 |
The patient has no patience
|
___"You never know how to be thankful for good health until you don’t have it." If I’ve heard that admonition from my mother once, I’ve heard it a thousand times.
___And suddenly, as a 38-year-old husband-father-worker sent to bed with mononucleosis, I understand what she’s meant all these years.
 |
Mark Wingfield
|
___It’s been six weeks now since I last felt like a "normal" person, with my usual dose of high energy and Type A drive to do every task that presents itself. Things are looking up again, but I’m still wondering if I’ll ever really be back to full steam.
___When the doctor first told me I had a "killer virus" that would lay me out for at least two to four weeks, I didn’t really believe him. Having never experienced anything like that before, it just didn’t seem possible.
___And besides, I had appointments to keep and missions to accomplish. I had a schedule.
___The turning point for keeping my mental health came when I finally admitted that this was not just a 48-hour cold that was going to slow me down. Only when I admitted—painfully—that I was going to have to stay in bed and cancel appointments and miss work did I begin to feel a sense of hope again.
___You see, for a few days I was so sick I was sure I was dying. And to make matters worse, we couldn’t put a name on what was killing me.
___This has got to be one of the greatest points of friction between doctors and patients. Doctors don’t seem to be in any hurry to get a firm diagnosis unless you’re having cardiac arrest; patients like me wait impatiently, desperately thinking they can get on the road to recovery if they just can put a name on what ails them.
___As I was fretting over this one day, pleading with God to fix my problem, I was reminded of a familiar Old Testament verse, but with a new understanding: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they walk and not faint."
___Waiting is much harder than running.
|
|
___Patience has never been one of Mark’s virtues.
___Yes, this virus slows Mark down. But as someone in his office pointed out, his slow is everyone else’s normal speed. High-octane people simply don’t know how to take it easy until they are forced into it.
__
 |
Alison Wingfield
|
_Our Sunday school class knew who to pray for when we told them Mark was battling mono—me.
___Having him at home all day gave me an inkling of what life might be when he retires. Talk about invasion of space. He followed me around like a puppy dog (when he wasn’t lying in bed being pitiful), asking me what I was going to do next.
___At the same time, I appreciate him more. You never realize how much your spouse contributes to the working of the family until he or she is out of commission for awhile. It didn’t help that school was winding up and I had a major project to do.
___Our house still looks like a major disaster area. We do enough to get by and that is it.
___This small brush with a nasty, albeit temporary, illness heightened our awareness for what those with chronic and truly life-threatening diseases go through. How amazing is God’s love, that his grace is sufficient for our short-term difficulties and also tenderly covers us for the long haul.
Mark Wingfield is managing editor of the Standard. Alison Wingfield is a freelance writer. The Wingfields moved to Texas from Louisville, Ky., where Mark had been editor of the Western Recorder, in which this column appeared weekly. |
|
|
PREVIOUS HE SAID/ SHE SAID COLUMNS: 6/16, 6/23, 6/30, 7/14, 7/21, 7/28, 8/4, 8/11, 8/18, 8/25, 9/1, 9/8, 9/15, 9/29, 10/6, 10/13, 10/20, 10/27 11/17, 11/24, 12/1, 12/8, 12/15, 12/22, 1/5, 1/19, 1/26, 2/2, 2/9, 2/16, 2/23, 3/1, 3/8, 3/22, 3/27, 4/3, 4/10, 4/17, 4/24, 5/1, 5/8, 5/15, 5/22
Send this story to a friend
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!
|