I had woken up about a half hour prior with severe abdominal pain, and based on my extensive medical background of watching sporadic episodes of Gray's Anatomy, I was 90% sure that my appendix had burst and was shooting little appendix bullets into my other surrounding organs. After some painkillers and a CT scan, I was told that I actually had a kidney stone that was slowly and excruciatingly making its way from my kidney to my bladder. I was then dismissed with a handful of medications for dulling the pain and a device that is perhaps best described as a pee sieve.
Over the course of the next few days, this 2 millimeter abomination moved from areas that I only know the shape of because of their associated beans into my manhood zone. Meanwhile, I spent my bathroom sessions panning for kidney stones like an insane gold rush pioneer. I was lucky to pass it quite quickly - only perhaps 16 hours or so after I first felt my left side feel like it was attempting an explosion.
What does this have to do with my children? Well, for one thing, even having a kidney stone and going into the hospital with two children at home made me feel old. It made me feel like I should be getting my prostate exam tomorrow and that I should start moving my retirement accounts to bonds.
It also made me a lot more concerned for my health than I have ever been. While I lay on that hospital bed, waiting for the pain meds to kick in and for my kindly Asian ER doc to return and tell me everything was OK and that he would love to have coffee with me tomorrow, I thought about what would happen if I got seriously ill or simply incapacitated - say from a serious surgery - in a way that rendered me unable to really help raise my kids.
It's no longer simply the case that I'll have to end up missing a few classes and grabbing notes from a friend or making up an exam or missing out on an awesome party or concert or having to watch The View for a week. It's now the possibility of not being able to pick Simon up when he runs towards me, of forcing my wife to take care of an infant, a toddler, and an adult, of having to watch The Iron Giant even more than I already do.
It's almost enough to make me want to go to the gym.
No comments:
Post a Comment