On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
- Mark 2:17
In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the Lord, but only from the physicians.
- 2 Chronicles 16:12
You, however, smear me with lies; you are worthless physicians, all of you!
- Job 13:4
I just had my annual unwellness check. They call it a wellness check, but since we only need a doctor when we are sick, they must have it misnamed. Or is MEDICARE as Godless as the rest of our government. Someone thought, “Retired people have nothing better to do. Let’s make them go to the doctor once a year when they are not sick. That gets them out of the house.”
But as my upper body, that is the hands, arms, and shoulders, are about to simply quit working, I came away with a trip to a physical therapist. Odd, no images were ordered.
My wife complained about lower back pain, something that I have lived with my entire life, and she has orders for x-rays. Odd how that works.
I have recently been thinking about that great falsehood profession. I will touch on it tangentially in a short story tomorrow, but have you ever noticed how some doctors are so well adept at lying that you really should never trust them when they tell the truth?
Should doctors tell someone that they may not live more than another week? Some doctors think that such a “truth” would cause the person to worry, so they withhold that information. Now only God knows when that person will leave this mortal coil, but when is it the right time to tell them the truth? My wife worries, but not telling her everything when she has spent enough time in the medical profession to know you are withholding information, that makes her worry even more, wondering why you are lying to her. Where do doctors draw the line, and should they have different lines for each person?
My wife is infuriated with the doctors and nurses at the dialysis center. She will get the standard answer, “Oh? You have that kind of pain? We have never heard of anyone having that kind of pain. It has nothing to do with your dialysis. That is for sure!” When a visiting nurse is wanting a little overtime and they fill in when another nurse is sick or on vacation, my wife gets a totally different story, “Oh, that pain?! It is a side effect of kidney dialysis, but it only affects one out of a hundred patients. That makes you special!” They both cannot be right. One is lying. Maybe both. And note: my wife does not like being special. Another thing that they say is, “Live with that special side effect. It is extremely rare to have more than one.” But my wife has 4-5 of those nasty, painful side effects. That’s a lie too! And note: One of the nurses that told my wife the truth was told she would never be allowed to return to the center in a fill-in for overtime role. Curious and Curiouser!!!
I can see that a pain might exist that the doctors simply cannot diagnose, but why do they ignore the simple idea of getting some images? Why do they shrug their shoulders and say, “I have no idea what that is, but maybe therapy will help.” Really? Pass the buck if you don’t know?
Do not get me wrong. We love our primary care physician (PCP). When we are truly “sick”, he does a great job of diagnosis. It is possible that all our pains are simply part of getting old. But if that is it, tell us!
When I awake in the morning, my left hand is usually balled into an egg shape. I liken it to the position your hand is in when turning a screwdriver, not a fist. I must mentally will myself to open my hand. I have the sensation at that point of what I imagine that the rice cereal feels like when it snaps, crackles, and pops. Once those fireworks have gone off, I can use my hand, with no pain most of the time. That is simply arthritis, at this point, not debilitating. I hope it never gets debilitating. That is where the “E”, “R”, “T”, “A”, and “S” are on the keyboard. A few others, but I use those a lot. Why did Mr. Qwerty put so many often-used letters on the left side of the keyboard?! Was he a lefty? Or was he sadistic?
As I was writing the previous paragraph. My wife called from the dialysis center and asked me to pack her purse and her orders for x-rays into the car when I pick her up. She wants to get that done as soon as possible.
Hmmm. I cannot get the doctor to do any imaging for me, but I have to drive my wife to the imaging clinic across the street from our doctor’s office and wait while she gets her images done. This is getting more and more irritating.
And thinking of irritation and the 2 Chronicles quote above, maybe I should quit complaining and simply go to God in prayer. He is the Great Physician, you know.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley 
I am surprised that your doctor is sending you to physical therapy without having images done first. I had an MRI of my right shoulder last year, when the pain got so bad that it took all my willpower not to scream. After looking at the images, my doctor sent me to physical therapy, which helped considerably. She also referred me to a surgeon, who told me that I need a complete shoulder replacement, because much of the bone is gone. However, I really don’t want another surgery. After two months of twice weekly PT, my shoulder almost never hurts, thank the Lord.
My shoulder was initially injured in 1977. I was on a small ship in the Gulf of Mexico when a tropical storm hit us and we capsized. I went flying across the deck and slammed into the bulkhead on the opposite side. My right shoulder took the full brunt of the impact. Being in my early twenties at that time, I still believed I was invincible, so it was more fun than terrifying, like riding a gigantic roller coaster at sea. But I am paying for it now, as the injured joint has deteriorated over the years.
Getting older definitely isn’t for sissies!
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Absolutely not. No sissies here either. I do not know why the doctor seems to avoid sending me for images. His office has sent my wife to get a chest x-ray twice in less than ten days. The first was because he did not have one since two years ago, but my last was longer ago than that. The second for my wife was eight days later. They thought she had pneumonia, but the respiratory issue is not that bad.
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