I’ve spent much of the summer trying to heal from a self-inflicted wound. In the process, I’ve come to appreciate how well the medical profession handles situations where we need to be sewn up, quite literally.
I cut a couple of fingers over the July 4 weekend while carelessly using a knife to open some wrapping. (So many of the tools and electronics we purchase are so tightly and heavily wrapped, it’s nearly impossible to open them except with dangerous heavy equipment, but that’s a subject for another blog.) Anyway, I cut one of my fingers so badly I actually cut into a tendon. I was in New Hampshire, fortunately not far from the Dartmouth College medical center, and there a plastic surgeon stitched up my tendon and the rest of my finger. She told me she was in her seventh, and last, year of medical residency, and finally ready to begin earning enough money to begin paying off huge student loans.
I benefited from her extensive training, and now, about five weeks later, am beginning to regain use of the bad finger. Same goes for the hand surgeon who’s examined me a couple times in the Boston area.I still have some more physical therapy to go through, and here again, I’m receiving highly professional assistance.
I know I’m a skeptic about much that goes on in conventional medicine, especially when it comes to prescribing pharmaceuticals to treat chronic conditions. But when it comes to sewing and patching us up, American medicine is at its best.
Recent Comments