Lent 2013, Day 9: Patients and Patience

by Melanie on February 21, 2013

in Lent, Life in the 50s, Memoir, Nonfiction

It’s a good thing I’ve been blessed with good health most of my life (other than a detached retina in 2008, a partial thyroidectomy in my twenties, and a couple of childhood bouts with pneumonia) because I’m a really lousy patient.

When I woke up on Tuesday morning, the left side of my face felt like a Mack truck had driven over it. The good news was that I got in to see my doctor a few hours later. The better news, perhaps, was that I have an acute sinus infection rather than the flu. She dispatched me with medication, a note to excuse me from work for two days, and orders to stay in bed during that time. And, other than thirty minutes online on Wednesday morning (by the way, it now feels like it was the right side of my face that that truck drove over), I’ve been obedient. It’s not that I’ve particularly enjoyed the imposed lying in bed and napping or occasionally reading; being that quiet that long comes hard to me. It’s that I honestly don’t have the strength or wherewithal to do anything more.

I don’t think God sent acute sinusitis to teach me a lesson. However, this experience is reminding me that some of my closest moments to him have come when I didn’t have the strength or wherewithal to do anything but turn to him. I praise him for his patience… and his acceptance of this bad patient. And I hope I remember this when I’m back to to full health and tempted to drive as fast as some of those Mack trucks barrel down the road.

 

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