痛并快樂(lè)著

How are you feeling?” asked my friendly 1)neurosurgeon， Dr. Alex Gol， after a torturous day in therapy.

I couldn’t utter a single word after sustaining a severe 2)traumatic brain injury (TBI) at the age of 19. So I nodded as if to say， “OK.”

Dr. Gol then calmly replied， “That’s nice，” and quickly left the room with a smile.

As he was leaving I thought to myself， “Dr. Gol is so nice， so calm and so peaceful.” I tried to reposition myself in my bed as the door closed behind him in order to get more comfortable， but something was not “right” in the hospital hallway. I heard a great 3)commotion. Nothing was wrong with my hearing; there was plenty of screaming coming from the hall.

It was sweet， 4)serene and calm Dr. Gol who was causing the chaos. As soon as he left my room he erupted: “Who’s the nurse taking care of Mike? What’s he doing in bed so early? He’s a 19-year-old victim of TBI， not a 95-year-old stroke victim! Get him out of that bed， and I don’t want him back in bed until he goes to sleep!”

The nurses had never seen Dr. Gol act like that. In fact， they had never heard him raise his voice. They quickly got me out of bed and put me in my wheelchair until 9 p.m. I was miserable. I wanted to get back into my comfortable bed. But throughout the weeks and months that followed the nurses did not want to face “the 5)wrath of Dr. Gol.” Therefore， after therapy I remained in my wheelchair in my room until I went to sleep. Being in the wheelchair for so long was 6)agonizing!

I hated Dr. Gol after that eventful day when he asked me that seemingly simple question while I was trying to relax in bed.

However， years later I loved him， as I realized

Dr. Gol was only doing what was in my best

interest.

When I returned to college after being out for so long， my professors， after learning what had happened to me and realizing that I could no longer read as quickly as before I was hurt， were more than happy to say， “Mike， it’s ok. Just read what you can and we’ll test you on that material.”

However， one professor did not say that. She said， “Mike， I understand you have difficulty in reading. I’ve had many students with visual pro-blems. For those students， I refer them to ‘Recording for the Blind.’ They have access to many textbooks on cassettes. Here’s the phone numbers.”

I “hated” that statement， as I wanted to take the “easy way out.” (My feelings of “hate” were very similar to those I had for Dr. Gol on that eventful afternoon in the hospital.) However， I have since learned that the easy way is quite

often the wrong way. Sometimes everyone needs a push. I recently had to be reminded to push myself because I had gotten “l(fā)azy” at the gym. However， a “stranger” reminded me to use my right hand. Even though it was difficult， I thanked him for the reminder.

I have learned that the difficult things in life are often the sweet things in life. One cannot experience “beauty” without experiencing “bitterness.” Remember， “push” yourself to “get through the thorns of the rose bush， to experience the beautiful flower of the rose.”

Every time I think of some difficult thing in life， I close my eyes， see Dr. Gol and smile.

感覺(jué)怎么樣？”一天的痛苦治療結(jié)束后，友善的神經(jīng)外科醫(yī)生亞歷克

斯·戈?duì)栣t(yī)生詢問(wèn)我。

19歲的我因大腦遭受了嚴(yán)重的創(chuàng)傷而無(wú)法說(shuō)話。所以，我只能點(diǎn)頭示意，像在說(shuō)：“還好。”

接著，戈?duì)栣t(yī)生平靜地回了一句：“很好。”很快，他就微笑著離開(kāi)了我的病房。

在他離開(kāi)的時(shí)候，我心里在想：“戈?duì)栣t(yī)生人真好，沉著又平靜。”隨著他身后的房門被關(guān)上，我努力在床上挪了挪，想換個(gè)舒服一點(diǎn)的姿勢(shì)。但醫(yī)院的走廊上發(fā)生了件“不對(duì)勁的”事。我聽(tīng)到一陣很大的喧鬧聲。我的聽(tīng)覺(jué)沒(méi)有任何問(wèn)題——走廊上傳來(lái)了一聲聲尖叫。

這場(chǎng)混亂是和藹、沉著且平靜的戈?duì)栣t(yī)生引起的！他一離開(kāi)我的病房就“爆發(fā)”了：“哪位護(hù)士在照看邁克？他這么早就躺在床上干什么？他是一個(gè)19歲的大腦受創(chuàng)病人，不是一個(gè)95歲的中風(fēng)患者！讓他從床上起來(lái)，在他應(yīng)該睡覺(jué)之前，我不想看到他躺在床上！”

護(hù)士們從未見(jiàn)過(guò)戈?duì)栣t(yī)生這樣發(fā)脾氣。事實(shí)上，她們從未聽(tīng)到過(guò)他大聲講話。她們迅速地把我從床上轉(zhuǎn)移到輪椅上，一直到晚上9點(diǎn)才讓我上床睡覺(jué)。我很痛苦。我想回到我那舒適的床上躺著。然而，隨后的幾周乃至幾個(gè)月里，護(hù)士們并不想看到“戈?duì)栣t(yī)生大發(fā)雷霆”。因此，每次治療結(jié)束后，我得一直坐在我病房里的輪椅上，直到上床睡覺(jué)。如此長(zhǎng)時(shí)間地坐在輪椅上令我痛苦萬(wàn)分！

那是充滿變故的一天——我躺在床上想放松休息，而戈?duì)栣t(yī)生卻詢問(wèn)我那個(gè)看似簡(jiǎn)單的問(wèn)題。從那天開(kāi)始，我討厭他。

然而多年過(guò)后，當(dāng)我意識(shí)到戈?duì)栣t(yī)生是為了我好才那么做時(shí)，我對(duì)他的厭惡變成了愛(ài)！……