Medicine and Thanksgiving

SPORTS, HEALTH CARE AND THANKSGIVING

 

Health care remains at the top of the news. It’s that rare subject that affects EVERYONE.

The medical arena is proximate to the sports arena. Just consider the Red Sox. How fortunate it was that John Lackey's surgery and rehab worked out the way it did. Ditto for Clay Buchholz. And Jacoby Ellsbury. I'm glad that the physical ailments of David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia received world-class medical attention. And how great was it that John Lester beat cancer?

 

EVERYONE has health issues to some degree—including big, strong sports columnists like me. OK, I'll use the first-person, singular pronoun. I've noted that the great columnist George Will never uses "I" or "me," but I'm not him and will go ahead and personalize things.

Sports fans don't usually pick up a newspaper to find out the latest on someone's health. Unless, of course, they want to know how soon Aaron Rogers might return to form with the Packers, if they want to bet on Green Bay. But having recently spent some time in a hospital, medical thoughts have been bouncing around my brain.

My hospital stay was prompted by worsening run times in 5K road races. When my friend and colleague Fred King of Colebrook and Loudon beat me in a race, I knew it was time to chat with a doctor. Eventually I had a cardiac ablation procedure which appeared to clear up an irregularity. But while in the hospital and while rehabbing, I had plenty of time to think, and I figured out that I/we live in a wonderful time and place where things get fixed that used to sideline people—or worse.

 

So thank you, Dr. Chadosh, for your great work. I don't know what you make, but it should be at least half as much as the Red Sox pay Jarrod Saltalamacchia!

 

It took a few days for the effects of general anesthesia to wear off, and I thought of earlier sports medical situations. Everything from ankle sprains to stitches to finger dislocations to poison ivy infections—from looking for lost golf balls. My first hospital visit came about in 1980 after being sucker-punched in the eye during a basketball game. My eyesight returned but in 2010 I required a serious vitrectomy procedure after "floaters" significantly obscured my vision. Kudos to all the personnel at Bethesda Naval Medical Center for all they did and thank you Captain Blice, USN, for your surgical prowess. The Navy should pay you at least half as much as the Red Sox pay Ryan Dempster.

Before retiring my Marine Corps uniform, I made another 2010 trip to Bethesda, where Lieutenant Commander Humphries expertly repaired a glaring hernia situation. Thank you Doctor Humphries. I hope the Navy pays you at least half as much as the Red Sox pay Johnny Gomes.

A side effect of the vitrectomy was a cataract, which was expertly removed last year in Concord. Thank you, Dr. Wasserman, for your great work. I hope you earn at least half as much as the Red Sox pay Jake Peavy.

 

At my age, it is a joy to participate—pain free—in road races or in NBA basketball (Noontime Basketball Association) at NHTI-Concord. Basketball battles had earlier taken a toll on the joints, resulting in torn meniscuses in both knees. Thank you, Dr. Moran, for your great orthopedic work during those 2005 and 2008 operations. The wheels have been working great ever since. I wish your arthroscopic procedures were around years ago for the Bobby Orrs and Joe Namaths of the world. I hope you make at least half as much as the Red Sox pay Will Middlebrooks.

 

So after my successful procedure, I received a letter from my insurance company. Having heard that millions of Americans are likely to lose their health insurance, and knowing of cancer patients who’ve already had their coverage terminated, I looked at the letter with trepidation—the way I’d look at a letter from the IRS or from any attorney-at-law.

 

I finally opened it and ….. I read that my company was going to cover the full cost of the procedure. Good news. But it’s too bad so many of us have to have this new trepidation about health insurance. It’s not healthy.

It IS healthy to count one’s blessings, and to appreciate that we live in an age where a typical American can access health technologies, medical procedures, and extraordinary doctors to get things fixed that would have gone unfixed a generation ago—even if you were a king, a rich Sultan, or a U.S. President.

So Happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

(And watch out, Fred King. I’m BACK!)