You Think You're Tough

When I was a kid there were tough guys you looked up to as role models, good or bad; John Wayne, Gordie Howe, and my old man. These guys never let you see them flinch. Even when you know they were in pain, they smiled and said it was nothing. I grew up in a world where two things stood out, hockey and the power company. I knew if I wanted to be like those guys I’d have to hit the books, weights and work hard. I wound up working in hydro soon after college and found out that nothing comes easy. You climbed, lifted, pulled cables, and worked in some pretty tough conditions. Wrenches were three foot long, and hammers had 10 to 15 pound heads. You sweat, you freeze, and you never flinch. Electricity and waterpower get treated with respect. This isn’t like hockey. If you make a mistake, you don’t just lose the game, someone could get killed. When I’d get out on the ice with the kids after work, I’d skate the drills, meat grinders and everything else. Even if I was working all night and my back and knees hurt, I’d still get out there and skate. This is fun, and I love it, so there’s no pain that was going to slow me down. My old man is a tough old Dutchman, just like his father. I had hoped to carry on that tradition. When my dad got in a bad accident at work I rushed to the hospital. He was sitting in the emergency room just smiling. The truck he was in was hit so hard that it mangled the truck’s dashboard and floor upward. He was hurt, but he wasn’t going to show it. He had a heart attack almost two years ago. Just like before I raced to the emergency room to find him smiling and cracking jokes. This year I started to get a pain in my back during hockey practices, and chalked it up to a simple backache. It hurt, but the pain would go away after a few hours. Last week it hurt real bad, and didn’t go away. I couldn’t sleep, stand, or sit. I started to believe I might be feeling the effects of a kidney stone. I tried to tough it out at work, but after a few hours decided to give in and let my wife take me to the emergency room. When they checked me in, the guy who took my blood pressure asked what I thought was wrong; I said I thought it might be a stone. He laughed at me and said I sure didn’t look like someone with a kidney stone pain. “Oh really?” I said as I smiled. They found the stone in the CAT scan and gave me something for the pain. I found out all the coffee I drink hasn’t been doing me any favors, and I don’t drink enough water (even coaches need to drink water – imagine that). They say a kidney stone is similar to a women going through labor pains. I thought I was a pretty tough old Dutchman. My wife is tougher than me. She’s had three boys. I can take getting hit, cut, falling, crushed,and worn down, but a kidney stone “aint no fun”. I’m not going to flinch though, at least not in public.