Still Coughing . . .

I'm quickly losing faith in the medical profession. I mean, yeah, I'm sure these are good people, and I know they work hard at what they do, and I assume they have the best of intentions . . . but I'm not convinced they know what they're doing half the time.

This cough I've been talking about for a few weeks? This is typical of me. I get your basic common cold that everyone gets, and it cycles through all its symptoms ending with the cough. And the cough gets stuck in my chest and stays there. For weeks. I can't get enough air into my lungs. I can't yawn at night when I'm tired without coughing. I can't exert myself in any way without coughing. It's exhausting.

It's been this way for years. And it can't be something in my environment (like an allergy) because it happened in New Jersey, then in Sioux City, and now twice already in the short time I've been here. But no doctor seems to be able to figure it out. Usually, they give me an antibiotic (just in case) and some serious cough meds -- occasionally an inhaler of some sort. Eventually the cough stops, but never as quickly as they tell me the meds should take care of it.

Last week, I went to my new doctor here (whom I really like so far), and he decided to try zapping the nasty thing with cough suppressants and two different inhalers. Which worked! At first. When I went to Wicked over the weekend, the cough seemed to be almost licked, and I was thrilled.

But as the week has progressed, it is coming back. I have a doctor's appointment again this morning, but I'm not optimistic he's really going to be able to take care of this thing.

It was the same way with my sleep problems for so many years (which still aren't really licked, I don't think -- I just manage them sufficiently to get by). It's the same with this post-nasal drip problem my husband has. They go on and on and on . . . no doctor seems to be able to figure out how to FIX them. We can put a man on the moon (as the saying goes), but we can't stop my cough.

Which all just goes to show you, I believe, that Man is just not as smart as he thinks he is. At some point during the Enlightenment or something, Man decided that he was capable, eventually, of understanding all the mysteries of the world, and therefore controlling it all. We can heal every disease . . . prevent every catastrophe . . . end every conflict . . . cure every ill. We will eventually have the knowledge and ability to create a heaven on earth if we want it badly enough.

Only we will never have all the knowledge. And we can never have all the ability. And truth be told, we don't want it badly enough. I could never survive as an atheist. If I believed the greatness of Man was the hope of the world, I would be in total despair.