Modern
medicine has certainly come a long, long way over the course of history,
hasn’t it? Most of us can attest to the fact that as we begin to get
older, some of our parts are beginning to wear out. In fact I’d like to
talk to someone about my warranty as some of my parts are wearing out
faster than I think they should. Maybe I should have taken better care of
them and done a little more preventative maintenance. Well, enough of
that.
But, seriously we are extremely lucky to be
living in this present day and age where we have the medical technology
that we have in this day and age. Now, when I was born and God was handing
out knees to fill my delivery order something must have gotten read wrong
or something. My legs are relatively straight from the thighs on down, but
once they hit my knees, look out. At this point both legs kick out about
10 degrees or so which results in me running really fast but not getting
anywhere. Needless to say, I wasn’t a great candidate for sports in
school. Slow isn’t the word to describe my running method.
Anyway, about 20 years ago or so, I had
just about worn out both kneecaps and went in for surgery to do what they
used to refer to as a re-alignment. I wanted to get balanced as well, but
they told me to go to the tire store for that since their machine was
broken. Anyway, this was a really big deal, took maybe 3-4 days in the
hospital and about 6 weeks in a hip cast then 8 weeks of therapy. It must
have worked since I really haven’t had much trouble out of it since.
However, several weeks ago, while I was involved in moving a number of
trucks to a new job we just took over, I must have twisted or pulled
something loose in the knee that had been operated upon. Now, I hate going
to the doctor about as much as I hate going to see an attorney so I keep
putting this off and putting it off. Finally my wife makes me go on
penalty of going on strike with regards to household chores such as
washing my clothes and cooking. Now, I’m forced to see the doctor or
else eat what I concoct, which isn’t my idea of a happy meal.
After I get on the table this young kid (he
looks like he’s about 12 years old) comes in and tells me he’s
training to be a doctor and nearly freaks out when he sees the scar on my
kneecap. He goes and gets several more unknown people and they kind of
stand there in awe and look at my knee as if I’m some sort of exhibit or
something. He tells me that they’ve studied this technique, but have
never actually seen one before. He explains that the normal procedure for
this same surgery is day surgery and that I’d be up and going within
about 24 hours. No scars, just a couple of small holes for the surgical
tools. I feel like some sort of medical relic or something. Maybe I could
pick up some extra bucks going on the road or something. Well, it’s nice
to be noticed. Finally everyone clears out and the real doctor arrives. He
takes the normal set of x-rays and then says I have to go in for an MRI.
I’ve never done one of these before and from what I hear it isn’t any
big deal, but how do I know? I arrive on time, they don’t even make me
get into one of those dumb hospital gowns, just point me in the right
direction and stick me on the table. The first thing that I notice
that’s different is when they hand me a set of earplugs to stuff into my
ears. Other than having to lie perfectly still for 30 minutes and wonder
what’s going on that I can’t see, it wasn’t anything to be afraid of
or to worry about. The technician was very helpful in explaining what had
happened and showed me the results.
Try as I might, I couldn’t tell if
anything was wrong or not. Looked all right to me. She said they’d have
the results in a day or so. Now if you’d had this problem 100 years ago,
I assume you’d either live with it or they’d have to cut your leg off
or something. Modern medicine at it’s best. I just hope if I need
repairs, they’re as painless as this was. I’ll keep you posted. I’ll
leave you with this final thought……"Are part time band leaders
called semi-conductors?" As usual you can write to me at www.pearyperry.com.
Thanks……. |
