Wayfaring Stranger

Earthen Vessels

I apologize to any hardy readers of this blog in advance for all of the health related posts that will most likely be seen on this site in the near future. As I said last time, I am looking forward to major surgery and unfortunately, I write about what's most pressing on my mind. Lucky you!

I titled this Earthen Vessels because of the fragility of life and at this point in my life, of modesty. All my childhood I was trained to be a modest person; no short shirts, no shorts, no two piece bathing suits, close the bathroom door, etc. When I entered junior high and had to take gym classes it turned me wrong side out when they forced us to take showers. I learned how to keep my clothes on even there. I still have nightmares about public showers and gym classes--very traumatic! The amazing thing about all of this training is once it's engrained in a young mind, the world spends the rest of that person's life beating it out. Take childbirth for instance. There is absolutely no privacy for anything in a hospital when in labor. There were people running in and out of my room all night long--strangers I might add--checking my progress, patting my leg and leaving me to continue my work. And then there was the actual delivery. I have no idea how many people were in that room yelling for me to push and waiting to catch the baby. I must say, that went a long way toward knocking out my sense of modesty! After childbirth comes the many years of child rearing. What is it about a closed bathroom door that sets off the alarm in a child's head? It never failed when I'd quietly close that door for a moment to myself both kids were immediately stationed outside knocking and wailing that the world was absolutely ending if I didn't come right now or let them in!

Now that I am a member of the "older" generation, modesty is just automatically assumed to be unneccesary. Take my doctor's office for example. First thing they say to you anymore is "undress." My question is what ever happened to those wonderful little (and I do mean little) cotton gowns that were open down the back but at least covered most of you? Now you're lucky to get a so called sheet to cover up with. It's more like a large square of toilet paper and covers just about as much.

In preparation for my surgery, my doctor is performing tests to determine the extent of said surgery. This particular test was supposed to be a run of the mill test and I was not to worry, the doctor said as he scheduled it a week ago for yesterday. Late last week, I got a call telling me what they wanted me to do before the test and in the conversation I discovered that they had never done this test with this particular machine before. Okay...but I was told to not worry, again. I was lucky because the technician would be doing the test since she was "showing them" how to do it. My ears immediately clamped down on the "them." Ha Ha Ha just the doctors and nurses and you know...

In the end, my test was done by my doctor with the technician standing over his shoulder, my doctor's nurse, another doctor from down the hall, and best of all the salesman of the machine they were testing. And you know what, I found myself to be quite at ease with a room full of strangers as I rested there in my large square of toilet paper.

I have to congratulate the medical community. They've done what my physical education teachers and kids were unable to do. I no longer have a need for modesty. This earthen vessel has lost it's newly cast sheen and gloss and shows many scuff marks and cracks and scrapes of years of use and abuse by it's owner and by life in general. I am quickly beginning to understand why it is that the workers in nursing homes have such a difficult time keeping the sweet little old people from stripping off their clothes and running around naked. When you are at last being totally cared for by medical personnel, what is the point in putting on clothing? They are probably hunting for that large square of toilet paper with which to cover up .

posted by Dana @ 11:37 AM