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davidgoldfarbIt hit me yesterday, a realization.
First, some background. About a month ago, I delivered a large order of copies to a building with a non-working elevator. So I had to carry a bunch of boxes of paper up a flight of stairs. I didn't have any problem with it at the time, but for the next several weeks I had a sore spot on the left side of my abdomen. It was never really bad, but at its worst it limited my motion somewhat. It lasted for weeks without seeming to go away or get better, which worried me. So I fought through Kaiser's bureaucracy to get an appointment with my doctor.
By the time I got to see her, the sore spot had begun to get better. After poking and prodding me a little, she diagnosed it as a muscle strain. She explained that strained muscles in the chest wall heal slowly because they can't be kept still (you can't very well stop breathing!), and that where this one was, abrasion from the rib cage made healing slower still. She prescribed time and (if needed) OTC pain drugs.
It was a bit of an anticlimax -- given the time and trouble I'd taken, not to mention the $15 co-pay, I was hoping at least to get X-rayed. But she seems to have been right; as I write this, the sore spot is almost gone.
Yesterday, about a week later, it occurred to me that we had replayed an old joke. I had gone to my doctor and told her, "Doctor, it hurts when I do this" and she in effect replied, "Don't do that."
First, some background. About a month ago, I delivered a large order of copies to a building with a non-working elevator. So I had to carry a bunch of boxes of paper up a flight of stairs. I didn't have any problem with it at the time, but for the next several weeks I had a sore spot on the left side of my abdomen. It was never really bad, but at its worst it limited my motion somewhat. It lasted for weeks without seeming to go away or get better, which worried me. So I fought through Kaiser's bureaucracy to get an appointment with my doctor.
By the time I got to see her, the sore spot had begun to get better. After poking and prodding me a little, she diagnosed it as a muscle strain. She explained that strained muscles in the chest wall heal slowly because they can't be kept still (you can't very well stop breathing!), and that where this one was, abrasion from the rib cage made healing slower still. She prescribed time and (if needed) OTC pain drugs.
It was a bit of an anticlimax -- given the time and trouble I'd taken, not to mention the $15 co-pay, I was hoping at least to get X-rayed. But she seems to have been right; as I write this, the sore spot is almost gone.
Yesterday, about a week later, it occurred to me that we had replayed an old joke. I had gone to my doctor and told her, "Doctor, it hurts when I do this" and she in effect replied, "Don't do that."
