A few weeks back I was sitting on a hospital bed waiting for the Nurse Practitioner to check up on my operation site. I was really hoping she would say I didn’t need to come back again. A curtain separated me from a fellow having a very tense discussion with the doctor about his options.
Being very focussed on my tumour removal and recovery, I didn’t really listen to the intense discussion on the other side of the curtain – until the doctor said to this fellow that he needed to think about the option to remove his heal bones. From his voice I guessed the patient did a lot of manual work. I didn’t have to be too clever to hear the fear in his voice as he grappled with this drastic option.
As serious as I think my conditions are, I had to give myself a good talking to, in that my situation, significant as it is, didn’t compare to the terrible options confronting this man. If I mull over my world long enough, it doesn’t take long for my issues to become increasingly serious – whether or not they really are. I frequently think of this other fellow. His world of threat and pain, is a sharp reminder that there are many folk confronted daily with conditions from which some are unlikely to recover. Perspective matters. It does to me.