Skip to main content

Appreciating the Gifts of Life

Image
By
The value of anything becomes apparent when it is taken away from you.  Nothing profound here about one of life’s central truths.  It is an ongoing challenge not to take life’s gifts for granted.  I have never known hunger or lived without shelter. I have never been unemployed or suffered a serious illness. I pay my bills.  I have 5 children who enjoy excellent health and are forging pathways toward their dreams.  I love the people I work with.  I have found new love in the 6th decade of life.  And, I have ice cream every day of my life.

It would be shameful to have been bestowed so much and then to complain about some of life’s trivialities.  But, I am human.

The Mother of All Gifts

Consider the following list of events.  Has any of them ever dampened your mood, made you angry or resulted in an outburst of coarse language? 
  • You find yourself in a traffic jam which delays your arrival to a meeting by 20 minutes.
  • Your lengthy and detailed e-mail to a client suddenly disappears.
  • The concert of your favorite performer is sold out.
  • You have gained 10 lbs.
  • The women ahead of you in the cashier’s line at the supermarket is digging around in her purse for coins.
  • Your cell phone reception disappears.
  • The airline informs that you may change your ticket reservation for $200.
  • You have a flat tire.
  • Your doctor is running an hour behind schedule, again.
  • A driver cuts in front of on the road.
  • A police officer issues you a ticket for speeding because you were speeding.
  • Your dog has made your new Persian rug her toilet.
  • Your check bounces higher than a kangaroo in heat.
A man came to my office, accompanied by his wife, for his colonoscopy.  He was younger than I.  I had never met him before.  He was alert and in good spirits.  I was pleased that I could inform them both after the procedure that his colon was in excellent health.  Sadly, the health of his colon was more robust than his mind was.  He had dementia and couldn’t recall that he was taking prescription medicines.  How sad and unfair that he and his family were losing a gift.  After my day was over and I was driving home, how important would a traffic jam really be?

When I am headed out to see a patient in the emergency room at an ungodly hour, I remind myself that the patient has it worse than I.  He’s the sick person and I will be returning home to sleep in my own bed.

I want to be more grateful and appreciate for all that I have, but I am flawed human specimen.  The struggle continues. 





Labels:

Comments

  1. AlienMomJuly 1, 2016 at 3:10 AM

    Thanks for your thoughts. It gives me a perspective I need to experience at this time in my life. I'm going to make a list of the good things.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AlienMomJuly 1, 2016 at 3:14 AM

    Thanks for your thoughts. It gives me a perspective I need to experience at this time in my life. I'm going to make a list of the good things.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cyril SalasJuly 8, 2016 at 10:29 PM

    Yes, our presence on earth is a luckier thing than anything else. That's why we should appreciate our life, loved ones, and everything we have. Don't complaint or feel down just because we are not perfect than others. Everyone has their own feature and traits. Just know the ways to let them come to light!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Most Doctors Choose Employment

By
Increasingly, physicians today are employed and most of them willingly so.  The advantages of this employment model, which I will highlight below, appeal to the current and emerging generations of physicians and medical professionals.  In addition, the alternatives to direct employment are scarce, although they do exist.  Private practice gastroenterology practices in Cleveland, for example, are increasingly rare sightings.  Another practice model is gaining ground rapidly on the medical landscape.   Private equity (PE) firms have   been purchasing medical practices who are in need of capital and management oversight.   PE can provide services efficiently as they may be serving multiple practices and have economies of scale.   While these physicians technically have authority over all medical decisions, the PE partners can exert behavioral influences on physicians which can be ethically problematic. For example, if the PE folks reduce non-medical overhead, this may very directly affe
44 comments
Read more

Should Doctors Wear White Coats?

By
Many professions can be easily identified by their uniforms or state of dress. Consider how easy it is for us to identify a policeman, a judge, a baseball player, a housekeeper, a chef, or a soldier.  There must be a reason why so many professions require a uniform.  Presumably, it is to create team spirit among colleagues and to communicate a message to the clientele.  It certainly doesn’t enhance professional performance.  For instance, do we think if a judge ditches the robe and is wearing jeans and a T-shirt, that he or she cannot issue sage rulings?  If members of a baseball team showed up dressed in comfortable street clothes, would they commit more errors or achieve fewer hits?  The medical profession for most of its existence has had its own uniform.   Male doctors donned a shirt and tie and all doctors wore the iconic white coat.   The stated reason was that this created an aura of professionalism that inspired confidence in patients and their families.   Indeed, even today
36 comments
Read more

Electronic Medical Records vs Physicians: Not a Fair Fight!

By
Each work day, I enter the chamber of horrors also known as the electronic medical record (EMR).  I’ve endured several versions of this torture over the years, monstrosities that were designed more to appeal to the needs of billers and coders than physicians. Make sense? I will admit that my current EMR, called Epic, is more physician-friendly than prior competitors, but it remains a formidable adversary.  And it’s not a fair fight.  You might be a great chess player, but odds are that you will not vanquish a computer adversary armed with artificial intelligence. I have a competitive advantage over many other physician contestants in the battle of Man vs Machine.   I can type well and can do so while maintaining eye contact with the patient.   You must think I am a magician or a savant.   While this may be true, the birth of my advanced digital skills started decades ago.   (As an aside, digital competence is essential for gastroenterologists.) During college, I worked as a secretary
6 comments
Read more