I WILL PROBABLY lose readers for posting this item but it comes on the foot of a Wall Street Journal item about documenting your personal maladies so that empowers me to step up smartly and explain.
I have a variety of ailments that never get noticed by health care practitioners because like my mother the nurse, I think pain is part of real life. Besides, when I explain what's wrong with me (back, knee, foot, hand, elbow, and stomach), I get confused by all the remedies I have to purchase. So I keep things to myself.
But now, I realise there's no reason I shouldn't start documenting my horrid physical condition. If a dermatologist saw the images I can store on my phone's camera roll, I could develop a whole new vocabulary with terms such as macule, papule, patch, plaque, wheal and vesicle. I could learn about the true depth of my problem, whether I have erythematous, blanching, targetoid, confluent, or punctate problems. The diagnosis is much simpler if I make selfie shots of my ailments.
This is happening between parents and consultants now. The evidence is snapped and saved inside smartphone libraries using bog-standard photo apps.
I could snap shots of my afflicted right hand before and after applications of different creams while also saving screenshots of weather temperatures (since rapidly decreasing temperature causes faster irritation).
I may discover new expertise just a click away when I share high resolution photographs with Doctor Google. Without becoming a hypochondriac, I might find get all the help required right at the bottom of my photostreams. Could you imagine the special interest followers I might amass if I converted my Instagram stream to the blemishes on my skin?
Not that I will do that but I think I'll start snapping and saving shots that I use with our family doctor.I think those photographs, along with an abbreviated journal of observations, could go a long way towards better active living. I can decide what I want to record and what I want to share. Like a thoughtful clinician, I should remember to record answers to all the pertinent questions: Onset, Location, Duration, Character, Aggravating/Alleviating factors, Relieving factors, Timing and Severity.
Remembering what happened and the context of the occurrence is a critical life journaling skill. We cherish the record we have of our kids' first steps. Rewinding them brings the same joy we shared while watching the milestone happen on the day itself. Putting them into the context of the sitting room, the kind of furniture we owned, or the music playing in the background adds to the moment.
I want to make a renewed effort of restarting a routine whereby I run, cycle and swim every week. I'm happy to record merely seven minutes of exercise a day while moving up to 10 mile runs, 25 mile cycling adventures and mile swims. I used to log all those aerobic levels while an active instructor pilot and then I let a sedentary lifestyle suffocate me.
I hope to adopt a more active lifestyle this upcoming semester. A Nike Fuel Band or some other smart monitor would help. But it just costs me a few minutes each day to snap and save photographic evidence of impact surfaces like my feet and knees. Both of those body parts reveal the decades of stress and stain that I've survived. Maybe a little more attention to details they will reveal under a macro lens will help improve their functionality as I attempt to reach a higher level of physical activity.
[More @topgold.]
