Are You Battle Ready?

Taking stock and shoring up your defenses

I feel like I’ve gained a modicum of wisdom here at the beginning of my 60th decade, and something I know for sure is that the only certainty in life is that nothing is certain. You’re cruising along and then out of the blue, you hit an unforeseen speed bump. I just hit one of those unexpected bumps. Four weeks ago. It took me by complete surprise. I work hard at taking care of myself on all fronts and am grateful to be in reasonably good shape, so getting knocked down was a challenge to my mindset… but I realize now that it was also a blessing.

When people have an illness, you often hear the phrase “they are battling fill-in-the-blank.” This recent illness (which I’ll get to in a bit) left me feeling battle weary—as if I went through a mini-war—and wondering how many of us are battle ready for life’s inevitable jolts and struggles.

We may have varying degrees of control to prevent them, but we have near total control to prepare ourselves to face them. Should our focus be on avoidance, or readiness, or both? And to what degree for each? I pondered this issue quite a bit.

Health as the first line of defense
A little-known fact most friends don’t know about me is that in my early twenties, I attained a black belt in Shotokan karate—which by now feels like a rust belt, but it is in my muscle memory and mind. Anyway, my sensei (instructor) stressed the first line of defense is a good offense: both to be prepared and to stay out of harm’s way. In other words, mastering self-defense moves and tactics through effort and practice is a large part of the equation, and avoiding situations that put yourself in danger is the balance.

These same self-defense principles apply to health. We may have limited control in our contraction of illnesses, but we can—through effort and practice—maintain a healthy immune system and solid overall health. A reinforced immune system is important not only in protecting ourselves against contracting contagious antigens but also in helping our body fight infections and illness. Mitigating risk with pharmaceuticals is advertised insistently, but shoring up our physical and mental selves may be more important in making us battle ready. For example, an often-overlooked part of our immunity is retaining muscle strength, as muscles can activate innate immune responses and release anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative stress compounds that play an important role in that response.

While I can’t know what this ailment would have been like had I not been in fighting shape, intuitively I know I was very fortunate. Even though I got knocked down initially, oddly enough I never felt weak. After I reached the apex of the illness in fairly short order, I had small, incremental, encouraging improvements every day. My husband Andrea had been researching the stages of the disease and was afraid to tell me how long recovery typically was… and thankfully,  it was much accelerated for me. I truly believe my recovery was in large part due to the state of my overall health going in..the proof is in the pudding. I was mostly battle ready and able to put up a good fight.

Bouncing back, but how much…
As I had quite a bit of time to roll thoughts around in my mind, I was reminded of something that we need to be very cognizant of as we get older: the ability to bounce back to 100% lessens as we age. Greatly. For those of you who are new to Ageosophy, my family took care of my mom in our home the last 13 years of her life. Among many lessons I learned during that period was that after every bout with an illness, whether it was a surgery or hospital stay, she came back a little less than before. For instance, if she went into the hospital at 95% of her 100% self, she returned at 92%. The next episode of something took away another several percentage points. And so on, and so on…

Granted, when we are young we most likely bounce back to 100%, but where is our tipping point when we don’t? That’s an unknown. I’m sure it’s different for everyone. But what I do know is: it’s coming. It’s inescapable as we grow older, and once we lose percentage points, it’s near impossible to recoup them.

So what do we do? My strategy to mitigate the loss of points is to have my suit of armor polished, weapons stocked, and be battle ready. As frailty is a greater factor than age in fighting illnesses, my first and foremost goal is to stay physically strong through strength training and exercise, which also keeps us mentally strong. To optimize my immune system by maintaining a moveable weight; consuming a healthy, clean diet; getting adequate hydration, plenty of immune-supporting sleep, and regular morning sun exposure; and, of course, nurturing strong bonds with friends and family.

Speaking of…family, friends, and faith
I’m so blessed to have a supportive and loving husband and son, who cared for me and held me when I was in tears from the stress of being in pain. I’m also so grateful for a treasured group of friends who regularly checked in and included me in their prayers, the power of which can’t be underestimated. Knowing that the troops were rallying around me was so comforting. Although having people you can depend on to care for you isn’t the primary reason to cultivate strong social bonds, it’s definitely essential in times of need and in my estimation a critical part to being battle ready.

Assembling your A-team
Here’s where my Achilles’ heel was uncovered. I was kicking myself because I hadn’t checked in with my primary doctor in nearly 5 years, which meant my current level of health was unfamiliar to her. I was basically a new patient.

It highlighted the importance of having a primary doctor to call upon who knows you, whom you know you can trust. Even if you require more specialized care, having that professional for guidance is invaluable. I am embarrassingly overdue for a physical (yes, I have seen my gynecologist) and I’m reminded it’s not just the physical but the check-in that is critical in ensuring that familiarity—and in turn, care—is in place.

My malady was…
And basically still is: shingles. A rather wicked case on the left side of my face that started in the hairline, covered my forehead, and extended over my eye. Yes, I know it can cause blindness…I was told several times by several doctors. And that was very scary. I’ll spare you the blow-by-blow details, but it’s been a heck of a trial by fire as you can see in the really-unattractive-no-makeup photos below. The first 8 days were so painful, I was thrown completely off balance—I went into a bit of a fog. Thank goodness my husband took care of me! It wasn’t until about day 9 that I emerged from the haze and was able to think more strategically.

While I had been on cruise control, confident that since I eat cleanly I was in a relatively low inflammatory state, it finally occurred to me to research what foods may aggravate shingles, aside from obvious offenders. For heaven's sake! I discovered that the amino acid arginine can actually make the virus worse—and lo and behold my diet was rich in arginine. I pivoted and quickly added in the supplement lysine as a balance and paused a few foods. I focused on moving the lymphatic system (trying to naturally de-puff and move toxins out) with increased dry brushing and leisurely daily walks. I prioritized rest, as that is when the body regenerates, so I stayed horizontal—a lot—and went to sleep extra early (even for me).

I was very worried about how my face was going to heal, so I cut several Aloe Vera leaves from a friend’s garden, which I kept in the refrigerator and scooped out the inside gel to put on the blisters. And I have to give a shout-out to an amazing botanical skin salve that I believe saved my skin and promoted near-miraculous healing: Green Goo’s Skin Repair Healing Salve. Once the blisters turned to scabs, I slathered this on every chance I got, and I am convinced it—along with the aloe leaves—made all the difference in the world. I still have faint redness on my forehead and eye area so I layer a generous coat on morning and night…I love this stuff.

So why did the virus rear its ugly head? Not sure. I had chicken pox as a teenager, therefore the virus is in my system; but other than being female, I didn’t check the boxes of the typical causes that awaken it. While stress is a factor, I thought I was doing fairly well; in fact, I was much more stressed a year ago than I am now. It reminds me of my days as a student in the high-pressure environment of my alma mater, Art Center College of Design. Like clockwork I would come down with some sort of cold or flu during breaks—rarely during the school year—as if my body knew I didn’t have the luxury of being sick while school was in session. Perhaps now that a particularly stressful period in my life has eased, my body let down its defenses. Who knows.

Wake-up calls are blessings
Circling back to the beginning of the post where I said this was a blessing, I indeed feel that way! I believe that the body needs these storms to recoup and remodel; it is part of the natural cycle of the body to build resistance and resilience. Forced downtime is the body's way of recalibrating…as well as catching up on movies.

I’m grateful for the reinforcement that good overall health and a strong body pay dividends, and the much-needed wake-up call to get my medical resources in order. How battle ready are you? I hope my experience may serve to inspire you to take stock of how battle ready you (really) are, and to shore up where necessary, so you can live well, age great.

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