Vacation Day
Yesterday was a vacation day for me from blogging. It wasn’t a scheduled vacation day; it just came up all of a sudden.
I got up, did my normal routine and was preparing for some radio interviews when all of a sudden I had this intense pain in my side. At first, I thought it might be intestinal pain from some food I had eaten. The pain was really acute but I decided to do the first radio interview. I managed to talk between the spaces of the pain and the interview went well. I was getting worse. Then it dawned on me. I had the same pain 15 years ago. I was passing a kidney stone.
This is a pain that you can’t get away from. It follows you and intensifies like a late day shadow. I called Hali, our seminar coordinator, and asked her to cancel the other interview and then I called my son to come take me to the walk-in clinic which is closest to our home.
The adventure now began. They got me into a room and were about to go into 50 questions when I interrupted and said, “I know what this is, I’ve had it before, please get me some pain killer and we can go from there.” They had their choice between Morphine and Demerol. They chose Demerol and gave me 100ccs. The nurse who administered the shot gave me a plastic pan and said, “This is for when you get nauseous.” Even in my weakened state, the words of the late Dr. Dave Dobson jumped into my head – “bad hypnosis.” The word “when” is a suggestion to get nauseous. I didn’t have any adverse reaction to the shot. It just eased the pain. When someone is in pain, they are highly suggestible. Choose your words carefully.
Also, when you are in pain, every one of your senses is up. Lights and sounds are particularly disturbing. Do they teach that in medical school? This doctor walks in, turns on the lights that I had turned off and decided to treat me to his stand up comedy routine and says in a loud voice, “Gives a whole new meaning to getting stoned.” And then he laughs at his own joke and walks out. He wasn’t even my treating physician.
Then the nurse stuck me in 3 different places before he could find the right spot to hydrate me with bags of IV fluid. Now the tending doctor comes in and then I knew I was in a Barney Miller rerun. He says, “I know the pain hurts like a mother-f***er, but we’re gonna’ load you up with fluids so you piss like a race horse and pass that stone.” They took an x-ray and a urine sample. They showed me where the stone was stuck and assured me of more pain when it moved again. More bad hypnosis. They sent me home with a prescription for Vicodin and told me to drink lots of water.
The good news is we have a new addition to our family. He was born last night about 8:15. He was only the size of a grape seed but reopened my eyes to the concept of sensory acuity.
The workman who treats your home as a job site and the medical professionals who only have their agenda in mind suffer from the same malady – lack of sensory acuity. They are blind to what’s going on with the person they are servicing or treating. Take time to notice what’s going on with the person you are interacting with. Get out of your head and pay attention to what is being offered to you by another. This will always be a more rewarding experience for both of you.
This isn’t a rant on medical care. They did their job. They treated their patient but they didn’t have the sensory acuity to notice I happened to be a human being.
Today, take the time to notice what is going on with someone else while you are interacting. Many people play the game, “Whose turn is it to talk?” They wait for a break in the action and say what they want to say all without noticing. This is basically throwing up on each other. Become aware of what is going on with another and they will become more aware of you.
Just make a commitment now to be present during your next interaction with someone and see how much smoother it goes.
All the best,
John
http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan
http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301
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