My called me late yesterday and several times today, to tell me something important about his health. I was asleep every time he called. The time difference between Germany and New York does this to us. I had to call him back this morning. He had been quite sick for the last two weeks or so, my mother was sick as well. They both had some very vicious cold or something much worse. My mother has all the special remedies that can cure just about anything, but it was just too much this time, and so my had to go to the real doctor. My mother is still convinced that milk with hot butter could have fixed it all, but I think that this beverage was just invented to keep us from ever wanting to pretend to be sick. (It is disgusting, gag reflex inducing stuff, believe me.)
My got his antibiotica and is now much better. The reason he had called though was his second, checkup doctor visit. My , who was born in 1945 is apparently in superb shape. His blood pressure is at 120/80, which is supposedly more typical in 20 year olds than guys his age. It seems like everything else is about as good as the blood pressure and I knock on wood, I hope it stays this way for a really long time.
The actual diagnosis was more about our family. The doctor, whom I also liked to visit in Hanau, told my that the secret to my ’s heath is in a big part the way we look at things. The entire family, which is my parents and I in this case, I guess. Dr. Blaszczak observed that my parents and I just constantly try to focus on the positive and try to look beyond whatever hardship is thrown our way. Thus the happy healthy outcome. (I should now probably knock on wood really hard.) Things have never been very easy for us, but we somehow manage to just put our focus onto the tiny path that might lead us back to a happier place, and we somehow want to improve things in mild ways. My was very excited hearing all this and I think Dr. Blaszczak is a great doctor for saying all these positive things to my dad. There is hopefully a grain of truth in his diagnosis.
My then just went on to telling me about a tiny episode that happened when he was having his blood taken for the tests.
My dad: “So as they were taking my blood, I was obviously lying on my back and had a really good view of the entire ceiling in the practice. And right there in the middle of the ceiling was this piece of metal, just attached to the ceiling with this crooked screw. Somebody must have obviously tried to build something in the room and then they changed their mind. So all that was left was this angled piece of metal and the crooked screw. I waited for the nurse to leave the room for a minute, I moved the bench into the middle of the room, climbed on top of it and unscrewed this metal piece from the ceiling. Good thing I always have my leatherman with me, so it was not so difficult. When the nurse came back into the room I just got up from the bench and handed her the metal and the screw and told her that I found this on their ceiling.” With my , the simplest moments hold the key to true adventure. I wish him health and all the very best. (I sometimes wish he had a blog.)