Form and Function

    Facing the prospect of the first major surgery of your life, if you're like me anyway, as the date nears, you start to focus on what the probable course of events will be, and that involves an inordinate amount of time devoted not only to your own physiology, but as it connects to the hospital complex itself, the doctors and the staff.  The building looms up as rather mysterious in its workings, welcoming on the surface, but foreboding in its potential.  You regard the medical staff and personnel as presented in the hospital brochures, part of an efficient and coordinated team of professionals working in cohort to deliver to you the patient the best care possible.  You have researched your surgeon, seeking to find professional expertise in combination with a caring manner.  Hospital, staff, surgeon----you think of them a lot as the time draws closer.
    Think long enough, though, and the myth is dispelled.  The hospital is bricks and mortar, nothing else.  Think Catholic churches.  The medical staff signs in to work every day, beset with their own life issues, and not knowing what mortal coil they will need to tend to on any given day.  The surgeon is by definition a rare breed.  Congenial or not, a surgeon has chosen a career based on cutting into humans' flesh, not dealing with their emotional needs.  I figure I've seen the surgeon one time, weeks ago, will not see him on the day of surgery, and may see him a few months after the surgery.  The patient is destined  to remember this day, whatever the outcome, for a lifetime.  The patient, to the medical community involved, is a "Date of Birth" attached to a knee.  ***My Knee Saga blog is intended to document my journey and clear my thoughts, but I don't know if this is helping............