Our amazing bodies

Yesterday my son had his tonsils out, and some work done on the inside of his nose to clear his nasal airway. A month ago, he had his wisdom teeth out. Watching him recover from both of these operations I have been reminded of how amazing our bodies are. How we are built to heal. And how all our inner systems just get on with rejuvenating whatever needs fixing. Cells die as they need and replenish as they need. Wounds heal with new tissue. Our bodies are miraculous things.

When my son had his wisdom teeth out, he was given pain killers to help ease the discomfort, and antibiotics to avoid infection. Outside of that, and resting at home, his body took care of what ever it needed to get over the operation. The wounds in his mouth bled, that blood clotted, the tissue healed over time. Each day the pain was less and less. Each day he could eat food that was just that little bit more solid. Until he was back to normal, eating whatever he wanted and pain free. I was astonished at how fast his body healed. At how fast our bodies heal in general.

Yesterday, the surgeon removed his tonsils, adenoids and scraped back (eew) his turbinates to reduce their size. Turbinates for those of you who have not come across this term before, are cauliflower structures inside our nose which warm the air we breathe, humidify it as it passes through the nose and helps to filter dust and pollen. They also block the nose if they are swollen or are simply too large. When we visited just after the operation, he was in a lot of pain and discomfort, and there was a fair amount of blood. We stayed a short time and left him to rest. I was shocked when we came back an hour later how much he had improved. The pain was still significant, but he looked much better. And the improvement since last night until this morning and today is mind blowing. He is walking around, alert, eating more than jelly and ice cream (significantly hungry given he has had such minimal food the last 24 hours, and his body is making up for lost time, I can’t keep up with his hunger). And outside of more pain killers to ease any discomfort from this operation, and some anti-inflammatories to reduce the swelling, his body is left to its own devices to heal, to take care of itself, to reset to a new normal with the adjustments made yesterday by the surgeon.

After he came home, showered and cleaned residual dried blood from his nose, he looked like he hadn’t even had an operation. If you didn’t know, you might just think he was tired. Or had a big night out the night before. Such is the power of his body to heal. Of our bodies to heal. How lucky are we to exist in these amazing things we call our bodies. Our bodies, which at rest and at any given moment produces the equivalent amount of energy to a 100 watt light bulb. Broken down to seconds (even though it is probably faster than this) this is the equivalent to 864 kilowatts per day. Our bodies with such sophisticated systems working collaboratively together in order for us to breathe, digest, think and exist, with our blood pumping through our veins keeping us alive. It is truly miraculous when you think about it. And his surgeon sent him home with instructions to get on with his day as best and as normally as possible. And it is through all of this that I realised it is not as the idiom says ‘time heals all wounds’ it isn’t time at all, it is life. Living our life is what heals wounds, both physically and emotionally.

Anyone who has experienced grief will know. It is not simply the passing of time that heals. We aren’t passive participants in our recovery. It is the act of living, which heals. Just as our bodies get to work straight away to physically mend us. Our bodies also get to work straight away to emotionally mend us. Reminding us that we are still hungry. That even in our grief, things can still make us smile, and make us laugh. Giving us tears and the act of crying to release us from the anguish of grief. The act of living heals us. In particular, experiencing anything new. New days. New experiences. New life. There is nothing like a new born baby to soften the pain of grief.

It isn’t time which heals all wounds. It is life which heals our wounds. And we are blessed to have it.