Surgery as a Spiritual Expearance.

(This was started yesterday.)

I am back from my knee surgery, feelin' groovy and very Thankful, although I do have a numb knee - try saying that fast twenty times. I had a torn cartilage or meniscus which - I am told - will now be fine. Well fine except that I am getting old and a deteriorating meniscus just comes with age and will, apparently, keep coming.

This picture, part of a set given to us we left the hospital, is purported to be a picture of the inside of my knee joint taken by the doctor with an arthroscopic camera. How is this even possible? How do they get a camera and a light and all the tools required into this tiny little space?  

 

The operation was done at the Seton Medical Center because the doctor I wanted - Dr. Shabi Khan - operates there. So I get Shabi, who has operated on both of my shoulders¹ and who I think is terrific; and as a bonus, I get Seton. Seton is a Catholic Hospital and everywhere you look, there are crosses. I am slightly cross phobic, but, at Seton, I find it mildly comforting.

The preponderance of my spiritual experiences have been in nature and I think Thoreau was spot on when he said In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World.  But there have been a few people and a few places that just glow with their spirituality: an Irish, Catholic, priest that officiated a wedding in Alviso in both Spanish and English, The Taj Mahal, The David, a hyper alive Mosque in the otherwise dead city of Fathehpur Sikri in India.

And, to a lessor extent, Seton Hospital. I have had four operations at Seton, and, each time, I leave feeling blessed. It isn't that Seton is a high service boutique hospital, it isn't. It has a sort of production line vibe. It isn't that it is cutting edge high tech, although it might be. It is that everybody there seems to be aligned in Service; a soft, easy, greater, Purpose. 

So, given the circumstances, it was a great place to spend the day before the start of Hanukkah. I left feeling thankful.

  ¹ a bad fall skiing at Whistler.

Comments

[Gina]

Yay! I'm glad the operation was a success and I hope you heal quickly. My only request when I had surgery at CPMC was that they use the sharpest knives they had.

[steve]

Thanks, Gina. I think in arthroscopic surgery, they just give the patient a couple of quick jabs with an icepick.

What was your surgery at CPMC?