Do you want to get well?

For the better part of this past year, I’ve had increasing discomfort and restricted mobility in my left shoulder.   My primary physician kiddingly called it a “65-year-old shoulder,” meaning bursitis, arthritis, some kind of “itis,” maybe even a slight tear in the rotator cuff – whatever!  I tried to grin and bear it as long as I could, but a few months ago I saw another doctor in the same practice who specializes in sports medicine.  He gave me a shot of cortisone.   What welcome relief, almost instantly. 

It didn’t last, however.  A few weeks ago I noticed my right shoulder was going sour and the left was getting worse again.   Last week I went to see the sports doc again (fantasizing that I was some kind of athlete).  I expected he’d give me another shot, but he said he wouldn’t give me two, one in each shoulder.  Instead, he prescribed an oral medication AND physical therapy, three times a week for six weeks.  “You don’t have to do the therapy if you don’t want,” he said.  “But I want to do what you think is best for me,” I replied.

Several years ago I had a prescription for physical therapy to deal with a herniated disc in my lower back.   My positive experience leads me to anticipate a positive outcome once again.  After only three therapy sessions I’m finding relief, hopefully the kind that will last.  As I was doing some of the exercises this morning that I have learned from the therapist, it struck me as to how interactive physical therapy is – the patient participates with the medical team in the healing process.   It takes work and effort on my part, but I believe it will bear good fruit.

So often when people are sick and infirm, they are totally passive and sit around waiting for some doctor or some pill to fix them.   One day the Great Physician came upon a man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.  (Read John 5:1-9)  Hundreds of people beat the man to the punch and were already in the therapeutic waters of Bethesda’s pool.  Jesus’ questioned the man, “Do you want to get well?”  That may seem insensitive, but it points to a most important ingredient in our health – we have to want to get well enough to do something about it.