This has been a difficult week. The transition
of going back to work after spending a wonderful week of reading, meditation,
and closeness with Norma is difficult. Not to be melodramatic, but dealing with
the every day problems of work and trying to be “in the world yet not of it”
can be traumatic. In our present day world this is particularly so because we
know there are so many evil scheming men in high places and many of our
problems stem from viscous, greedy, corrupt, evil men. We are told we are in
the depths of an energy and fuel crisis. Available data about stored fuel does
not bear this out and yet the large oil interests made an enormous profit last
year. President Nixon presents such an unbelievable “credibility gap” that we
cannot believe what he says.
We read in the paper yesterday that
the previous Stake President of the Seattle East Stake is involved in what
appears to be outright fraud in his business. I am sure that these things do
not occur as a result of these men deliberately planning fraudulent, corrupt
acts but rather that the subtle influence of evil gradually shapes us if we are
not constantly vigilant. One of the most precious things we can possess is the
surety that we are undeviatingly honest and trustworthy.
This week I administered a
chymopapain injection into a protruded disc for a woman who reacted violently
with an anaphylacted reaction. She almost died!!! It if had not been for
well-trained personnel in the recovery room she surely would have died. There
is nothing that we do in medicine but what we expose the patient to adverse
reaction. Fortunately, this does not happen but rarely. When such a reaction
occurs or complications arise, it is such a shock!! If a doctor lived with this
type of thing too much or too often, it would be almost impossible to keep up
with the emotional assault of caring for sick people. As it is, maybe this is
the reason that the average life expectancy of a physician is 51 (I am now 53)
and the suicide rate for a doctor is 4 times as great as it is for others.
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