Not At My Best

Gosh, how I HATE hospitals!

An anecdote from my past. When I was in my early twenties, towards the end of my military service, and being a plan-in-advance kind of personality, I wanted to decide which profession I was going to pursue. Namely, I wanted to decide what to study in the university. Since I'm usually thorough, I went to all sorts of institutions that provide information and offer consulting services to people looking for a career path that will suit their abilities. I also went to a graphologist, which actually was a very interesting experience. At the end of the session with her, she concluded with a very decisive recommendation that I should be a doctor. I thanked her politely, paid, and discarded the advice. If there was one thing I knew for sure, it was that I'm incapable of being a doctor.

Fast forward to yesterday evening, I got another reminder that I'd rather not spend any time in hospitals... I've been sick at home for several days. Yesterday, following strong headaches, I made the mistake of going to the doctor. He probably was over-nervous and interpreted the headaches as potentially meningitis, and sent me urgently to the ER, for ruling out this option. Had he asked me whether the headaches were constant or intermittent, I could have saved the dubious pleasure of visiting this horrible place. Even if you arrive at the ER mostly healthy, you start feeling sick very quickly. The in-vein device they leave in your arm the whole time, the face mask you have to wear, and most importantly the aching and suffering patients and their worried relatives around you are not conducive to feeling well.

I was happy and relieved to go home after a few hours. Nothing impressively sounding as meningitis or sinusitis. Just a mild flu, not even the popular swine variant :-)

But to be honest, my imperfect health in the last couple of weeks is only a secondary reason for not being at my best. The main reason is my beloved aunt, who fought breast cancer about 5 years ago. We all thought she defeated the disease, but she recently found out that the cancer has returned, and in a severe form. Since it's not about myself, I will skip the details and only say that she's very young, in her early fifties. For all of us - a big, fairly close and united family - this is extremely tough. We wrap and hug her with love and support as much as we can, but naturally that alone can't cure cancer.
There's the sadness I feel, and there's also sharing the news with Noga and Hadas, seeing them in their first experience of digesting such events. It's part of life, I know, but not a pleasant one :-(

Giora