Wednesday, September 26, 2007

The Joy of Drugs

You never really appreciate the little things in life, like narcotics, until you really need them. I drove down to the football field on Monday to thank Jason for the opportunity to try out for the National Team, and to let him know that I was bowing out due to the injury, and the family needs. Mara bought ice cream in celebration of my "return."

By 9 PM I could not move my leg, and I stood with my head against a wall, tears streaming down my face from the pain. I'm reading a book right now by a Buddhist monk, and he says that even suffering has value if we use it to be more compassionate to others who are also suffering. It didn't take the edge off, but it was an interesting thought at the moment. I took some Tylenol with codeine and fell into a drug induced sleep.

I woke up yesterday morning, still with searing pain and drove to the ER to make sure nothing was broken. Nothing was broken. The doc told me to take anti-inflammatory pills every six hours no matter what, to try to quiet things down -- 800 mg of ibuprofen, for a total of 3200 mg a day. If this didn't work, the plan was to take oral steroids. I also got a prescription for some more Tylenol with codeine.

After 24 hours of the anti-inflammatory meds, I can walk with only a slight limp. It's really amazing, the power of modern pharmaceuticals. Someone who had sustained this injury 100 years ago would have been in pain for weeks. Heck, even now, someone who has no access to basic medicines suffer needlessly.

So it looks like this saga is coming to a close for me.

I ran into someone last night who said they heard about my injury and what a pity it was because the word was out that I had a good sense of the game and was a decent player. Now that was the most unexpected part of this whole thing for me, mostly because I disagree, but it was nice to receive the complement.

6 comments:

Angelo Villagomez said...

...and in case anyone was wondering, this has NOTHING to do with Dave's midlife crisis.

Jeff said...

You know Michael Jordan had a foot problem in his first or second season. Imagine if he packed it in then. How many fewer Nikes would have been sold?

Marianas Eye said...

Just one of those things to check off the list -- "Try out for professional or national sports team." Check.

Angelo Villagomez said...

What's next?

Capturing Osama bin Laden?
Running for political office?
Getting interviewed by Oprah?

Marianas Eye said...

Oprah is on the list. It doesn't have to be THE Oprah. Just anyone named Oprah, or anyone who's name starts with O.

Jeff said...

I'll call Oscar Babauta.