As The Clock Ticks Down

Last Wednesday was when my appendix loudly made its issues known. I was so tender to the touch in my abdomen, that the school nurse told me to get to my doctor asap or directly to the emergency room. Appendix explosive. It can be deadly. I decided to see my doctor first. It seemed like a good half-step in the correct direction. If I was just suffering some flu-like aches, then I could retreat back to my house sheepishly for my hypochondria.. If not, my doctor would diagnose it and know how to turn the hands of the medical system quicker for my treatment. And he did.

I am not sure I could have had a better level of care--from the school nurse, to my doctor, to the hospital, and my surgeon and staff. It went like clockwork. Although due to some pretty crappy information from a worker in my Dr's medical office about where the bloodwork was to be taken, I did walk around parking lots on a health campus, being tossed in the wet wind like a candy wrapper, for about 30 minutes. Felt like a rainy desert. She also did not give me the dyes to drink for my Cat-Scan and I had to double-back for them. Wondering if she may need to find a job less critical to peoples well-being. I didn't exactly have time to fritter away. Maybe it was just a bad day for her. I know I was. She was quite apologetic.

Yet, overall, it was the A-Team and I was glad to be on it. I did reflect, as I doubled over in pain every few minutes throughout the day and night in this process, of how fortunate it was to have superb medical care. I also had enough organizational and decision-making skills to work out a plan of action. My job as a high school counselor has made me much more able to keep calm in crisis, come up with a plan, and deal with many issues at once--it is not a natural trait to be this way. But not usually when my appendix was rupturing (as it was). I felt bad for those who don't have the care and the wherewithal  to make the health system synchronize to their needs. I was thinking of what I would be doing if I did not have medical insurance, and how long I would be waiting, to be seen. As the clock timer ticked down attached to my dynamite appendix.  As it was, I bypassed the Emergency Room altogether and was in surgery at 11:00 PM. 

When Jesus spoke of visiting the sick, He clearly is not the recipient of our care. But, because He in His humanity has accepted our nature, infirmities and all, He treats such benevolence as if it was done for Him and to Him. And I doubt that Jesus was only talking abour Believers as recipients of our help. That Christians don't validate the need of decent health care for all does not reflect well on us. We may have problems with the government taking over. But to a very large extent, ObamaCare is only filling the cavity of caring that we have left behind. Christ will have issues with us, perhaps very serious, that we did not take His direct admonition to us more earnestly. I am not sure He could have been any clearer.

We only have so much time to do good in this world and we had better being doing it. Eternity is not as far away as it seems.