Monday, July 24, 2006

Driving ambition

I just came from an online visit with sassy-sistah, who had surgery recently. She wrote that today was the first day she's been out of the house since then and said, "It felt a little strange to drive again, to be honest."

That reminded me of a woman I used to work with (let's call her "Lynne") who lived with her elderly mother and spent a great deal of time taking her mother here and there for medical and dental appointments, shopping, etc. At one point, Lynne's mother had to have surgery, and Lynne took off work one morning to take her to a pre-op doctor's appointment.

When Lynne returned to work, she told us the appointment went better than expected. "In fact," she said, "Mama's not dreading the surgery any longer; she's actually looking forward to it now."

"That's odd," someone commented. "What did the doctor say that made her change her mind about it?"

"Well," Lynne said, "he told her that she'd be able to drive three weeks after the operation, and Mama said, 'Ooh, that's wonderful, Doctor, 'cause I ain't never been able to drive in my life up to now.'"

3 comments:

  1. yeah she would be able to drive, it so remarkable how doctors are out of touch with their patients and their lives.

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  2. Hi Velvet,

    A similar story runs in our family. When my aunt had hip replacement surgery, the doctor told her she'd be able to play golf once she'd recuperated. She told him she was pleased with the news since she'd never played golf before.

    By the way, she does has played golf ever since that surgery. Although she'd be the first to tell you that she doesn't play well.

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