Address the Harms

“I thank God for pain,” said Dr. Paul Brand, “I cannot think of a greater gift I could give my leprosy patients.” Brand is the doctor who first discovered that leprosy does its damage by killing off nerve endings and was a leading expert on the treatment of a disease that still exists and still holds a vicious stigma. The loss of pain receptors means that simple injuries, like a splinter or a blister, become problematic, because the victim doesn't have the ability to feel these injuries and tend to them.

Our ability to feel pain is often the conduit we need to address the injury before more damage is done. Pain saves us; forces us to identify and address the harms facing us. One of the main injuries suffered by lepers is the loss of sight; the nerve endings that remind eyes to blink are destroyed, so dust settles in and causes infection.

My pastor, Amanda, spoke on exile this week, and the story of Jesus healing the lepers (Luke 17 for those who want to reference) and only one came back to thank him. I wonder if the reason only one came back is because of what this healing looked like. Does healing mean that all the sores left and the lepers went away looking brand new, or does it mean their nerve endings grew back? By that I mean, did Jesus blessed them by restoring their ability to feel, even while leaving the sores and infections? To an outsider, no healing would've taken place. But to that leper, it would certainly be known. How overwhelming that would be, to suddenly feel for the first time these wounds that were visible but unfelt. It would be painful, but it would be progress.

I wonder how our pre-defined definitions of what healing looks like limit our understanding of it. Maybe part of the healing process is feeling, for maybe the first time, the wounds we carry, the dust in our eyes.

Hypo

My beloved friend Jeff was a rather serious hypochondriac and he'd be convinced that every malady was life-threatening, even if it was something like a splinter. In college it would make me laugh to watch him freak out at every sneeze, sure that it was SARS or monkey-pox. He was someone who should have never been allowed to watch any medical shows or movies.
Confession: I'm a hypochondriac too. Just about the wrong things. Like when I had the whooping cough back at the beginning of 2006 I was convinced it wasn't something serious and that some orange juice and rest would cure me right up until I stopped being able to breathe (btw I just went back and read that post...it has a lot of crap in it. Kelly Clarkson, Burt Reynolds and my decision to apply to Windy Gap...wow).
But then I could have a sore throat and I'll be convinced that I'm having an allergic reaction and that my throat is closing and that I need an EpiPen right at that moment. So odd. I just don't want to live in medical fear.
I should probably find a way to balance that out, recognize the serious and the benign before my arm falls off from leprosy and I'm convinced it's just a cramp.