True confession time; sometimes I don’t pay attention. Yes, your doctor is far from perfect. The latest example of this happened on Monday with my car. Allow me to explain.
Way back in February the brakes on my car started to squeak when I applied the pedal. I initially assumed it had to do with the cold weather as I’m a seasoned motor head from my youth. In the back of my mind I kind of had a brief through that the noise may indicate that I needed new brakes but I reasoned that I don’t put that many miles on the car so I felt “nah, that can’t be it.”
As the months passed, the noise came and went and so did my thinking about the problem. I eventually knew I would need new brakes but the symptoms weren’t acute enough to have me take action. Sounds like the same behavior I’ve experienced with patients and their injuries or complaints. Pain interferes with their activities; but since it only happens while they are exercising (the brakes only squeaked while I was pushing down the brake pedal!) and goes away later, it’s not important enough to fix.
Well as these things usually go, the symptoms got worse in two additional stages. First the brake light lit up on the dashboard (intermittently of course) which by adding brake fluid the symptom went away (similar to taking ibuprofen?). And the on this past Monday, as I was backing out of the garage, I could very clearly hear the grinding noises coming from the back of the car.
I knew at this point my luck had run out and it was time to pay the piper. Luckily my procrastination hadn’t caused any severe damage except to my wallet.
It’s funny how our brains rationalize the decisions we make. Intuitively I knew I needed to get my car repaired or it would become damaged and possibly even un-useable. But…somehow I convinced myself that putting things off would allow the damage to miraculously “repair itself”. As silly as that sounds it’s true. It’s not what we do with that knowledge and how we rationalize our decisions later.
My rationale at this point was that I had the car inspected in July and it passed with no indication of needing brakes.” Hah! See I told you it was all good” I said to myself while actually knowing it wasn’t.
And on Monday evening, I was really laughing myself when I told my wife that I had to get the cars brakes repaired. Another friend who was listening heard me and said, “That’s funny, my car makes a squealing sound when it needs brakes.” At this point we all laughed and I said tongue in cheek, “Why should I take responsibility for my ignorance when it’s easier to blame the guy at Jiffy Lube who did the inspection!” J
Here’s hoping you listen to your body’s signals and take the appropriate action; or at least laugh at yourself when you don’t.
Thanks for reading,
Dr. Cerami
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