Thank God for doctors..

“Yes”, he said, “it’s broken all right”.  The wrist surgeon took another look at the MRI against the bright light overhead and nodded, “you’ll need surgery for this.” I sighed, “let me guess, it’s the triangular fibrocartilage complex, right?” He was taken aback a little, but nodded again, “Yes, it’s the TFCC.  It’s quite deformed, so I’ll have to go in with two arthroscopes and fix it”.  Therapy was not an option. I nodded right back.  “OK doc, let me think about it.  I’ll be back.”

Two months back, I’d been mowing my lawn, the narrow part of the raised kerb, when the mower wheels slipped.  I tried to hold it level, but my wrist popped.  It kept hurting but for two weeks, I thought I had just strained it.  So I went with the ice and heating pads for about 3 weeks, but the pain didn’t quit.  After a visit to my Primary Doctor, he recommended an X-Ray.  It showed a little floating chip had broken off my radius.  However, he assured me that it would eventually be carried away by my body.

Since that didn’t explain all the pain, off I went for an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scan.  The report from the scan said my wrist was fine–other than the tiny floating bone chip, but I knew better.  I grabbed a copy of the MRI to take along to the specialist, checked it out against images on the web and knew that my TFCC had been trashed.

Fast forward to the wrist surgeon.  As I bid him goodbye, I was recoiling from the thought of surgery–my only option, in his book.  I resolved instead to pray and did so over the next few weeks.  Gradually, I began to get stronger and started a self-designed program of forearm and wrist therapy.

Back in his office two months later, he looked strangely at me as he bent my wrist one way and then another.  “Any pain?” he asked.  “No”, I answered.  “What about here?”, “here?”. I smiled, “No, nothing at all”. If there was, I would have told him.  After a few minutes of this, he sat back and said, “If I were you, I would not even think about surgery.  Leave well enough alone.” As I left, I thanked God for His mercy.  From no alternatives to surgery to leaving well enough alone.  A “slow” healing, but you know what, I’ll take it with thanks and appreciation.

So I like and respect doctors.  They help you diagnose what’s wrong so you can pray specifically.  They can help make you better in many cases if divine healing is not immediately available.  There’s no shame to seeing doctors, I’ve seen many in my time.  Luke, the author of the 3rd Gospel and Acts, was a doctor. Think about it, you can actually pray more intelligently once you know what the issue is, not so?  Thank God for those with huge faith that don’t use doctors.  But I’ve seen that put into doctrine and served cold, to the detriment of the drinkers.  What do you think about doctors?