Saturday, June 24, 2023
Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Another bit of physical difficulty
They tell me I have a pulmonary embolism. That means I have a blood clot settled in my lung, which could move and cause some problems.
On Monday this week I had a CT Angiogram, and I couldn’t eat or drink from 6 AM till the test at 10:30. Tara my CT tech was wonderful and warm and got me out of there pretty fast. I was a little shaky, but I drove to PT Terry’s for a burger and fries and Coke. The sign at the pick-up window told me how healthy it all was. Starvation was staring me in the face. That food was for the gods. And me. I couldn’t help myself.
Then I visited my friend Shannon for an hour and scarfed down the best French fries in the universe. They are even better than Cullers fairground fries.
And I can’t even believe I’m saying that.
But then Monday afternoon Michelle called from Dr. Liu’s office. She was friendly and to the point. “You have a P.E.” What’s that? I remembered a class in grade school. She told me I had a pulmonary embolism. Which again I needed a little more definition. Which she provided.
“You’ll have to take some Eliquis. We’ll get you a prescription.” Is it expensive? “Sometimes.”
I looked up the price, and it was $600 per month. But our insurance cut that price down to $45 per month, and she emailed me a coupon for the first month free.
So here we go again. Another pill, another dollar. No one seems too worried about my PE, so I’m not either. Just take the pills and settle in to wait for those procedures in July and August. Do not worry about tomorrow, today has enough troubles of its own. Jesus said that.
The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the desert until the day of his manifestation to Israel.
All those years in the hill country of Judea, and John the Baptist never took Eliquis. He didn’t take metformin, either, and diabetes milletus wasn’t even a thing. He ate his locusts dipped in honey and seemed to be just fine. He did say too much too loud to the wrong people at the wrong time; maybe he had trouble with his amygdala, firing off too fast. He did lose his head, and when Jesus heard this I am sure he wept, although the Bible doesn’t say so. Jesus loved his cousin John.
Though I thought I had toiled in gain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength, yet my reward is with the Lord.
What might have happened had they become a team? That is what Rev Moon wanted to know, and in the Moonies (for me 1976-1978) we were taught that this moment in history changed everything. Soon God would revise his plan, so that Jesus would still provide “spiritual” salvation but not physical salvation.
Want to know more? Here’s a link. Pretty fascinating stuff.
I have pretty much stopped separating physical from spiritual, but Rev. Moon might have had a point. We don’t know and will never know if Jesus and John would have become God’s team together.
In the meantime, the medicines I take in the morning and in the evening don’t seem to give me any side effects. We’ll see about the Eliquis; Michelle asked me if I had ever had gastrointestinal bleeding.
“Not so far,” I said.
(Isaiah 49, Psalm 139, Acts 13, Luke 1)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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