Personal health issues are usually boring, it seems to me. Mary says I am a compliant patient. Well, I long ago discovered that it suits me to be that, and gets better results. I subscribe to the weekly Mayo Clinic email newsletter, because they are supremely competent and professional. I have learned to be understanding of other people's pain, arthritis, loss of neurones, lack of eyesight or hearing... But I also refuse to cruise around the supermarket leaning on the trolley, or walking around with my mouth open.
Our GP back in Auckland was part of a practice right on the frontiers of every major social health issue. He paid us the courtesy of leaving it entirely to us whether we showed up to see him or not, he respected whatever intelligence we have. Now we have had to sign up with a new practice here in Algies Bay / Snells Beach / Warkworth area. I have yet actually to meet the doctor I am supposed to be with. I met the locum, and I met the practice nurse, the receptionists, another doctor who has left... But they have sent me a notice informing me that I am part of a programme about diabetes, with things to do including a set of tests. And I have to show up also for a medical check before I can get my new driver's licence, since my 75th birthday comes in August. I suspect, in this practice, it may be a fight to get past the practice nurse, but we'll see.
But there we are, discussing health issues, a prevalent form of egoism. It's not as though any of it matters ultimately. It would be good to be without pain and suffering until one's last breath, but that's unlikely -- and is itself, I guess, a form of egoism. Mary sometimes says, "Stay away from doctors, especially surgeons." Well, it's a fine aim. I'm trying, I'm trying...
The best thing is to have found a way to confront one's own mortality and actual death, and to know its sting is drawn. That's the road down which freedom lies.
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