Progress

What Matters Most…..…Commentary by Jim High

Today I want to talk about progress because this past week I was a recipient of a lot of  it in a big way.  Sunday, September 9, I started experiencing mild chest pains, not unlike I had experience several times before, pains that always went away.  Sunday afternoon and evening they didn’t. 

But first let me get back to my topic.  Any study of history is really a study of the progress of mankind.  I don’t think you can find in any sweep of history a time when the world and humanity have not experienced progress and find themselves always better off in the future than they were in the past, maybe not in every specific individual case, but certainly in general over the whole of society.

My family’s history with death proves this point.  Until I was eight years my Great Grandmother and both my Grandfather and Grandmother lived with us on Jefferson Street.   My Great Grandmother died at home, I don’t remember her being sick, at near 100 it was A-G-E, as my Mother use to say.  Her funeral by the way was in the living room of our home, with my brother, sister and I bustled off to someone one else’s house for the day.  That was in 1948.

Two years later my Grandfather contracted pneumonia, was taken to the hospital where he died rather quickly at age 70.  There were no miracle drugs to kill that infection and bacteria in 1950.  Again his funeral was in the family living room with us kids shuffled off to someone else’s home for the day.

Only 13 years later my Dad died of cancer in 1963, at age 53, after a year-long battle with this dread disease.  During his illness, which involved only radiation treatment because no other cancer treatment had been discovered, he had to be moved from the hospital to Dr. Stacy’s office downtown to get this cutting edge medical treatment.  The hospital didn’t have it.  He was bedridden for the whole year of his illness, so we set up the dining room at home as his hospital room.  We even widened a door and built a ramp so we could roll his hospital bed out into his greenhouse in the backyard to see his orchid collection.  When he died, I was 22 and in charge of his funeral, which I decided to hold in Pegues’ new Funeral Chapel.  It was a much better experience I’m sure than the old living room funerals of the past.  I considered it progress.

My Grandmother died peacefully at home in her room at 96, again of A-G-E.  Fast forward to my Mother’s death from a massive heart attack and stroke at age 85 in her bedroom on Jefferson Street, the ambulance came and took her to the hospital where 24 hours later she died peacefully.  That 24 hours cost just over $8,000 in the year 2,000.  My Dad’s year long illness had cost only about $7,000.  Is this progress?  I’m not sure. Maybe we shouldn’t measure death in dollars.  Only one certainty exists in life, however, and it’s that we all die.

Back to last Sunday.  Yes, I was having a heart attack and by 1:15 a.m. I decided to drive myself to the hospital to see about those chest pains.  About eight ER folks worked franticly to get my 214/130 blood pressure down, and do all the other stuff to stabilize me, including the EKG which confirmed the heart attack.  Then it was up to the Cath Lab so the heart specialist could look at my heart.  One 90% blocked artery.  He inserted a little metal stent to open it and hold it open.  And just like that I’m back to normal.  I was in ICU recovering by 3:30 a.m.  Was moved to a private room Monday afternoon and discharged Tuesday afternoon.

What Matters Most………I was told that I could resume my normal activities in 48 hours, which I have.  Now that is true progress, at least in our medical services.  I haven’t gotten the bill for those services yet.  So I’m afraid there’s a lot more progress in that area also.

© 2012 #19  Jim High can be reached at P. O. Box 467, Tupelo, MS 38802-0467