We All Have 99 Problems Until We Get Sick — Then We Only Have 1 Problem
A different view to the popular phrase — health is wealth
As we made our way to Uhuru Gardens to celebrate possibly the last performance of an iconic music group, Sauti Sol, I remembered the energy that filled the place.
Bien sang:
I wanna be rich
And the crowd responded:
I wanna be famous
I wanna have lots and lots of money
Make my momma proud
Yes, I want to make my momma proud.
And yes, it’s one of the bangers of the greatest musical group to ever come from the country of long-distance runners. They have been running the industry as an unmatched band of singers and instrumentalists for over 20 years.
Undoubtedly, each one of them had their own problems. Some were aired in public. Some we shall never know. But the solid fact is we all have many problems.
More than 99.
But for reasons scientific and otherwise, we move on daily. We are bold organisms. We forge our paths with nothing other than our will and the need to continue living.
I call it the tendency to avoid death.
As someone who has been in the health space for a long time, more from learning and even more through practice, we get an insight into health that the general public does not quite understand. Most doctors, nurses, and other health cadres know where the shoe pinches.
One day, someone is slapping their knee in laughter. The next, they are intubated and spend their seventh day ventilated in the ICU.
Yes, we do have our problems. But once you become sick, you basically have just one.
I wanna be free
Ever since I joined the health industry, I have never wanted freedom as much as I do now. Yes, freedom in the way we understand it, but even more, freedom as I now see it. Through health.
First, let me dissect it as most people understand it. Then give you my take on the matter.
Freedom gives you the ability to choose. I would have wanted to attend Oktoberfest this year but I had to rethink it because of my priorities for my future revenue-earning project. That is freedom.
Silverback gorillas have harems. From it, they are free to choose which female they will mate with.
If I have money, and more importantly, time, I can choose my preferred form of indulgence. If I had neither, or little of both, I’d have to prioritize.
With dwindling time, you have to cherry-pick over having all the choices. The same thing applies to money.
An important aspect I wouldn’t want to leave out is reversibility. With time, there is no reversibility. With money, there is. Also, on a relative basis, there are those with more time than others, which grants them more freedom.
Because most people lack money at the start of their professions, their degree of freedom is very little at the start. They have to obey or risk going broke.
On the other end of the spectrum, there are those with tonnes of money. Bobby Axelrod, from Billions, calls it f*ck you money.
What’s the point of having f*ck you money if you don’t actually say f*ck you? — Bobby Axelrod
This is freedom.
This whole argument ties to the important connection between freedom and choice.
More freedom, more choices, and vice versa.
On the other hand, you can have a lot of money but don’t have the freedom.
Let’s say you’re an investment banker for one of the largest companies in the world.
Your pockets are loaded with cash.
Always.
But, do you have the time to enjoy it?
Most of the people I know who ventured into this field don’t have that time. Occasionally, the company can get them free trips to five-star hotels. Or getaway trips to coveted tourist sites. But usually, they spend time there doing work rather than enjoying the trips.
What this spinning hamster-wheel of work does is make them rich, but not wealthy.
Contrast that with some of the people in my lineage. Around 50 or so years back.
Folks from my mother’s side had huuuuge chunks of land. Nobody to boss them around and tell them which reports to file from what time and using which deadline. No one insists on a particular dress code. In the afternoon, they’d have a swim by the lakeside, Lake Victoria, and walk the cattle back home at a leisurely pace.
My folks back then were wealthy.
They might not have a rich lifestyle, but they did not struggle. They were wealthy.
So money can get you freedom, but it only does so if it is wealth. You can be rich but lack freedom. In that case, your money is irrelevant to you as far as freedom goes.
The link is — freedom, choice, and wealth. These are like the three-legged stool. Stable.
Now we have all the necessary tools to talk about health
If you’re healthy, you have choices.
You can go to work or you can quit. You can start a business or you can seek employment. You can eat a burger or make a salad.
You have a wide latitude of choices.
Now, think of a diabetic patient. They have a limited range of food. Reduce the carbohydrates, maximize the proteins.
Think of a hypertensive patient — reduce the salt and alcohol intake.
What of the one who is both diabetic and hypertensive? Makes it worse.
These two diseases affect a significant number of people the world over. They also have complications. It could be in the eye, in the nerves, or in the kidneys. It can also affect the skin when they get wounds.
Such wounds can sometimes be difficult to heal. They can then be transferred to high-dependency units(HDUs) in hospitals. Once there, their freedom significantly dwindles.
You see, in the ward, you can move about, head to the toilet, or even walk over to the nursing station and have a convo with them. However, in the HDU, you don’t even have this ability. You are significantly deprived of freedom of choice, a human right.
And when they intubate you? You cannot even speak. Just like that, freedom of speech gone!
Although not completely. You still have options, but they are not tied to your present health status.
Before then, you had 99 problems, most of which could be ignored with little consequence. Now that you are in the HDU or the ICU, you have only one problem — staying alive.
I wanna be free, like Nelson Mandela
We are not told of instances when Nelson Mandela was sick inside the prison.
Maybe I have not dug much into the story. But being sick is inevitable for every human being whether in prison or not.
The one sickness we all have is growing old. If you’re not busy being born then you’re busy dying.
Mandela, when he was trapped on that island, had reduced degrees of freedom. It was like the patients in the ICU — with reduced freedom.
But once he was released, every South African wanted the same for themselves. They wanted freedom.
I can hear the song:
Freedom is coming tomorrow!
It is the kind of freedom I’d want to have. Freedom born from health. Choices unlimited because I am healthy.
But like most forms of freedom, they require investments. A healthy lifestyle is one’s investment in future freedom. By reducing the likelihood of getting certain lifestyle diseases, you invest in a wealthy future.
Let’s assume you have a chronic disease. Some can be inherited and some can be transmitted through the birth process. You’ll then have to take some medication throughout your life. Depends on the disease.
In such a case, your investment is the daily compliance to your medication. You ensure your range of options is broad by taking your daily or regular pills.
When I was an intern, I saw so many cases of people’s lives being complicated simply because of failure of compliance to medication. Some would even tell you how they are just tired of taking the pills. But later on, the degree of freedom suffers. The patients, as a result, suffer.
The connection — wealth, choice, and freedom — is inescapable.
With a healthy life, you have a lot to choose from. You are free to choose. You have freedom. By this logic, health is wealth.
My theory, Organismal Selection, emphasizes this single problem — staying alive.
Better framed is, the problem of avoiding death or annihilation. Death for living organisms and annihilation for particulate organisms.
The single phenomenon that links all particles or organisms is death. The tendency we all have is to avoid it.
If we’re healthy, we can dismiss it for a later date. If not, we have to pay close attention to it. I don’t have to constantly check my kidneys to ensure they are working. But if I was in an ICU, the story would be different.
I would not care but now a new team would be.
Organismal Selection is a theory of evolution that stresses this inevitability. Being far from death is a place we’d all rather be.
No place I’d rather be
Health is valuable.
Health is wealth.
By this standard, health practitioners grant many individuals wealth every time they leave the ICUs, wards, or clinics for home.
In accordance with the theory of Organismal Selection, the health industry thrives.
Patients walk or in some cases, get wheeled in, hoping to get back to their previous wealthy ALIAS healthy states. That is the place they’d rather be.
When Sauti Sol sings:
I wanna be rich
I sing along. But in reality, I want to be wealthy.
I want to be free.
It starts with my health.
