New Beginnings/Surgery

I have neglected to mention certain subjects which I did not touch on in my last post, which I of course regret not mentioning until now. Paul, my hot-headed little brother, had a choleric attack two weeks ago, resulting in a stay in the hospital and subsequent surgery to remove stones that had affixed themselves in his gallbladder. I believe that the entire process removed the organ from his system via some sort of liquefaction of the organ. A catheter was inserted in his private areas, to assist in drainage I believe, and he recounted to me while he walked about sore as he had ever been about the harrowing process to remove it (which, God help me, I hope to never experience). I am no doctor, but I do know that the majority of all gallbladder attacks are a fairly nocturnal occurrence, sped on by bad eating habits, poor posture, and stress. Paul works in the customer service industry, eats terrible food and slouches. However I am also informed that this was congenital in nature, which makes sense, as my mother recounted upon his delivery that he was jaundiced.My scholarly interest in the surgery has brought up some rather curious parallels to the work of Dr. Paracelsus, who despite being a superstitious charlatan of the first magnitude had some very interesting things to say concerning the placement of the gallbladder in the humourous system of the body. There are four naturally occurring humours in the body, based on the four Classical elements as described by Hippocrates and Galen–black bile, phlegm, blood, and yellow bile, the last being called choler, a byproduct of the gallbladder. In the old system it was signified by the Summer, being hot and dry. Choleric people were thought to be very hard-working and capable, though sometimes very disagreeable, which sums up Paul to perfection. He cannot be the others–were he sanguine he would be rushing off half-cocked; phlegmatic, too intemperate, and he certainly could never be melancholic, which is descriptive of myself, and all of my mental illnesses.I remember hearing that if there were a decrease in this yellow bile in the body of a person, the other temperaments would quickly replace the missing temperament, and thus restabilize the absence of that certain humour. All of this I know is hard thinking for those who rely on much more modern ideas of medical practice, but I am hoping that this surgery changes Paul’s attitude about his life and where it is going. Surgery is a frightening thing, and it takes very long to recover. I just want him to be happy. And for that, I think, he will want it similarly.