I am a Yid from Monsey. My son had fluid in his ears, and the doctor gave us a referral for surgery to insert tubes in his ears in order to drain them. I told my neighbor about this.
He responded with this story: “Listen to what happened with my son. The doctor gave us a referral for this very same surgery, and I made an appointment for it in Manhattan. On the day of appointment we got up very early and traveled for two hours. The boy was fasting. We were stressed and nervous and anxious to have it all behind us. The doctor checked him and said, ‘He has an infection. We can’t do surgery when there’s an infection. Go home, and come back when his infection is cured.’”
This neighbor’s story was really unpleasant. I learned a lesson from it, and I decided I would make sure there was no infection anywhere in his body. Immediately after I made an appointment for the surgery, I also made an appointment with our family doctor, to examine him a few days prior to surgery so I would not be sent home because of an infection.
Close to the day of surgery, the doctor examined my son, and baruch Hashem, everything was fine. We set out calmly for surgery, my son fasting, and we arrived at the special clinic. We went in to the doctor, and only then was a strange mistake discovered: This clinic did not do these types of surgeries! The doctor where our appointment was scheduled does not deal with this at all. He does all sorts of things related to ears, but surgery – no.
Thus, exactly what happened to my neighbor happened to me as well, only for a different reason that I could not have anticipated. I saw that when Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants something to happen, no hishtadlus will help. I don’t know why we had to go through it and what we had to be mesakein, but clearly, the entire back-and-forth, the preparation for surgery and the need to reschedule the appointment, this time at the right place – everything is from Hashem yisbarach. The chochmah is to rely on Him and not on our own hishtadlus.
