriving, I would need to be able to sleep on flat, hard, and imperfect sleeping surfaces without getting injured. I’d need to be able to get up and down from the ground easily. I’d need to be able to be strong enough to lift and carry heavy things such as water, or materials for a shelter, or cut things down. I’d need the strength and capacity to be able to do physical work large portions of the day.
Then there would be challenges. You don’t know what they are, but you know you will need a wide range of abilities. Strength, aerobic capacity, grip strength, balance, ability to fall well and not injure yourself immediately, and generally be able to respond to unpredictable things happening without immediately getting hurt. Even better to overcommit to be even stronger than the minimum need, because if you’re tired, hungry, and dehydrated (as you would be), you need some margin.
Here’s how I see my current health and goals:
There’s a lot of work to do!
When a PT Rehabs 