Nature's tricks

Tis All Hallows Night, the evening to celebrate the dead and dying.  Most of the snow is gone from around here, and my neighbors all have their power on, although that can't be said for many of those fifteen miles away.  That's just one of Nature's tricks.

As the sun began to slip away I pulled on my black sweats, pulled my too-big black hoodie over up head, pulling the strings on the hood so it comes down over my eyes, then I set out to walk the neighborhood as the Emperor from Star Wars, one of the best known movie villains.   I didn't bother to get one of those white plastic scream masks, the craggy lines and furrows in my face from more than thirty years of listening to misery are enough to frighten any six year-old.

Now I have returned and I wait for them to come to me, the princesses, witches, many various animals and super heroes. I don't know if it will be a busy year.  There were lots of parties scheduled for Saturday but the storm blew them all away.

I appreciated being able to take a brisk walk, emperor or not.  The most difficult patients for me to deal with are the ones who are sent to me  to help find a away to keep them going and hopeful, even when movement is very difficult and hope is draining away fast.   I am seeing several people who are in tough physical shape.  Cancers, which may or may not be treatable, degenerative bone diseases, MS, Parkinson's, crushed vertebrae, or missing limbs.  I also have a couple of parents of children who have complex medical problems.

I talk to them; I listen to them.  We try to find other things to think about, ways to lessen some of the tension, to avoid some of the pain.

What makes the task more complex is that so often the treatments for many of these problems are often the causes of other problems, and the treatments for the secondary problems can also create new problems.

I don't want to blame doctors or medicine because many of the new treatments are truly amazing, and many people are alive today, and healthy, who would have suffered and died ten years ago.

But the medicines are often so strong, and almost everyone reacts differently.  People get dizzy and fall down, and break things.  People become terribly allergic and break out in painful rashes, or hives.  People can't digest food while taking certain medications and they lose weight or throw-up and then they find that they can never eat certain foods again.  People get scars from radiation. People gain weight from many pills, others develop neuropathy, or other auto-immune diseases. What is worse is that it seems that once people develop sensitivities they become increasingly sensitive to almost anything and everything.

Seems like one of those tricks of Nature. 

So I just keep walking.  Walking and whistling in the dark.