Once or twice a week my 22 year old son and his buddies let this old(er) guy join them in a pick up game of basketball... Several weeks, and a ten-pack of athletic tape, ago I deflected an opponent's pass (I'm crazy quick) with the tip of my left index finger... Two months later my doctor and I go over the x-ray showing, to my surprise, no fracture...After his polite admonishment I asked if I should splint it, he chuckled "uh yeah, you should have the day you injured it"... "Oh... so now what?"... He referred me to a hand therapist, I'm thinking Hand Therapist!- finger stretches are something I can do all by myself thank you...
Now here I am two months later, four months since my heroic defensive maneuver, and my finger, still swollen, will bend maybe a quarter inch... So I show it to my Chiropractor buddy and he refers me to an orthopedist... Now I'm really bummed... I'm thinking surgery, which means no working out, which means no basketball for God knows how long, which has been my problem all along - fearing that if my finger got the attention it needed I'd be out of commission for weeks... You see I subscribe to the philosophy of the great Tom Petty, "you never slow down you never grow old"...
Sad thing is, if I had gotten right to it, my finger would be good as new right about now and I'd be playing basketball and working out like my old (er than my basketball mates) self... As a result of my intolerance to short-term-pain (of treatment and recovery), my recovery is taking much longer than it should have (in fact it's completely stalled at this point). And now I'm thinking I've exacerbated the problem - I'm guessing I'll not only need treatment for the injury itself, but to undo the damage done by delaying the inevitable as well...
Sound familiar? Sound like the world's present state of affairs? Think bailouts, shadow inventory (homes yet to be foreclosed on), unemployment benefit extensions, QE's 1, 2 and maybe 3, Eurozone banks, etc... I wonder - if we had taken our medicine right away, if we hadn't tried to fix our problems with soooo much tape - if we wouldn't be feeling a whole lot better right about now....
Stay tuned...
So Marty! Go to the hand Therapist already!!!!!!!! He/she might actually know what to do.
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Couple of commetns:
ReplyDeleteYes, Marty, I do read your e-mails. This one
brought 2 points to light. One...It's hard
to believe your son is 22. Our association and
friendship has been longer than I could imagine. Which leads me to point #2. We are getting older and therefore it takes longer to heal up from the "battle wounds". I know, this has nothing to do with the economy or World markets. Get well soon!
Thanks Bill! Sorry to hear you're getting older... You see I'll "never slow down so I'll never grow old"... I wish! Yes, hard to believe we've been friends that long!! Hope you and your family are all doing well... Expect you're gearing up for duck season...
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