Trip to the Emergency Room

emergency visits, originally uploaded by andebos.

Sore throat, headaches, low fevers, cough, runny nose, heavy congestion, earaches...I think that's it. Enough to warrant the doctor? Perhaps, but the emergency room? Doubtful, that is, unless you're insurance won't cover your typical visit. (only to find out my doctor loves me enough to slip me under the cover meds - too late now). Well, today around noon my father and I visited the emergency room only to spend 2 hours and $40 on meds to hear it's a sinus infection. Well, I got a zpack and it'll certainly clear this up faster than bed rest...and it being my week off, the quicker the better. As a child medicine seemed this unfamiliar world that mom and dad took care of - in terms of finances, in fact, I don't even remember having to pay - though I'm sure we did. Now, medicine is one step away from hell for me. Seeing the doctor and feeling better is great but the insurance, the prescriptions, copays, numbers, referrals, claims...it all adds up to nonsense and annoying in my brain - if I didn't have a headache before, I do afterwards. More importantly though it makes me realize just how lost we are in all this medical stuff...things costing so much, infections without cures - crazy. In all our genius and technology there are still technological mysteries beyond us. Thinking about it today I pondered what if I had something like cancer, or aids, something beyond curing. Would my posture to God be different? There are few things in my life I cannot take care of immediately or by myself - it would be nice to lose control over something and fall face first into the hands of God (not that I want cancer or aids) but it would take me back to the childlike state where I trusted that mom and dad would take care of it if I just told them it hurt. Now that I'm older how I have taken so much into my supposed control - if I tried to make myself feel better as a kid with my own "mud pie" remedy my parents would just laugh. Do you think God laughs or cries at our feeble attempts of control over things as precious as our bodies, minds, and souls?