Thursday March 2, 2006 Life can be a pain

You know how some auto mechanics are better than others? Sometimes, it's the neighborhood service station mechanic who has a better feel for what ails your car than the specialist at the dealership. Sometimes even they can't figure out why the red light on your dashboard is on saying “check engine”. My check engine light has been on one of my cars for about 6 years (100,000 miles) and each time I ask a mechanic, he can't figure it out. It may be a glitch in the computer. Keep an eye on it and see if you notice anything different.

I consider doctors much the same as auto mechanics except they are human body mechanics. Some are better than others. Some have a better feel for what ails you. Sometimes they can't figure out why you're having a problem. They can often run batteries of tests eliminating one thing or another, but if those don't give them an answer, they figure it must be a glitch in your computer. Keep an eye on it and see if you notice anything different.

I had a pain the other day and it worried me enough to go to the doctor (which is unusual for me). The neighborhood doctor couldn't immediately figure it out so he sent me to the emergency room to see if they could figure it out. The emrgency people ran some tests but they couldn't figure it out, so they admitted me and had a specialist run some tests. He eliminated most of the main worries (heart, lungs, etc) and told me to go home and keep an eye on it and see if I notice anything different. I'm to go back to my neighborhood doctor in a week and start over again from square 2.

Now that I know that the pain is not likely deadly it doesn't bother me as much, although it is still there. You can live with aches and pains when you know why they are there or know that they aren't going to kill you. I've lived with a bad back for many years and as long as I can get by without surgery I'll wait for further developments. Doctors and auto mechanics do their best, but sometimes it's difficult to figure out what's wrong with the old machines and unless you are lucky enough to find just the right one, you're going to have to learn to live with some of the problems. It's really hard to replace the old body – you can't just trade it in on a new one.