Today, January 12, 2011,
I woke up to find some seven inches of snow
on the ground.
I told all my elderly patients not to come in.
However, one retired, elderly priest came in
because his gastroenterologist advised him as such
to get my approval  of steroid use.
He was bleeding through the colostomy
because of recurrent ulcerative colitis.

Father GT and I have become good friends 
over the years.
Years ago he came down with rectal cancer.
He developed a massive pulmonary embolism
postoperatively. In addition, he was having
an unstable angina from his coronary artery
disease. He also had had chronic bronchial
asthma and ulcerative colitis.
I almost lost him a few times.
He survived the surgery and all the complications
with a massive medical effort.
He wound up having a colostomy and
having had to self-catheterize every 8 hours.
He was no longer able to urinate naturally.

After his medical problems became stabilized,
he returned to work as a pastor.
O, this maybe some 3 years ago.
Then I noted that his work schedule
was heavier than mine, and
he would get short-winded after a short walk
like walking to my office from the elevator,
which is less than 50 yards.
I volunteered to tell him as his physician,
"Father, you won't live long this way.
You should consider a medical retirement."
He was already close to 80.
I further went on to say to him,
"From my perspective as a physician,
there are two ways to serve the Lord.
One is to imitate the saints all the way and
die prematurely.
The other is to take care of ourselves
as well as we can with the help of medical
science and serve the Lord within our ability
and live a little longer.
The total of the amount of good we are doing
to serve the Lord perhaps may come out
about the same no matter which way you
may take. Nobody really knows. Only the Lord
may know, I admit."
He smiled and thought about it a while,
then said,
"If you want, you may write to the Archbishop,
Cardinal M," which I subsequently did.
The Archbishop quickly approved his retirement.

He has gained strength since,
although he still cleans the colostomy and
self-catheterize every 8 hours.
He volunteers to help other busy priests.
When you look at him,
you wouldn't know if there is anything wrong
with him.
He looks well. He always smiles and
is cheerful.

His attitude to life
always is inspiring and
a good lesson to me.
All through my career as a physician
over some 40 years,
My best teachers in life have been
my patients.
I'm forever indebted to them.