Protecting is the second to last of Chih-I’s Ten Characteristics. By this he means it is incumbent upon you or your caregiver or both to have a clear understanding and knowledge of any and all restrictions or prohibitions concerning every aspect of your medical care. While this may be challenging to accomplish it isn’t impossible. Here is where you need to stand up and advocate for your own interests.
It isn’t that doctors and hospitals don’t want to tell you it is that they generally only provide basic information which may or may not cover our particular unique circumstances.
Things to consider are what foods may interact with your medication or recovery. What limitation are there on your physical activities. And here is a big one that occurs more often due to compartmentalization of medical care, the affects of one medication on another. Some medications should not be taken along with others due to potentially harmful or even counterproductive results. This is why you should always have available the complete listing of all medications and over the counter curatives including vitamins and supplements. This is important to your health. Even if all you do is have a photo on your phone of each of your mediations it can potentially save your life. This is another reason why it is good, when possible to get all of your medications from the same pharmacy or pharmacy chain.
Do you exercise regularly, walk regularly, or swim, or yoga or dance? Any of these things may not occur to your doctor to warn you about restrictions. Do you smoke, or consume alcohol frequently? Another important item to own up to, don’t be ashamed because your shame may have medical consequences. This is your health and it is important.
Finally, as boring or tedious as it may seem it is important to read the information data sheets that accompany your medications. Read it with an awareness that what you are looking for is not the worst thing that could possibly happen but information to alert you to potential negative consequences. Also, and this is important is to always review your dosing instructions. Sometimes a medication can undergo a reformulation that perhaps can affect your dose or frequency of taking the medications. You may not be told about it, though hopefully you will be.
Protect your best interest by actively participating in your wellness. Ask questions, ask, ask, ask. Don’t be ashamed or afraid. Don’t let any one’s attitude prevent you from acting in your best interest and it is always in your best interest to ask questions until you understand fully what you should and should not do and what you should expect as normal or abnormal. I have witnessed discharge instructions that differ from verbal to written. Ask for clarification immediately and take notes, most likely you will forget or it may become fuzzy after a short while. This is your health and recovery and it’s important.
Lastly is to know the obstacles. Here Chih-I says:
“If you find something effective, do not brag about it publicly, and if you find sometthing ineffective, do not slander or cast doubt on it. In discussing these things with other people, [admit that at times diseases] that have not yet come to an end or may not come to an end; those that seem to have come to an end may reappear; those that seem to be healed man not have ended; and bringing them to an end again may require the redoubling of effort.”
Hopefully I won’t get into too much trouble for this quote. I think this is important to consider. I know how liberating it can feel to proclaim X number of years of being cancer free or declaring having defeated cancer, I get it. And I don’t want to be a party pooper yet the reality is there is never a guarantee that cancer will never re-emerge. I encourage the celebration of overcoming cancer or of being cancer free, and I encourage the awareness of the feeling of defeat if it reoccurs. This is the challenge. How do we hold celebrating health and also hold the fact that all health is tenuous and in the end we shall all succumb to dying.
Every day we live is a fact worthy of celebration whether with or without cancer, and no day is guaranteed to any of us and that is worthy of celebrating as well. Do not be discouraged by illness, old age, or death. They really are not our enemies if we consider that our natural state is tending towards death from the moment of birth. Also, though illness and disease are not our enemies, rather companions, we need not ignore things we can do to minis and mitigate their effect on our lives.
Chih-I closes with the statement that he guarantees that if you do these things and have no doubt it will not be in vain. Based upon my experience in my own life and witnessing others illnesses and death and the working situation in hospitals I do believe that following these ten things is both worth while and also the fundamental foundation for good self care and the best insurance you can have for successfully living through and with illness.
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