A Caregiver’s Canary

Towards the end of my first thru-hike I encountered a coal-miner, also nearing the end of his thru-hike. We took a break and chatted awhile, as back in the seventies thru-hikers encountered each other much less than they do now. He confided he had black lung disease and had expected he would pass away during the thru-hike, before reaching the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. Now that Mt. Katahdin loomed imminently before both of us I asked the obvious question of what he would do once he finished. His reply:

“Keep on goin’ I s’pose.”

Coal miners once used canaries as carbon monoxide detectors. Their rapid breathing and heart rates provided an advance warning when conditions in the mine became life-threatening. Us caregivers can benefit from our own “canary in a coal mine.

My previous post about having constant dreams about hiking, along with an occasional dream about Cindy, prompted a few comments of concern or support. One of them was apprehensive that I should be looking into a professional caregiver and begin the letting go process. Please know that my own “canary” does not yet indicate an unhealthy situation. Blood pressure is my indicator.

I have a family history of hypertension, plus my situation is conducive to stress. Vascular dementia results from poor blood flow, which correlates with blood pressure. To address this concern I acquired a blood pressure monitor and made lifestyle changes to keep my blood pressure down. I could take pills instead, but there is a greater benefit from using lifestyle factors. If I keep blood pressure down artificially by pills then that no longer serves as an indicator that my situation is unhealthy. I mitigate the immediate threat of hypertension, but not the overall threat of an unhealthy situation, while introducing an element of risk not associated with lifestyle factors.

One of the important lifestyle factors for both blood pressure and brain health is the deep sleep that allows the brain to eliminate toxins. Though some dreams can occur during deep sleep, they mostly occur during the REM stage, particularly the dreams one remembers. C. S. Lewis in his Narnian fantasy was onto something.

Excessive dreaming indicates you are not getting enough deep sleep. The excessive dreaming that prompted my last post did indeed correspond to a rise in my blood pressure. Fortunately, I have managed my routine to obtain a healthy blood pressure range again and the dreaming has decreased a little as well.

Admittedly, keeping blood pressure down with lifestyle factors is not easy, yet lifestyle factors are as effective as pills. In the past I have been able to reduce blood pressure from an all time high of 172/123 down to 120/78, in a little over a month. My problem is keeping blood pressure down without relapse, like dieting this can be difficult (the two are related, of course). A regular routine with taking pills is much easier to maintain.

Yet keeping my blood pressure down with lifestyle factors I must (and speaking like Yoda I do), because I do so for two people. No one can take better care of Cindy than me if I stay healthy, but only if I stay healthy. Only through the pursuit and success of lifestyle factors will I know that is happening. Once again, lifestyle factors are as effective than pills, certainly are healthier, as long as one perseveres. I am perseverent; I just need to keep up with everything in the necessary routine. For those who have expressed concern, if eventually I cannot succeed at managing blood pressure naturally I will start the process of “letting go.”

To each their own as family history and situation dictates, but I suspect blood pressure would work well for many caregivers as their “canary.” However, the goal for effective caregivers should not be knowing when to escape, but to know which, when and how conditions and routines must be changed to make escape unnecessary. Escaping from an unhealthy coal mine is one thing; an escape that risks the health of another when you are the best person for the job is another.

One can imagine why the coal miner chose the Appalachian Trail for his final journey. Cooped up in the dust filled mine that plagued his lungs for most of his life, he no doubt desired to spend his remaining days in the open air. Who of us can even imagine such a craving? We can understand as well why he was so nonchalant about reaching Katahdin. The Appalachian Trail was not a bucket list item to cross off; he just wanted to keep tasting fresh air.

In the coal miner’s incidental wisdom lies the key to success for all long journeys. I have hiked thousands of miles with many long distance hikers; I have met a great many more. Not a single one of us dwells on the destination, that would be overwhelming. Besides, the success of a journey really lies in the journey. So does the true motivation. The destination merely signals, like the “canary in the coal mine,” when one needs to “let go” of one journey and begin a different one. Until my own “canary” signals otherwise this caregiver will “Keep on goin’ I s’pose.”