I’m a 37 yr old male who is, to what I consider, very healthy. I’m a fitness professional, who works out a lot and has a pretty healthy diet. Because of this, I’ve never had any serious health concerns.
Until this past weekend.
Ok, let me preface with saying it wasn’t actually a health scare, though it was something that required going to a doctor, quickly. Which I’ve never had to do in my adult life outside of the common cold.
I’ll admit, in my career sometimes it’s hard for me to get behind some of the common advice and motivational quotes that circle around the health/fitness/weight loss industry. This is because I’ve never experienced a lot of it first hand. I’m smart enough to understand what it takes to lose weight, to get motivated, to time block your calendar, to improve your sleep and reduce your stress. However, I’ve never actually significantly struggled with any of these myself.
Ok, Korey, what’s this article about, you’re just inflating your ego…
Stay with me, I’m getting to it.
“You don’t think about your health until you need it, then it’s more important than anything.”
We’ve all heard some variation of this quote that states that it doesn’t matter what you’ve accomplished in life, the amount of wealth you’ve grown or how successful you are, if your health is poor, it will trump every bit of that. It’ll be all you can think about. It’ll be your #1 main concern. Your entire existence will be focused on getting back to a normally functioning state of health so that you can return to loving your family, living your life and doing the things you wish to do.
With poor health, and even worse, an immediate and drastic reduction of your health (i.e. sickness) you’re unable to provide for your family, enjoy their love, do your work, or participate in your hobbies.
I’ve said this quote, I’ve re-posted similar things on social media, though I’ve never actually experienced anything that made me feel this way personally.
Early last week, I noticed a little swelling on the left side of my nose.
Hmm, that’s odd.
Didn’t think much more of it, assuming it’d be gone the next day. Nope. In fact, it was maybe a touch bigger.
Ok,..really odd. Not worried though.
Then by day 3, there was swelling on the right side of my nose as well. This had me a bit concerned.
By the end of that day, I felt the bridge of my nose and notice a small bump. When I turned and looked in the mirror there was a noticeable bump in the center of my nose. I now looked like I had got punched right in the nose. Swelling all across the center and both sides of my nose.
I’m not one to go straight to googling things, because you always seem to find the worse. Though upon finally talking to my wife about it, which hadn’t noticed yet because I had been busy at work all day when the swelling got worse, she encouraged me to try to research it.
The problem was, there were zero symptoms. No bruising, no headache or pain to the touch. No congestion or nasal drainage. Nothing. I also felt completely fine. This actually concerned me a bit more. Everything I looked up kind of pointed towards these growths that 30% of the population get in their nasal cavities called nasal polyps. They’re known to be benign, and not worrisome, aside from they usually cause all of the previously listed symptoms. The fact that I had none of these symptoms concerned me, as I thought “maybe it’s something worse.” In hindsight, were there no symptoms because my health is really good? Unsure. It’s a decent hypothesis though.
I’ve not been to a legitimate doctor in over a decade. I’ve had no reason to. I didn’t even know where to start. So I went to an urgent care walk in clinic. They weren’t able to tell me much, and referred me to an Ear-Nose & Throat specialist. This was on a Thursday, going into a 3-day weekend, so it’d be 4 days until I could even get on the phone with them, let alone have an appointment. Given the lack of symptoms and the fact the walk-in-doctor wasn’t too worried, I felt a bit better about the situation, and got my weekend started.
We were going on a short trip out of town for my wife to run a race. We’d be back a day later.
The morning of the race, I woke up and the swelling had gotten significantly worse. I was now swollen in my eye socket, and across my cheek bone. Ever seen the Will Smith movie Hitch, when he has the allergic reaction? Ok, it wasn’t that bad at all, but that’s what it felt like to me. There was obvious swelling across my nose, eye and one side of my face.
The whole weekend was supposed to be about supporting my wife on her race, while also taking care of my 7 mo old daughter so my wife could focus on the event.
This is where the quote comes in to play from earlier.
“You don’t think about your health until you need it, then it’s more important than anything.”
I was scared. I was thinking the worst. I couldn’t think about anything else but the possibility of what could happen to my face. Would this swelling spread, could it affect my eye? If it’s in my face, could it be something that transfers internally into my brain? Was the doctor too nonchalant about it? I was embarrassed about how I looked, extremely scared, upset and overall just emotional. I’d never experienced anything like this around a health issue.
It couldn’t have been on a regular saturday morning where I could sulk on the couch and google search myself into oblivion. Instead, it was when my family needed me, and it negatively affected my wife as well. She could sense my frustration and worry, and now she couldn’t focus on her race.
I was thinking all of the negative thoughts.
How could this happen to me? What is it? How bad can it get? How long will it last? When will my face look normal again?
It felt impossible to think about my responsibilities as a father and husband. I struggled to think about even simple things like “what would we eat for lunch.” All I was concerned with was this health condition.
It was in this moment when I realized just how true this quote was. I was experiencing something health related that immediately removed me from the typical game of life. It immediately consumed me. I ended up going back to the walk-in clinic the day after we got back to see about getting something to reduce the swelling. They gave me some steroids, and said to still go see the ENT clinic as soon as I could.
For the previous 3 days I couldn’t think about exercising, so I didn’t, and (coincidentally?) the swelling got worse during that time. A few hours after my first steroid pill, and doing a workout in my garage, the swelling had significantly reduced. The swelling in my eye socket was gone and my nose was a bit smaller. I immediately started feeling better mentally.
My mindset and mood was able to shift back to my family, my life, and everything else I like to do. I’m still going to see the specialist for good measure, but as of now things are (mostly) back to normal with my face.
In the grand scheme of things, this was a very minor issue. Though it gave me a glimpse into the reality that is “health trumps everything.” I can now preach the significance of health and fitness with an even stronger conviction that before.
The excellent thing about improving your health and fitness, is that it acts as a barrier to true sickness. The greater your health and fitness, the further away you are from being extremely sick. Think of it like a bank account. The more money you can accumulate, the further away you are from being in financial insecurity if a crisis happens. Though if you don’t have much money in the account to begin with, even the smallest of issues could trigger a big financial problem.
The take home here, is that you should be constantly concerned with your health and fitness. It’s not something you do after a certain age, or just to reach a particular goal. It should be something you’re always doing, so that you’re less likely to experience the negative effects of any health issue that may come about.
If you’re local to the Murfreesboro, TN area, I’d love to help you out at my gym, Rampage. Feel free to reach out via our website and we’ll be in touch.