Crying when it hurts

I was a Trauma Surgeon for decades. The work was challenging, and the hours were long. However, it was very fulfilling when we were able to pull a severely injured individual out of the jaws of death.

Nevertheless, there were sometimes challenges that prevented us from achieving that goal despite our best efforts to do so because of the severity and nature of the injuries the patient had sustained. On those occasions, it was my responsibility to notify the patient’s family of their loss. That was always a challenging activity for me. I could usually control my emotions and provide the information to the family sympathetically but with minimal emotional expression, although there was one rare exception (see “Breath” also in my blog at MedicineOutOfTheBox). But for the most part, I didn’t cry much at all except upon the deaths of my parents years ago.

However, now that I have retired and no longer need to deliver sad news to families, I find that I am shedding tears at all sorts of odd occasions, such as communicating with our kids and grandkids, reading certain passages in various books, watching particularly poignant scenes and commercials on television, and praying at mass for thanks to God and for his son’s sacrifice.

Maybe aging has opened up my tear ducts, letting them flow in ways they previously could not.