Health

In my family we've had our fair share of doctors visits lately. These things seem come in bunches. I supposed I started it all off last November, when I bashed my face in and broke off part of my tooth. Long story short, I woke up in the middle of the night feeling ill, went to the bathroom, fell or blacked out (I don't remember) and woke up in the dark wondering why my nose and mouth were bleeding, and what happened to my tooth?! Last week it was my kindergartner's turn to faceplant, which fortunately did not break any teeth, but did require a stitch in her lip. And then there have been the customary waves of cold and flu that our girls seem to bring home from every school, event, or party. Our two-year-old currently has a perpetually snotty nose and a dry, barking cough that sounds very sad in such a small body. 

Despite all that drama, it hasn't been all doom and gloom. For starters, we have a great dentist, and we've all gotten to know him and his staff quite well over the last year. I now have a shiny new capped tooth in the front that looks and feels just like the old one did, and my other teeth won't need any repair in the near future. Which is great news, because we were afraid they had cracked badly when I had my crash landing, and I really wasn't looking forward to having a root canal or implant. I know no one enjoys going to the dentist, but they sure are great to have around when you need them. And at least we had dental insurance coverage at the time.

Similarly, it was nice to have a good doctor check my daughter out after she took a tumble. Becca ended up spending the whole day taking her to the dentist, a pediatrician, and the emergency room at Vanderbilt Children's. The 6+ hour wait at Vanderbilt wasn't exactly fun, and in some ways it showed a lot of what is broken with the American medical system, but it didn't make me any less grateful for it. My daughter's lip already looks a lot better, and pretty soon you'd never know it happened.

As I listened to our two-year-old hack and cough last night in bed, I thought about how not too long ago, that sort of thing would strike fear into the hearts of parents. Even in my parents' and grandparents' generation, serious illnesses were part of growing up, and they inevitably took their toll on some young children. Nowadays, I don't worry about whether she has whooping cough, or whether my kids will get the measles or polio. My kids won't even get the chicken pox like I did, because they've been vaccinated. Which isn't to say that all diseases have been fully eradicated, or that they won't get sick, and that I won't worry about them. But that mortal fear of losing a child doesn't hang over me in the same way it would a hundred years ago. The worst I am likely to experience is some lost sleep or for her to pass it on to me (both of which have probably happened by now). But I'll be okay, and so will she.

I sometimes lament the alienating and complicated way we live our modern lives. There really are some down-sides and costs with being always connected, always in a hurry, all the time. But modernity and technology have brought innumerable benefits, and for all my bemoaning our modern existence, I wouldn't turn the clock back.