Just Another Doctor

Okay, so now I am also on sick leave from the school district. I have a staph infection and a little bronchitis- nothing much really. I've certainly felt worse, but I've never had more appointments with more doctors. I have a neuro, a derma, a cardio, but the kicker is I have an Infectious Disease doctor. When I started telling people I had to run 'cause I had an appt. with the "Infectious Disease Doctor", I learned that of all my appointments that particular appointment makes people just a wee bit nervous... and they vanish. Staph infection and Infectious Disease Doctor must be this millenium's answer to ringing a bell outside the city walls and calling "unclean" to all who pass.

Treatments for this new age leprosy include something my ID doc eupemistically called a "lift". Now I have been warned that one must be careful to lift with one's knees to avoid back injury. I have also read a few novels from across the pond that refer to an elevator as a lift, but dear reader, beware. I cannot overstate this. When a doctor, or at least my doctor says this needs a lift, she uses a scalpel. P.S. without the courtesy of a little anesthetic or a matching tuck to go with it. Yes, indeedy, she removed, again a euphemism, the tissue that was not viable.

Now, I am Pro Choice. I believe that Roe v. Wade is an important part of our nation's system of justice. Let's face it- regardless of how you feel about conception and the humanity buried therein, wealthy and even moderately wealthy folks have more choices than poor folks do. I can be Pro Life or Pro Choice or completely undecided, but if my almost 14 year old daughter finds herself in a situation whereby her future will be changed forever I have the fiscal means to take her somewhere to have an unwanted pregnancy terminated. Is such a decision tragic? Yes, always, but if we are honest we know that is true. However, 14 year old girls whose primary source of nutrition is the Free or Reduced lunch they receive from the school cafeteria will not have as many options, so they may choose to try to terminate an unexpected pregnancy in an unsafe manner compounding tragedy exponentially. I am not Anti Life I am Anti Tragedy. For centuries women have tried to hide and/or end pregnancies, sometimes in the most tragic ways- drowning, coat hangers, potions and pills. I am Anti Tragedy.

But we were talking about a tiny piece of flesh that was not going to grow up dunk a basketball or solve a quadratic equation. Still, I wasn't finished with it. With small flashes of her silver scalpel, the doctor separated the wheat from the tares, the viable from the dead, the......well, you get the picture. What I'm opposed to is the point of delineation. "When you wince really hard I'll stop." Great. Isn't a small wince an indication of discomfort? and we didn't discuss this, you just decided I didn't need it. Thanks, I am a little dishevelled. Probably from all of that wincing. Maybe my friends are right- having an Infectious Disease Doctor is good enough reason to run!