We cannot always see what is threatening us. The best defense against COVID-19 is precautionary distance and disinfectant. Isolation may mitigate the risk of contracting the virus, but will you survive if you become victim to it? If we survive this virus will we take other threats to our health more seriously? We live in an informed society and continue to die from preventable diseases like heart attacks, cancer, respiratory illness, and stroke. We know prevention is a key but how often do accept medication as the answer? Many people don’t follow one or both parts of the recommendations and their survival is cut short. Perhaps, this new threat will spark a different perspective about the value of prevention; even motivate us to start now.
Winter is turning to spring in Montana. A broken path of snow reveals solid black pavement. Close by, the barren highway confirms people are self-isolating. We are three women in our fifties, taking our three dogs for a walk as winter thaws before golf season begins. Cindy, a patient and friend, Pam, a local business owner, and I, are preserving the recommended six feet of uncomfortable distance between us as we discuss the latest cases of COVID19 (3 total) in our community.
Cindy watched for a limp as her retriever, Oliver, trotted ahead of us. Her worry must have provoked her and she blurted, “I can’t sleep! I was doing so great after I cleaned up my diet and quit drinking. Now, my mind runs at night because I am so worried. I worry about Oliver and COVID and about not having enough work. My clients are putting me off. Plus, I have been sitting at my computer and its killing my neck.” She reaches up to rub her neck and stretches it side to side. “Thank God we have dogs to walk every day.” She adds, “Plus, it helps keep me sane! I’m going crazy being stuck at home all day.”
In the midst of our conversation about social distancing I hear myself yelling. “Carhartt, Come Here!” It’s a futile call to my 4 month old Vizsla puppy that is running to meet another walker on the trail. The pup still does as he pleases. He takes most of his cues about acceptable behavior from my older Vizsla, Zen, and I trust her. I want the gentleman Carhartt is running towards to enjoy exuberant puppy love. It feels like offering connection and kindness to ease our collective stresses. It’s good for my pup to have socialized interactions with strangers, I tell myself. I am confident we will work on skill training another day. Carhartt is carefree as he explores a new and exciting world of people and things. He is not aware of social distancing.
I ask Cindy, “Do you think I should keep my chiropractic practice open to help people or shut my doors?”
“Man, I don’t know, that’s a hard call. Dammed if you do, damned if you don’t.”
We see the stranger across the course and he stoops down to pet Mr. Wiggles. He looks up, smiles, and waves to us. He appears happy to interact with my enthusiastic rule breaker.
I stuff my hands in my pocket, “In good conscious, I don’t want to contribute to the spread of this virus. And, if I can’t do chiropractic and get my hands on people, I can’t help them or make a living. I’m afraid for people too. They need to get healthy and I mean get healthy NOW, not later!” I shake my head, “Later is going to be too late.” I look over at Cindy and say, “Look at you Cindy, I know you aren’t sleeping right now because of stress, but you made some huge lifestyle changes 4 months ago and you stuck with them.”
Cindy nods here head and says, “Well, honestly, if you remember, when we first met I was dragging my ass into your office like I was pulling a 50 pound weight behind me.”
“Look how good you’re doing now! Losing weight, sleeping, getting your thyroid working again and your vitamin D is almost back to normal.”
She looked down as she walked, her brows furrowed, she looked so serious, “I remember how fatigued I was. I could barely lift my arms from the keyboard at the end of the day. I never slept. It was awful. It’s only been a few months and I feel like an entirely new person. I’m so thankful!”
“If you were as sick now as you were then I would be seriously worried about you. Your immune system was high risk. I’m super proud of you.” I take two steps backwards, teasing her, “I would hug you, if I could.” I hold my arms up in a circle as I gesture an air hug and we both smile.
I look around for my pup who is still visiting the stranger. I wave and give one more “Come HERE!” Carhartt perks his ears and the stranger encourages him to go with a pat on the butt. Carhartt comes running back full speed.
“Good boy!” I tousle his head and fill with pride over his small victory. He learns so quickly. He licks me and runs off with the other dogs.
“Hey Dr. P,” Pam uses her serious voice, “How is this effecting your business?”
“Honestly, it’s hard. As a sole provider I have to evaluate the risks for myself and my patients. I think about what is right and wrong all day long. One day I’m worried about me and the next I want to help my patients who are suffering and need my care. I miss working, and not working feels like not caring or doing my part, but keeping my doors open feels like contributing to the risk. I am classified as an Essential Provider but I have health risks of my own. There is no right answer, only the one I can live with in the long run and I want us all to survive this pandemic.”
“I feel like the real solution is in personal responsibility. We all need to make some hard decisions about our habits. What I hope to see on the other side of this pandemic is that we all, move forward adopting the idea of health prevention rather than disease dodging. I know it’s scary for all of us. We have to stay healthy not only to survive but to keep enough customers to pay the mortgage and buy groceries. I hate feeling this vulnerable but it seems like good motivation for all of us to make some serious changes.”
“I’m frustrated by how poorly people take care of themselves. They wait until their pain is out of control and want me to fix it. It’s so much harder to get someone well who is overweight, taking lots of medications and eating junk food. Add high stress and personal problems and it’s even harder. And, it doesn’t help when they take medical advice from google and social media. And, even then they don’t do what google recommends. We really are only as healthy as the thoughts we think and the environment we live in.”
“It saddens me how little faith people have in their bodies and how little time they spend taking care of themselves. I truly believe that prevention is possible. We can do so much more than distance ourselves and wash our hands for 20 second. It’s a start, but what we really need is to get serious about the other things we can do something about.” I finish my professional rant but don’t apologize.
Pam chimes in, “Yea, like have less stress! And, do what I did. I stopped drinking booze and eating sugar. It was hard but I feel great, and I know I’m healthier.”
Cindy adds, “And, stop smoking, and do some yoga.”
A sarcastic voice in my mind says, “Perhaps we can quarantine sugar. “
I have one more thing to say, I say, “How do we expect people to follow the rules of self-disciplined quarantine when they can’t even say no to a cookie or do a sit up?
Cindy says,” So, what do you propose?”
“I am trying to figure out how to help people, because, they need immunity now! It doesn’t sound like the hospitals have enough ventilators, so we better initiate as much prevention as we can. We walk in silence for a few minutes.
Cindy breaks in and says, “I love our walks so much! They really help me.”
“Yea, look at our dogs.” I say. “They run around here getting exercise and happy hormones and I don’t see them having any trouble sleeping.” We all laugh and that makes the dogs come running to see what the commotion is about. They get petted and away they go again.
Pam begins the next conversation with the question, “So, how are you guys spending your time? I mean, I’m working from home, doing online learning, making orders on the internet to buy groceries and, of course, washing my hands and not sticking my fingers in my eyes!”
Cindy and I look at each other and smirk, and then we look at Pam, because we know Pam, has a real “thing” about spreading germs by sticking your fingers in your eyes.
“Whaaat? You know I’m right!”
I look up and see Carhartt running full speed ahead chasing Zen. He doesn’t see the net strung around a practice box that he is running straight towards. Zen sees it and cuts right. This time I yell like I mean it “CARHARTT!” But I don’t say it on time. He runs head first into the netting and it catches his weight, folds him in half and throws him backwards into the ground. He isn’t hurt, but acts a little confused about what just happened. He shakes his head and comes to me for a few seconds of comfort and then takes off for more play time. My heart is still beating out of my chest, afraid of what I thought was going to be a broken neck. The three of us all comment on how scary and fast the crash was and we take several breaths of relief to recover.
This pandemic feels a bit like what we witnessed with the dogs. One day we were having fun, and then out of nowhere comes danger. The government stepped in and commanded us to “STOP, STAY HOME, and ISOLATE.” Some folks were unsuspectingly in harm’s way before they got the warning. Others aren’t listening, or are casually participating. Some are riddled with fear. As the death toll and confirmed cases rise the public is taking the recommended precautions more seriously.
We don’t hesitate to yell at our dogs when they to need to stop because they are blind to the danger. Why not protectively yell, “Come HERE!” Why hesitate to grab each other by the scruff of the neck and help each other STOP doing unhealthy things and start practicing healthy lifestyle changes. Besides social distancing, let’s do what we can to survive our current threat. Let’s adopt a more serious approach to immunity and disease prevention. Mean it when you say, “Come here, NOW!” Care enough to take action in the face of danger. When danger averted resume connection and extend kindness. You might even in go in for a real hug, a head tousle, or if you know them well you could give them an encouraging pat on their wiggle butt.
