[Magdalen] One kidney, and other medical oddities (was A prayer, please)

[Jay Weigel]

I took the liberty of changing the header since it was heading into some
interesting territory that had nothing to do with Arthur's request for
prayer.

My brother, the one next down in age from me, has complete situs
inversus--in other words, his heart is on the right, liver on the left,
etc. He is totally turned around inside from the ordinary. Nobody knows
exactly how this occurs, and his wasn't discovered until he was a junior at
Harvard, undergo in his annual physical for soccer. He said jokingly to the
young doc who was listening to his chest, "My heart's on the right, by the
way," and the doc moved his stethoscope around a bit with an increasingly
incredulous expression on his face and said, "My God, it is!" He couldn't
find anything really wrong so he okayed him to play but suggested he get it
checked out. He did check in at the clinic and have some x-rays done, and
that's where he found out he was basically turned around inside. He didn't
think too much more about it until he was called to show up for his draft
physical. He figured that having situs inversus would probably get him out
of it, but they weren't buying that; however, some doctor heard a heart
murmur and decided they didn't need him after all. When he told our parents
this, they insisted that he come home (Syracuse then) and get checked out
immediately. Our next door neighbor was a cardiologist and they enlisted
him to check my brother out. After a couple of days in the hospital and
every possible test, his verdict was, "There's good news and bad news. The
bad news is, you do have a heart murmur. The good news is that you don't
have anything else and you can do anything you want except join the
military." And he has. He's played soccer, traveled the world, climbed Mt.
Rainier and several of the 14,000 ft. peaks in Colorado, and dabbled in
politics (he prefers the "grey eminence" role)--but he's never tried to
enlist!