Adventures in surgery

This morning I entered the world of major surgery in a big way. My patient, named Andy, needed a major overhaul of his internal organs. In fact, his vital organs were all in need of replacement. I and my assistants, all second grade students, had to identify all the parts and put them back in Andy the doll. This was my job at a local elementary school health fair that I was invited to attend as a guest instructor. It was actually a lot of fun in that second graders are not spoiled yet and got pretty enthusiastic in our surgical undertaking. One delicate matter was explaining the function of intestines and kidneys and why we make trips to the bathroom on a regular basis.

This is probably as close as I'll ever get to being a real surgeon. In medical school, I felt very uncomfortable when asked to cut and sew. One determined surgeon tried to teach me how to fix hernias, which took me about two hours to complete. A good surgeon, such as the one who fixed my hernia a few years back, can do it in fifteen minutes. Since then, I've limited myself to skin-deep procedures, the "lumps and bumps."

This afternoon got a little more serious as I went out for house calls. One patient was a man of my same age who lives in a dilapidated mobile home a few miles from my comfortable home. I had met him at a health fair a week ago and had promised to visit him to address his high blood pressure. A lack of a job and health insurance had kept him away from medical care. As I examined him today, his wife was busy flattening out flour tortillas in their cramped but clean kitchen. My patient's blood pressure was about 30 points over the limit for both systolic and diastolic. More worrisome, he had an episode of one-sided facial drooping and muscular weakness last month that had resolved over several days. Although his muscles were strong today, abnormal reflexes on one side gave me the idea he had suffered a stroke. I pray that the two medicines I prescribed for him for his hypertension and an aspirin pill a day will keep him out of serious trouble. As I was leaving, his wife promised me some tortillas when I came back next week.

When I encounter a patient my same age with so many problems, it causes me to think about what Dr. Luke reports Jesus saying, "Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required." Why is that I have my health, many comforts, and employment doing something I enjoy, when my patient, who was created in God's image as much as I was, has not? I should be more diligent to use the talents that I have, not for fear that they will be withdrawn from me if I don't use them, but rather in gratitude for the grace that I have enjoyed.