Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Leaving Egypt On The Promise Of A Healed Knee

As this week begins Exodus and welcomes Resurrection, a look at both.

What was it about not going to doctors when something was wrong? It was like not fixing anything when it broke.

I asked Yeudi what it was. When did physical pain become normal, and doctor visits become pointless? We both puzzled over parents forged by the bitter scarcity of The Great Depression and what they insisted upon (dentists and the New York Times) and what they didn't (sometimes everything else).

Florence
once kept up a full teaching/working schedule with walking pneumonia. When I yelled at her that she was supposed to be in bed, she yelled back, "It's WALKING pneumonia."

Her unique approach, in fact, practically demolished that thin cushion between health and chronic illness.

Years of pain and never really thinking much could be done also demolished that thin cushion between my constant walking on a cranky knee and barely hobbling like how the old ladies did on Grand Street.

So, after trying everything, a five minute doctor visit explains outpatient surgery and I take the 80 to 20 odds I might actually walk a bit longer without such a long-standing familiar pain.