Words Matter

We must be careful with our words, and we also must listen carefully when others speak or write information down.  How many times do we misunderstand something we hear or read, our imagination running away with the ideas we think are being expressed?  Miscommunication can lead to unnecessary stress and anxiety as we anticipate problems and invent scenarios that may come from our interpretation of what has been said.

If ever there were words that terrified me, aggressive calf stretching would be at the top of the list, even higher than your bank account is overdrawn, or your car needs thousands of dollars’ worth of repairs. Recently I visited an orthopedist for foot and ankle pain, and he sent me for physical therapy.  On the orders for the therapy he wrote “aggressive calf stretching”.  It sounds like an event in the farmers’ Olympics, if there were such a thing, and in general sounds painful.  It turned out that it wasn’t as painful as it sounded, and when I commented on how terrifying I thought it would be the physical therapist laughed and said she wished the doctor would stop writing that, because she knows what he wants and it worries some of the patients when they read those words. The physical therapy worked, and I am able to once again move freely and relatively pain free.  I also recently had a spot of skin cancer removed from the top of my scalp.  Now those are some frightening words: skin cancer. The day I went for the procedure, I sat on the exam table in the doctor’s office, while the nurse got things ready and explained what would happen and the aftercare.  She told me that the doctor would inject my scalp with several needles of Novocain; the prospect of needles being stuck into my scalp made me anxious, as I have had dental work done and hate the injections into the gums to numb the area they will work on. I imagined how painful the coming injections would be, and wished I could just leave. She told me, as well, that because it was on the top of my head, they were going to have to mummify me when the procedure was finished. Well, as if the prospect of having needles in my head wasn’t scary enough, the word “mummify” was more concerning! I had visions of my head being wrapped up in gauze bandages, unable to move my jaws to eat, drink, or talk. I asked her to please explain the mummification, and it turns out that to keep a bandage in place in that area they wrap strips of gauze under the chin and over the top of the head, and it should be kept on for 24 hours.  I was only slightly less fearful after that! As it turned out, the numbing process wasn’t so bad, and the gauze was only wrapped around my head until they looked at the tissue under a slide and determined that they had successfully removed all the cancerous tissue, then the doctor placed the stitches and I was free to leave without looking like a mummy. 

It’s easy to understand how words can make us anxious or fearful of what’s to come. We tend to imagine the worst scenarios when it comes to the unknown.  It is, perhaps, a self- preservation technique we humans have so that we can protect ourselves from harm, and are relieved when things turn out better or easier than anticipated.  We prepare for the worst, and hope for the best, and then when all is said and done we can breathe a little easier and laugh at ourselves for being so worried.