Fwd: A Thanksgiving to Remember

[Guest guest]

Thought the group may like to read this real-life story from an online

investment newsletter writer. I wonder if his surgeon told him to try a flush

before getting on the operating table. I wonder what he would have done if

he had read that surgical horror story posted here a few days ago. I know I

surely would have told him the whole gallstone story if he had asked.

========================================

North's REALITY CHECK

Issue 94 November 26, 2001

A THANKSGIVING TO REMEMBER

I'm not sure when this issue will be mailed, due to

the holiday. I'm writing it on Thanksgiving Day, November

22.

I depart today from commentary on war and recession

and similar unpleasant news. This is a day to give thanks.

Because of what happened to me this week, it is uniquely a

day for me to give thanks.

On Monday, sometime around noon, my stomach began to

hurt. Initially, I thought it might be because the new

pants I was wearing were too tight. I took them off and

looked at the waist measurement. Same as usual. Then a

horrible thought occurred to me: maybe I had gained weight

-- before Thanksgiving-to-New-Year!

The pain got worse through the day. By 6 in the

evening, I was vomiting. Actually, I was experiencing the

dry heaves. I had not eaten since lunch.

For the next 8 hours, the pain got worse, and it was

continual. As far as I could remember, the only constant

pain I had ever experienced that matched this was an

earache I had 48 years ago.

I prayed. I walked aimlessly in circles. I drank

water, hoping to overcome the dry heaves. Nothing helped.

So, at about 2:30 in the morning, I did the unthinkable. I

woke up my wife and had her drive me to the emergency room

at the hospital, a half-hour drive.

I hate hospitals. I'm glad they are there, but I hate

them. Also, with my high-deductible health insurance

policy, I hate the expense, which is close to $1,000 a day,

plus the physician's fee. But the pain was so great that I

thought anything was worth trying.

At the emergency room, they put me on a pain killer.

This helped. They ran tests on me the next morning. They

found the problem: a one-inch gall stone. They recommended

the removal of my gall bladder. I told them I wanted to

check with another physician.

At about 7 in the morning, my personal physician

visited me. Because I rarely get sick, he barely knows me,

but he showed up. He also recommended the gall bladder

removal operation. He gave me the name of a physician who

specializes in this. At about 9:30, the other physician

showed up. He had already performed one gall bladder

removal that morning. So, I agreed. I was willing to do

anything to escape the return of the pain I had

experienced. But I did negotiate the price as best as I

could.

By noon, the operation was over. It took about half

an hour. He did it by inserting a miniature camera through

my navel, and removing the gall bladder from two other

incisions. The procedure is a decade old. There will be

no large scar -- not that it matters when you're my age and

you don't like to go swimming anyway. But there will be no

photo of me, as there was of Lyndon , holding up my

shirt to show a 6-inch scar to photographers.

Here I am, two days later, writing about it. I'm sore

when I walk around, but that's about it.

I learned the next day that my surgeon had conducted 5

gall-bladder removals on Tuesday. This is a common

ailment. Talk about a specialty! Here again we see the

wonders of a high division of labor economy. I bought the

services of a man who has done this, he estimates, a

thousand times.

Thirty years ago, I concluded that the greatest

invention of the modern age is the anesthetic. Even if you

need it only once in your life, it's there. It was

invented in 1844 by a Georgia dentist. Without it, a

surgeon could not do much more than hack away at a

gangrenous limb, with other people holding down the

patient. We all know the scene: " Gone With the Wind " in

the church-hospital.

I gave thanks for anesthesia two days ago, and I give

thanks today.

I also give thanks for capitalism. It has made

possible the high-tech world where a miniature camera lets

a surgeon see what he is doing under the patient's skin.

I give thanks for a personal physician who shows up at

7 in the morning, and then comes in to see me at 9 in the

evening. He didn't have to, but he did.

There are billions of people today in China and India

and Africa and Latin America who do not have access to such

high-tech healing. I recall the agony I was experiencing

two days ago, and I think: " How long could anyone

experience that, without hope? " He would die a slow,

agonizing death, unable to eat. He would starve to death.

We in the West are greatly blessed. Modern medicine

is not good at preventative care through nutrition, but

when it's time to cut, it cuts with great precision.

THE ECONOMICS OF THANKSGIVING

Exactly one year ago, my article on the economics of

Thanksgiving Day was published on Lew Rockwell's site. It

also gives a brief history of the holiday. You may find it

worth reading.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north22.html

As we get more and more wealth, we have a tendency to

become less thankful. When we use our income to satisfy

our highest demands -- life-and-death matters -- we give

thanks to God. But great wealth allows us to make

decisions between a new DVD or a new speaker system. So,

we pay less attention to the miracle of the free market,

which has given us this wealth. We expect our wealth to

continue to increase. But from the beginning of man's

history until about 1750, per capita wealth never grew in a

straight line. The concept of compound economic growth did

not exist. Or, better put, it did exist -- in Leviticus 26

and Deuteronomy 28 -- but nobody believed it possible.

When I was in agony on Monday night and Tuesday

morning, I would have traded my liberty for relief. But I

didn't have to. It just cost me money. I can replace the

money.

At the time, I thought to myself about prisoners of

war through the ages, tortured by the enemy. My respect

grew for what they did. There is a PBS documentary,

" Return With Honor, " about American prisoners in North

Vietnam's " Hanoi Hilton. " If you see it listed, be sure to

watch it. It ends with the statement of one ex-prisoner of

war, who said this: " Every day that begins with a handle on

the inside of the door is a good day. "

We forget this.

The doctor said I had better not eat any gravy. Too

bad; Thanksgiving dinner is basically a custom that allows

us to eat lots of gravy.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north64.html

I shall have to content myself today with Jello

instead of my wife's incomparable buttermilk pie. I shall

eat mashed potatoes without gravy while the family eats her

potato casserole -- filled with high-fat cheese -- that she

makes only twice a year. But I shall rejoice that I can

eat anything at all.

CONCLUSION

The Pilgrims gave thanks in 1621. They celebrated for

three days. Half of those who had arrived the year before

had died. Still, the survivors rejoiced in a feast. As

Christians, they knew that Christ's death on the cross had

delivered them from the horrors of hell. They also knew

that His grace had sustained them in their venture.

Most people forget this on Thanksgiving. This day is

not about Texas vs. Texas A & M. It isn't about family

reunions. It's about God's deliverance.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that,

while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Much more then, being now justified by his blood,

we shall be saved from wrath through him. For

if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to

God by the death of his Son, much more, being

reconciled, we shall be saved by his life (Romans

5:8-10).

So, I wish you a happy Thanksgiving, whenever you're

reading this.

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