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ABOUT three weeks ago, I nearly died.
Weird thought, that. It’s such a familiar concept: “Laugh! I nearly died!” But in this case, it was literally true. I became sick on a Monday; by Tuesday evening, my white blood cell count was sky-high thanks to peritonitis in my abdomen, a very dangerous condition.
The whole thing happened without warning, a bolt from the blue, and as far as I can make out, there was nothing I could have done to prevent it.
It’s an interesting concept, that: personal responsibility for health. We’ve been so hammered by media messages about health in recent decades that I think we’ve developed a belief that if something goes wrong, it’s because we’ve fallen down on the job.
“But he was so healthy!” we exclaim on hearing some bad news about a colleague. “He didn’t smoke and he ran 10 kilometres every day!”
My illness – completely unpredictable and with no known cause – and the recent, similar illnesses of two other people I know reminded me that there’s still a lot we cannot stave off, because we don’t know where it comes from or why.
But I did one of the best things I could possibly do to help me get better quickly. I did it long ago and without thinking about it in terms of my health. I got pets.
" 'People who are pet owners generally go to the doctor about 15-to-20 percent less often than other people. And that’s been shown in several different countries – Australia, Germany, Canada and China. So there is a real cost savings to the nation'.
"McCune says researchers have seen another benefit of pet therapy — fewer pills for people whose conditions have improved thanks to four-legged intervention.
" 'In some studies, that’s what you see. Some people are actually on lower medication or can do without medication'."
(Dr Sandra McCune, Scientific Leader of Human-Animal Interaction at the Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition, Leicestershire, UK, quoted in a story on a conference held in Chicago in early August).
So I was discharged from hospital three days after the op. (I had a huge incentive to get up and walking quickly – our medical aid required that we pay 30% of the costs of being on the ordinary ward. And since staying in hospital is more expensive than staying at a top-rated game lodge, I was determined to get home before the weekend.)
Back home and in my own bed, I felt my cat jump up and pad softly over the duvet. She snuggled up to me, quietly purring. And that was good for me: it’s long been known that pets help reduce the impact of anxiety and keep your blood pressure down, so stroking her would have helped me start to heal.
And then, after a couple of days, low-level depression set in. I felt weepy and low. This is not uncommon after surgery, of course: “Postoperative depression […] is more likely to occur well after the crisis of surgery has ended and the patient is back at home or even at work.
"That can make it particularly difficult for patients to cope with feelings about what they’ve endured and what their future is likely to be, or for family members and physicians to see and understand their feelings. Stigma continues to surround depression, adds Vaccaro, and many patients may hide their state of mind from families and caregivers alike.” (http://harvardmagazine.com/2000/07/an-understandable-compli-html)
But I couldn’t hide my state of mind from the three dogs, whom I soon began referring to as the ‘junior nurses’. They sensed my feelings and adjusted their behaviour in different ways to cheer me up: either by being more affectionate or by being more lively and playful.
It’s hard to remain blue when a dog is bouncing around you, his eyes alight with joy. There’s a huge amount of evidence that animals can help to relieve depression - it’s why we have animal-assisted therapy, which works so well.
Watch these and I’ll bet you have a tear or two.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0-tt5GxIr8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHOxCW2Py9E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_PkjsdqFKk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxvZh6aYyeU)
It’s also why it’s just silly to deny the elderly their pets when they move into old-age homes - stacks of studies have shown how pets help the elderly be more active, more engaged, more connected.
And then, of course, there’s just the wonderful healing power of touch: “…data from this continuous quality improvement clinical study suggests that [therapeutic touch] promotes comfort, calmness, and well-being among hospitalized patients.” (Large clinical study shows value of therapeutic touch program, Newshan G, Schuller-Civitella D. Holist Nurs Pract. 2003 Jul-Aug;17(4):189-92.)
Wonder what savings we could achieve on medical spend if we prescribed a regular dose of animal therapy for all post-operative patients?
- Fin24
*Mandi Smallhorne is a versatile journalist and editor. Views expressed are her own.
Weird thought, that. It’s such a familiar concept: “Laugh! I nearly died!” But in this case, it was literally true. I became sick on a Monday; by Tuesday evening, my white blood cell count was sky-high thanks to peritonitis in my abdomen, a very dangerous condition.
The whole thing happened without warning, a bolt from the blue, and as far as I can make out, there was nothing I could have done to prevent it.
It’s an interesting concept, that: personal responsibility for health. We’ve been so hammered by media messages about health in recent decades that I think we’ve developed a belief that if something goes wrong, it’s because we’ve fallen down on the job.
“But he was so healthy!” we exclaim on hearing some bad news about a colleague. “He didn’t smoke and he ran 10 kilometres every day!”
My illness – completely unpredictable and with no known cause – and the recent, similar illnesses of two other people I know reminded me that there’s still a lot we cannot stave off, because we don’t know where it comes from or why.
But I did one of the best things I could possibly do to help me get better quickly. I did it long ago and without thinking about it in terms of my health. I got pets.
" 'People who are pet owners generally go to the doctor about 15-to-20 percent less often than other people. And that’s been shown in several different countries – Australia, Germany, Canada and China. So there is a real cost savings to the nation'.
"McCune says researchers have seen another benefit of pet therapy — fewer pills for people whose conditions have improved thanks to four-legged intervention.
" 'In some studies, that’s what you see. Some people are actually on lower medication or can do without medication'."
(Dr Sandra McCune, Scientific Leader of Human-Animal Interaction at the Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition, Leicestershire, UK, quoted in a story on a conference held in Chicago in early August).
So I was discharged from hospital three days after the op. (I had a huge incentive to get up and walking quickly – our medical aid required that we pay 30% of the costs of being on the ordinary ward. And since staying in hospital is more expensive than staying at a top-rated game lodge, I was determined to get home before the weekend.)
Back home and in my own bed, I felt my cat jump up and pad softly over the duvet. She snuggled up to me, quietly purring. And that was good for me: it’s long been known that pets help reduce the impact of anxiety and keep your blood pressure down, so stroking her would have helped me start to heal.
And then, after a couple of days, low-level depression set in. I felt weepy and low. This is not uncommon after surgery, of course: “Postoperative depression […] is more likely to occur well after the crisis of surgery has ended and the patient is back at home or even at work.
"That can make it particularly difficult for patients to cope with feelings about what they’ve endured and what their future is likely to be, or for family members and physicians to see and understand their feelings. Stigma continues to surround depression, adds Vaccaro, and many patients may hide their state of mind from families and caregivers alike.” (http://harvardmagazine.com/2000/07/an-understandable-compli-html)
But I couldn’t hide my state of mind from the three dogs, whom I soon began referring to as the ‘junior nurses’. They sensed my feelings and adjusted their behaviour in different ways to cheer me up: either by being more affectionate or by being more lively and playful.
It’s hard to remain blue when a dog is bouncing around you, his eyes alight with joy. There’s a huge amount of evidence that animals can help to relieve depression - it’s why we have animal-assisted therapy, which works so well.
Watch these and I’ll bet you have a tear or two.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0-tt5GxIr8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHOxCW2Py9E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_PkjsdqFKk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxvZh6aYyeU)
It’s also why it’s just silly to deny the elderly their pets when they move into old-age homes - stacks of studies have shown how pets help the elderly be more active, more engaged, more connected.
And then, of course, there’s just the wonderful healing power of touch: “…data from this continuous quality improvement clinical study suggests that [therapeutic touch] promotes comfort, calmness, and well-being among hospitalized patients.” (Large clinical study shows value of therapeutic touch program, Newshan G, Schuller-Civitella D. Holist Nurs Pract. 2003 Jul-Aug;17(4):189-92.)
Wonder what savings we could achieve on medical spend if we prescribed a regular dose of animal therapy for all post-operative patients?
- Fin24
*Mandi Smallhorne is a versatile journalist and editor. Views expressed are her own.
