How can we live without such kindnesses and how rich can our life possibly be without recognizing those kindnesses when they occur. Yesterday, I had been rescheduled for a 'down periscope' ... a visual look down my gullet into my duodenum ... an endoscopy. I had been scheduled some two months ago but a nasty upper respiratory thing intruded. Yesterday looked like it might not be "a go" either, as I was in a cardiac arrhythmia ... by my Cardiologist said something like "What the hell!" Don't get me wrong ... my cardiologist/electrophysiologist, Josh, and his Physician's Assistant or Nurse Practitioner (I'm not good at remembering the difference and both seem among the best practitioners who treat me in this curious Last Quarter of Life) ... are kind and empathic Souls. I do betimes wish that the Cardio was older and didn't look so much as he learned how to shave in the past several months but he really is a grown-up and a kind Soul.
So, M drove me and -- as these things go -- had to sign a document that she would say.
Kindness 1: Spouses, lovers or friends who choose to stay with us ISOOF (In Spite of Our Flaws).
There was a lady ... maybe 50's ... who I'd been talking to over the matter of the arrhythmia. She took one look at my T-Shirt and greeted me warmly. It read:
IT'S A
COVITZ
THING
YOU WOULDN'T
UNDERSTAND.
Kindness 2: M was showing 'good-planning ahead' by buying me a T-Shirt that will come in handy if I'm ever found wandering about, looking like a lost Puppy Dog and not quite remembering my name. She has promised that the nest shirt will have my address and phone number on the back, just in case I decide to bolt-freightened from the pursuing 911 respondents.
Kindness 3: The lady who checked me in, just by recognizing me with good humor and a smile and willing to join me in everyday silliness, showed me this third kindness.
I was brought to a room for vitals and questions ... lots of questions that in spite of my age I could answer. I suppose it's anxiety but my Play-Level rises in situations where my Heart is running amok and people are gonna be poking and prodding and invading my innards. Nurse Becka was -- even if a bit hesitant at first to join my romp -- soon prepared to smile. She was the one who would stick me with an IV so that the Anesthetist could get me to shut up.
Kindness 4 and 5. Nurse Becka, I suppose, coulda shut me down but chose, instead, to allow some play and was by-far the best sticker who has ever stuck me. No pain ... no black-and-blue marks.
M stayed with me through my bad jokes, the Chief Anesthetist who had almost no humor in her visited and another woman (Nurse?) arrived and wheeled me into the PR (Procedure Room). I told her she looked tired and she agreed that she was. She would assist in the PR and introduced me to the Nurse Anesthetist who was thoroughly without humor and never cracked a smile. He was a Guy ... he was really a Guy ... I wouldn't hire him as a Barkeep. But then Dr. D. arrived. She had done my first Combo (Up Periscope and Down Periscope) maybe 10 or 15 or more years ago. Back then, she came in, introduced herself and must've recognized my anxieties:
Dr. Covitz ... You have nothing to worry about.
I and my scopes are only going down 4 feet and up about 10.
Kindness 6. Dr. D. is through and through another Fourth Quarter Kind Soul who is willing to show her humanity without hesitation. It must be hard being a Gastro, these days, and spending many hours each week looking up and looking down through scopes and yet ...
Blessed are you God who has kept practicing some Docs
who have maintained their humanness.
I woke up to Nurse Chris in the RR (Recovery Room). M arrived pretty soon and explained that as I was coming into my own after "procedures" (I do wish they wouldn't call them "Procedures"), I was likely to do Horizontal Stand-Up and the Brooklyn in me might well surface. It did and the two women were willing to play along. My first memory of learning about nursing came in the late 50's when my Sister, another Nurse Rebecca, came home from Nursing School and explained that sometimes, after surgery or whatever, men might have erections and her teachers suggested using a Ruler to smack down these post-operative protuberances.
Kindness 7. My acting out wasn't penile but silly humor and both M and Nurse Chris welcomed it.
Blessed are you God who has kept practicing some
nurses who are willing
not to confuse humor and play with something bad
and who has created understanding spouses.
And God Bless M, too!
