On Definitions and Broken Ribs
Angst \ n [akin to L angustus] : a feeling of anxiety : DREAD
Well it wasn’t what I thought it meant; angst used to be for me an embittered emotion over something. Now Mr. Webster defines it as related to worrying.
What is it with the ominous feeling of unwellness everytime there’s something unforeseen coming one’s way? I hate the fact that it gets to you; you loathe the feeling. You want to get rid of it as soon as possible.
Take for example an injured rib you suspect to be fractured. You go to a doctor asking him if he could give you the authorization/orders for a CXR only to be told it’s unnecessary because fractured ribs are seldom or in most cases never treated for as long as they haven’t damaged the lung parenchyma or its adjacent internal structures. He would go on to tell you that ribs have a certain resilience when it comes to blunt injuries and that in the absence of a hematoma and/or apnea/dyspnea/tachypnea the possibility of a pneumothorax/hemothorax is next to nil. He would then advise you to stop worrying, get some analgesics and be on your way. And that’s that.
But what if he’s wrong? What if that seemingly innocent injury precipitated a series of events that eventually shortened your life here on Earth? What if that injured rib started fibrosing and the reparative process eventually created a fistula with the parietal pleura and with each inspiration that fistula creates incremental tears dealing massive damage and yielding every form of recovery impossible?
What if that happens?
And there, as countless novelists, journalists, actors, filibustering politicians (not to mention hypochondriacs like me) and other famous people would say, lies the rub.
Angst. Anxiety. Dread. Fear. Companions of men since the beginning of time. To experience such things is nothing but a part of human nature. To cope with the tribulations they bring has been a life-long task; and with this, I have presented their essence, not to impose what they ought to do to one’s life but simply to describe them, as I see them.
