Med Cheque–and History
Quick now….what is the most unpleasant experience you have ever had with regard to medical situations? Incurable athlete’s foot? Unstoppable hiccups (hiccoughs?), being told by your doctor that “we were discussing this serious problem, and then you walked in?”
Come on, you all know what you really, really liked……the yanking of your wisdom teeth, of course! I’ve known a lot of people who have undergone the procedure, and now, at age 64+, this Friday morning I shall learn the joy for myself. Two on the right, I am told, have to go. So go they will, and I’ll give you a short (blessedly so) account in a week or so.
In the meanwhile, one of the funniest medical jokes I’ve seen came down the pipe in the New York Times special section (June 5, 2005) on women’s health. “WHO NEEDS THE DOCTOR, AND OTHER INHERITED TRAITS,” made me smile. Sheila Solomon Klasss, and daughter Perri Klass, are worth the price of admission. Sheila is 77 and is quoted thusly:
“Doctors? Who needs them? I grew up in a home where there was a strong antagonism to doctors. They cost money and we were poor. They wanted to examine our bodies and we were modest. We never mentioned our unmentionable body parts–not even to one another, and certainly not to strange men. We pretended the dirty parts of our bodies were not here.
“There was the abiding belief when someone was not well that if the illness wasn’t named, it might go away.” It may have become a joke now, but in an orthodox Jewish home in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, during the 1930s, chicken soup was an effective all-purpose medice…
“In those days, there was no money for bread–so going to the doctor was a luxury — or maybe better, a disaster. You went only if you had to. The sick person was blamed for draining the family coffers….
And Perri Klass, the daughter and a doctor: “My mother, Sheila, is 77 years old. She beleives, I think, that when a doctor finds something wrong, it is partly the doctor’s fault, and and partly your own for going to the doctor in the first place……” That’s the line I really loved.
Wonderful stuff and the story is much more than these quotes (particularly the last one). I read it and then realized that I had behaved toward my wisdom teeth much as Sheila had looked at medicine generally.
All best, and I’ll drink a toast to friends and wisdom teeth on Wednesday eve. On Thursday night, a gravol, and then the ordeal…..