Thankful to be Uninfected

Thankful For My Health, and Those Who Help Maintain It:

I just came home from my dentist's office.  It was a completely painless visit.  All I did was speak to the receptionist and returned home.  I have a fairly impressive array of metal in my body, so I'm supposed to take an antibiotic before I have dental work done.  I had forgotten to "pre-medicate."   You might be surprised to know that I'm not really aggravated.  I'm thankful.   Part of my memories from my childhood are of my great grandfather and a great aunt, who had broken their hips.  One walked with a terrible limp, the other was bed-fast.  My late Father-in-law broke his wrist.  He never regained full use of that hand, and it caused him a good bit of pain.  I have known folk with worn out knees.  Their lives have been severely limited.  The reason I need to take antibiotics is because surgeon put my broken hip and wrist back together, and another replaced my worn out knee with a new titanium and plastic model.  Sure, I'd rather have the original equipment than my metal parts, but I far prefer them to the crippled states I spoke of a moment ago. Not only am I a beneficiary of the incredible skill, and marvelous technology of orthopedic medicine, I live in an era in which people have been incredibly helped by antibiotic medicines.  I know it is popular to talk about the overuse, and misuse of antibiotics, but before the development of medications like penicillin: 90% of children with bacterial meningitis died. Among those children who lived, most had severe and lasting disabilities, from deafness to mental retardation. Strep throat was at times a fatal disease, and ear infections sometimes spread from the ear to the brain, causing severe problems. Other serious infections, from tuberculosis to pneumonia to whooping cough, were caused by aggressive bacteria that reproduced with extraordinary speed and led to serious illness and sometimes death. (https://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/treatments/Pages/The-History-of-Antibiotics.aspx) We have the luxury of speaking about the inappropriate use of these "wonder-drugs" because we live on the back side of the changes these medications brought.  They are one of the reasons that life-expectancy in the United States has doubled in the past century-and-a-half. My wasted trip to the tooth-doctor served to remind me of the blessing I enjoy every day--a measure of health that was unheard of for accident-prone senior-citizens through most of history.  Many of you who read this do so through corrective lenses.  Some of you, like me, use hearing-aids.  Some of you are able to function because your diabetes, hyper-tension, heart ailment, or other chronic condition is controlled with a doctor's and/or pharmacist's assistance.   Sure, there is much about our healthcare system that needs to be improved.  In the USA, following, our recent election it is a hot topic.  In the midst of addressing what needs to be changed, let's just be sure to not forget to give thanks.   Lord, help me to be thankful for those things I so often take for granted. AMEN It's STTA.