Tag Archives: COVID

Looking Good, Feeling…Frustrated

I’ve always been particularly aware of how I look. I would even be so aware to call it vain at times. Today is no different. The guy on the left is prideful of the work and results. The guy on the right knows the inside looks presents different challenges from the outside.

It’s the end of the month, which means I’m wrapping up my monthly scorecard. The sole reason for my Monthly Scorecard is to focus on those efforts which provide vitality and energy. The side effective is a positive one, and it is being in shape. But I believe it also helps keep my autoimmune disease at bay, most of the time…

Another Spring Time. Another Flare.

I believe this is the 3rd year in a row I experienced an Ulcerative Colitis flare up. I know for certain I had one last year and I’m pretty sure I had one in 2021 as the stress from Covid was having a major impact on everyone’s lives. Myself included.

Starting 2023, I was going to really attack the Scorecard work and ensure I was showing up for those around me as my best self. I’ve been incredibly diligent with my exercise and diet. Not perfect, but very few slip ups or cheats along the way, so the most recent internal discomfort came as a real shock to me. I was controlling the things I could control to a large degree. Here I am talking again about the word control. It was a prominent theme in my post about receiving therapy through Better Help. This is where I’ve spent time reflecting this last week as I had to miss out on a business trip.

The Illusion of Control

The whole reason for the monthly tracking was to distill down the essential efforts which selfishly, make me feel great as a person. It shouldn’t come as a shock, but with consistency my energy is higher, my sleep is better, my body “looks” better and I’m in control of my symptoms…but am I????

I realized the scorecard work is a daily mechanism and a lever of consistency I can count on. What it isn’t however, is a forcefield of control. I’ve yet to truly find out how to stay in remission 24/7. I am learning through trial and error the elements of my lifestyle I have to avoid or limit.

I have a disease. The disease doesn’t have me.

I got to a point the last week or so, which some may call submission. Brilliant doctors across the globe are studying this disease and how it’s triggered. They’re studying how to treat it and keep their patients in remission. Right now, there isn’t a true “cure” so there is a good chance it could be with me for some time. I’m keenly aware of this and I know I’ve also navigated similar disruptions in the past. ~This too shall pass.

Although the physical aspect of the disease isn’t pretty, and I don’t wish it on anyone, I think the mental piece is actually harder because it is omnipresent. These are the daily thoughts of someone with Crohn’s Disease or UC:

  • What am I going to eat, and how will it make me feel?
  • (if) for some reason I shouldn’t feel good, is there a restroom nearby?
  • if not nearby, where is the closest one?
  • How long are we going to be in the car?
  • Am I actually feeling really good today… cup coffee, or a beer sounds lovely (but also problematic)
  • How long will I have to be on this medication?
  • How do I tell those close to me I need to back out of _____________ (meeting, event, trip, etc.) without being a huge flake?

Searching for the answers to these daily “lifestyle” questions can be anxious and exhausting and why I spend so much time trying to sharpen my mental axe. I know the disease is going to punch back, and when it does, I need to be ready. I need to be ready to show up for my family, my friends, my coworkers and yes…myself!

Perspective is Always Necessary

I have a friend battling cancer. First it was lung cancer (and he never smoked), he beat that…TWICE! Now he’s fighting the same fight against brain cancer with complete faith and his wife by his side. Wow!! To be that strong. Remarkable doesn’t even begin to describe it. But you can read about it here: Eat Pray Breathe

I leave this post thinking about reading more research and trying to gain a better understand of what “springtime” in the midwest has to do with my body annually battling inflammation. I wonder if others experience similar seasonality with symptoms? Either way, tomorrow is May 1st, and it will be back to work on restoring vitality and continuing momentum!

PS – my wife is amazing and always picks up the slack.

GRIT

I’ve been thinking a good deal about what perspectives this pandemic can offer? What am I actively learning from what’s happening? 

I was speaking with a physician last week and he used the word, “grit” to describe a behavior to pay attention to during COVID. It hit me like a blindside block and I’m not too certain I heard most of the rest of what he said as I thought it was so profound. 

COVID is testing our: health, children, jobs, relationships, patience, finances, and the list goes on and on…

COVID is testing our resolve. COVID is our generation’s GRIT test…if you can choose to see it that way. 

If you choose to see it, you can see this very resolve showing itself all over in wide arranging scenarios.

For example, yesterday was Halloween. Today, the internet was ON FIRE with photos and videos of people committed to continuing the tradition of Halloween with unique and creative solutions to deliver “the prize” (Candy) to our kids who were seeking some normalcy in the midst of a pandemic.

  • I saw people who fashioned tubes/chutes/gutters used to send candy toward their onlookers with a little help from gravity 
  • I saw a medieval style catapult constructed to launch candy to awaiting trick-or-treaters with bags held wide open
  • I saw row of bags attached to a fence with clothes pins holding individual treats to be taken one-by-one by ghosts and ghouls 

ALL of this, is GRIT. 

Resolve to not let a pandemic get the best of us.  Creatively focused to “embrace the suck” as the Navy Seals say, and find a way.  Schools have done it. Businesses, hospitals, restaurants, professional sports are all finding creative ways evolve. 

I find stoicism healthy here. The stoics would teach us to observe reality as it is, and not as we want it to be. But then move. Move forward. 

Floods will rob us of one thing, fire of another. These are conditions of our existence which we cannot change. What we can do is adopt a noble spirit, such a spirit as befits a good person, so that we may bear up bravely under all that fortune sends us and bring our wills into tune with nature’s.
– Seneca, Letters from a Stoic 

The pandemic has certainly thrown all of us off what was once considered our  “normal” day-to-day modus operandi. It’s also showing us where our resolve is. 

I’m a self confessed optimist. I DO believe there is a way through and it very likely won’t be easy. Not in the least. That said, the way forward lives with the people and their ingenuity. I certainly believe in that.  

Instead of looking for ease of passage.  Lean into grit. 

Where is your grit today?