First, I would like to thank everyone for their concern, support, and well-wishes following my injury. I believe it is very true what Dr. Donald Epstein has said that in some real and tangible way “We are each other’s medicine.”
I also wanted to share a few reflections on my injury, what Dr. Jobst, Shostak, and Whitehouse termed “diseases of meaning.” They were and are referring to injury, suffering, and disease as catalysts for the individual to self-reflect on their situation/circumstance and to use it as a means of empowerment and growth.
As many of you know, my official diagnosis is a ruptured patellar tendon. Essentially the big tendon that attaches your knee cap to your shin, was severed completely, and had to be re-attached. Even with current increased technological surgical efficiency, this is a long, slow injury to recover from.
It has limited my mobility severely. For a month I have been confined almost exclusively to a wheelchair or sedentary position. I am unable to drive, as the injury is to my right leg. Going from full mobility, fun and function to full restriction has been emotionally and spiritually taxing.
I have been very dependent on others for even basic needs, food, clothing, showering, etc. This certainly has allowed me to reflect and give thanks for all of the people in my life (my social community) who have helped me so far. It has allowed me to see just how much people can and do care.
This has also forced me to understand the limitations of the physical form. I think we all know that we won’t have this body forever, but when we lose function in our bodies for whatever reason, it no longer becomes an abstract concept, it is real in the here and now. It is no longer head knowledge, it hits you in the gut, it’s a part of you.
I hope to grow from this experience by re-organizing some of my life choices to include activities and actions that are less in line with an 18 year old, and more in line with someone who is approaching 40! As I’ve said, it also has created a level of understanding concerning a form of frailty and failure that I have, until now, only read about. I would like to believe that this injury has created a greater level of depth to my experience as a human, hopefully, allowing a greater degree of compassion, sympathy, and understanding.
Padre Eligio, an Italian Franciscan, who has turned an abandoned monastery into a community who restores the lives of ruined people, mostly drug addicts, has said that he would like our concept of health to be defined, not exclusively by blood pressure, cholesterol levels, etc., but by the very simple yet profound idea that our level of wholeness is directly related to our ability to experience compassion for and with our fellow man.
In that regard, I think, I am in some small way on path to greater health.
No comments:
Post a Comment