What Does Healthy Mean to You?
Tuesday 26th of November 2013 | Category: Opinion | Written by: Lucas JamesWe've all heard it, and many of us have said it - we don't mind if it's a boy or a girl, so long as it's healthy...But what do we mean? Health can be a tricky concept when you have a family member with what some professionals refer to as 'complex health needs'. Smiler is one of them - surprise surprise!
He is usually the one who suffers worst with colds and coughs and all those little things - he takes three times as long to get over anything as any of the rest of us do. Sometimes we know that he isn't right but it can be really difficult to know exactly what is wrong - Smiler's comprehension of concepts like pain is tricky to assess - and if he feels dizzy or sick or has a headache or toothache we tend to go by his behaviour. Not that that's foolproof! Knowing that if we think something is wrong he will end up in A+E, he will repeatedly tell us he is fine and (as this is usually a broken bone type thing rather than an unwell type thing) will do everything he can to convince us he is okay. Like propelling his wheelchair with both arms when his wrist is broken. Oh yes. Determined is one word you could use, awkward and bugger are another couple!
With Smiler, we judge health on a different criteria than with Noah and Petal, and ourselves. Spontaneous nosebleeds don't count as a health issue, unless we end up at the hospital to top him up with blood. Dislocated jaw - again, not a health issue, more of a ... more of a wobble! And now that I can relocate it if Smiler isn't able to get it back himself with coaching, it barely registers on the wobble scale. I think of his health being more to do with how far off his usual track he is, so a hard-to-shift cough would count, but a series of minor seizures wouldn't.
What do you think? Do you consider yourself or someone close to you to be healthy, while the public at large would think differently? What does healthy mean to you?
