Progress Moment
Jul. 13th, 2004 07:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ninevirtuesI called an old friend, who mentioned that he'd had to have his gallbladder removed due to persistent gallstones. "And I have to eat a low-fat diet, now, too. It's very distressing to a carnivore like me," he added.
And then, like magic, I knew how much I'd learned: I knew where the gallbladder is (and could picture one, since I'd seen about ten of them) and what likely caused his gallstones; I knew what the gallbladder does (it does not make bile-- the liver does that, but the gallbladder stores bile, and bile helps digest fat); I knew why he needed to eat a lowfat diet (he has a limited amount of bile available to digest fat); and I knew what would happen if he ate too much fat (everything in his digestive system would exit immediately and precipitously, and he would emerge from the experience determined not to ever do that again. I knew, before he told me so, that he'd already tried this, and I knew why: People just have to test their limits and see if what they've been told is really true.)
Call it a wax-on wax-off moment.
Oh yeah, I can make a pretty good guess about where his abdominal incision was, what muscles got cut, and what kind of physical rehab he ought to do to repair it.
And then, like magic, I knew how much I'd learned: I knew where the gallbladder is (and could picture one, since I'd seen about ten of them) and what likely caused his gallstones; I knew what the gallbladder does (it does not make bile-- the liver does that, but the gallbladder stores bile, and bile helps digest fat); I knew why he needed to eat a lowfat diet (he has a limited amount of bile available to digest fat); and I knew what would happen if he ate too much fat (everything in his digestive system would exit immediately and precipitously, and he would emerge from the experience determined not to ever do that again. I knew, before he told me so, that he'd already tried this, and I knew why: People just have to test their limits and see if what they've been told is really true.)
Call it a wax-on wax-off moment.
Oh yeah, I can make a pretty good guess about where his abdominal incision was, what muscles got cut, and what kind of physical rehab he ought to do to repair it.
