Daily Archives: September 29, 2012

Dogs, Health

In Recovery

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Fall                                                                            Harvest Moon

Kate said I recovered from the hernia surgery like a kid.  Day two and I’m moving around pretty well.  Still painful in certain instances, but not too bad.  The pain meds, which I’ve cut back on, still fuzzy up the head and make sorting things through a problem.

Last night was a full moon.  I’m not a big fan of the full moon drives folks crazy argument, though it does pull the tides in the Bay of Fundy (where Paul and Sarah are) up 80 feet at high tide, but I’ve never seen the real connection between lunar gravitation and human life.

It’s a different matter, though, when it comes to dogs.  The moon casts more light on the woods, animals run around more and squeal more and our dogs go nuts more.  In general we try not to reinforce them in behaviors we don’t want, so if they bark and bark and bark and bark and bark (and so on), we don’t get up to let them out.  But, after three hours of barking, not kidding, we gave in.  Now we have tonight to get through.  We’ll see.

Still wuzzy from the vicodin.  Maybe clearer tomorrow.

Health, Woolly Mammoths

Medicine

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Fall                                                                          Harvest Moon

Medicine, for all its grandeur and power, still presides at those moments when things go bad.  When a clot breaks loose and heads toward the brain.  When a portion of an inner wall opens, allowing things to move beyond their proper place.  When a child has cancer or a brother, too.

No matter how strong and how grand, medicine is not our bulwark against death.  No, it’s a bulwark against death’s timing.  So far though, and the Taoists of the Qin and Han dynasties in China tried mightily, there is no immortality.  We all end our journey, our ancientrail.

Medicine can delay death’s arrival at our door, sometimes delay it for a long time, but it can not ban death’s presence.

Especially when we seek the shelter of hospitals, most especially when we end up in hospital ICUs, medicine’s work can be tender, to the mark and in vain.  We know this in my family as my mother went into the ICU at Riley Hospital and never came out.

But, too, these are where the modern miracles occur.  I’m hoping for one for Regina.