Being a high-achiever patient or How I learned to rest

Communicating your need for rest.

“Be a high-achiever patient”.

This is what an anesthetist told me once after a major surgery.

She looked at me and said, “I know you think you heard the part about resting, but you must rest. I don’t want to see you back in hospital next week because you went home and rearranged your pantry, and we have to do a corrective surgery.”

I was shocked.

Not because she was so forthright but because I had absolutely planned to rearrange my pantry on my sick leave.

Instead, her reframe of being a “high-achiever patient” struck something in me.

I was going to be the best at recovery ever!

I would rest harder and better than all those other post-operative chumps!

I was going to sleep and lie around and stay on top of my pain meds better than anyone in the history of surgery!

And reader, I did.

I recovered slowly and with strength and didn’t look back.

I think of this phrase and reframe a lot.

Sometimes to get better, we really have to concentrate and work on not doing the thing, in order to thrive.

If something helps you look after yourself, but you’re finding it hard to prioritize, think about being a high-achiever self-carer or whatever it is, and maybe it’s more familiar to put your energy in that direction.