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So this is what it feels like to have a real doctor. Over the past few years, my "annual check-up" with Dr. Son was a five-minute office visit where I wouldn't even take off my shirt, and a bunch of lab orders that I'd do and never hear about again. Since I'm kind of use to doctors sending up flares when there's a problem, I just went on the theory that no news was good news, and soldiered on.
Then I finally got pissed enough at Son to change doctors. My new guy, Dr. K, and I had a brief initial visit a few weeks ago. He looked at my files on an actual computer in the exam room, noted some issues, and ordered a physical and the long list of labs. Did the labs, five tubes plus my usual two for my Warfarin level check, and figured I'd learn more at the appointment.
But today, I got mail from Dr. K. My complete lab result with notes on what he was concerned about. Like the fact that I've been under-medicated for my thyroid issue for a long time. Like my potassium levels being low. Things a good doctor calls the patient back in to work on a care plan that addresses the issues. I didn't have a good doctor before, I do now.
I'm certain that most of these issues are medication adjustment issues. Getting back to the gym - I'm bringing the Silver Sneakers paperwork to the appointment - and continued healthy changes to my diet will help even further. I may be broken, but that shouldn't stop me from fighting for every last moment I can get out of life. Mainly because I'm worried that if there is reincarnation I might come back as something vile, like a lamprey or a Dodger.
Perish the thought. Better an afterlife as posited by the Abrahamic faiths. At least that way I can go up to Michel Foucault and say "well, we were wrong. I blame you." The thing that gets me about most "eternal life" deals is how tribal they are. To these faiths, the all-powerful, all-knowing, Alpha and Omega, that who is I AM, requires utter adoration from tiny mites or the Almighty will smite them. For eternity. Which totally makes sense. If you're a sociopathic sadist. There are an estimated 100 trillion bacteria living in my gut. All of you have the same number of passengers. We can't live without them, as they are vital to digesting food.
100 trillion life forms. For them, I am the universe. I am their source of life. I am, in every sense, their God. Assume that they have some basic sense of their surroundings and can appreciate my existence. Do I care about them? Of course not. They are beneath my level of perception. If a rogue sect of my intestinal fauna decides that I am judging them with fire (call them the Church of the Purifying Ghost Pepper) and the majority faith (the Catholic Complex Carbohydrate Church) declares jihad, I don't care.
It's why I can't accept judgmental tribal gods. The Christian concepts of Heaven and Hell are both horrible. The latter for obvious reasons that have inspired artists for centuries, but the former? Think about eternity. Earth has been around for about 4 billion years. An eyeblink. The known universe? 13.8 billion years. We can't grasp eternity, yet many Christians and Muslims eager looking forward to existing, unchanging, for billions upon billions of years.
People get bored! I love going to baseball games, but spending every day at a game? A week. Tops. I've often said that for me would be a library containing everything ever written and the ability to read it all. A century. Maybe two. Eventually, I'd be bored of my entire existence. I would beg for an end to being Douglas Edward Berry. Would that wish be granted in Heaven? The other alternative, offered by many fundamentalists, is the faith will spend eternity praising God. A thinking, living mind reduced to an automation. I'd rather be in the Borg.
No, when it comes to the afterlife, I prefer the Eastern concepts of serial reincarnation, progressing through life after life, coming ever closer to spiritual perfection and a true union with the Divine. At which point, I won't be Douglas Berry, I'll be him and the thousand or millions of other existences I've lived through. At which point I will be able to really become part of the fabric of the universe.
But given the possibility that I might come back as a Dodger, I'm going to work to stay alive as long as possible.
Then I finally got pissed enough at Son to change doctors. My new guy, Dr. K, and I had a brief initial visit a few weeks ago. He looked at my files on an actual computer in the exam room, noted some issues, and ordered a physical and the long list of labs. Did the labs, five tubes plus my usual two for my Warfarin level check, and figured I'd learn more at the appointment.
But today, I got mail from Dr. K. My complete lab result with notes on what he was concerned about. Like the fact that I've been under-medicated for my thyroid issue for a long time. Like my potassium levels being low. Things a good doctor calls the patient back in to work on a care plan that addresses the issues. I didn't have a good doctor before, I do now.
I'm certain that most of these issues are medication adjustment issues. Getting back to the gym - I'm bringing the Silver Sneakers paperwork to the appointment - and continued healthy changes to my diet will help even further. I may be broken, but that shouldn't stop me from fighting for every last moment I can get out of life. Mainly because I'm worried that if there is reincarnation I might come back as something vile, like a lamprey or a Dodger.
Perish the thought. Better an afterlife as posited by the Abrahamic faiths. At least that way I can go up to Michel Foucault and say "well, we were wrong. I blame you." The thing that gets me about most "eternal life" deals is how tribal they are. To these faiths, the all-powerful, all-knowing, Alpha and Omega, that who is I AM, requires utter adoration from tiny mites or the Almighty will smite them. For eternity. Which totally makes sense. If you're a sociopathic sadist. There are an estimated 100 trillion bacteria living in my gut. All of you have the same number of passengers. We can't live without them, as they are vital to digesting food.
100 trillion life forms. For them, I am the universe. I am their source of life. I am, in every sense, their God. Assume that they have some basic sense of their surroundings and can appreciate my existence. Do I care about them? Of course not. They are beneath my level of perception. If a rogue sect of my intestinal fauna decides that I am judging them with fire (call them the Church of the Purifying Ghost Pepper) and the majority faith (the Catholic Complex Carbohydrate Church) declares jihad, I don't care.
It's why I can't accept judgmental tribal gods. The Christian concepts of Heaven and Hell are both horrible. The latter for obvious reasons that have inspired artists for centuries, but the former? Think about eternity. Earth has been around for about 4 billion years. An eyeblink. The known universe? 13.8 billion years. We can't grasp eternity, yet many Christians and Muslims eager looking forward to existing, unchanging, for billions upon billions of years.
People get bored! I love going to baseball games, but spending every day at a game? A week. Tops. I've often said that for me would be a library containing everything ever written and the ability to read it all. A century. Maybe two. Eventually, I'd be bored of my entire existence. I would beg for an end to being Douglas Edward Berry. Would that wish be granted in Heaven? The other alternative, offered by many fundamentalists, is the faith will spend eternity praising God. A thinking, living mind reduced to an automation. I'd rather be in the Borg.
No, when it comes to the afterlife, I prefer the Eastern concepts of serial reincarnation, progressing through life after life, coming ever closer to spiritual perfection and a true union with the Divine. At which point, I won't be Douglas Berry, I'll be him and the thousand or millions of other existences I've lived through. At which point I will be able to really become part of the fabric of the universe.
But given the possibility that I might come back as a Dodger, I'm going to work to stay alive as long as possible.
