Sometimes the Universe has a way of slapping you in the face to wake you up. That happened to me in the last week.

Mike fishing in Washington.

On Thursday (May 3) we celebrated our 32^nd Anniversary. I know, hard to believe that someone as young as me could be married 32 years. It was a normal day. John had a Jazz Band concert at Colby Community College that evening so we went with my parents to dinner and the concert.

Everything was normal enough until about a quarter til five in the morning when Mike suddenly woke up very short of breath. I went and got inhalers and the nebulizer, he did a breathing treatment and we decided to go to the walk-in clinic later in the morning.

The doctor who saw him in the clinic said his lungs sounded pretty clear and ordered a chest x-ray. The x-ray looked like he had pneumonia, so he was admitted to the hospital for IV antibiotics.

His hemoglobin was dropping, and they had ordered blood to transfuse him. His blood has antibodies, so they must order special blood and they hadn’t done that soon enough. Sunday morning it still wasn’t there and his hemoglobin was approaching dangerous levels.

He texted me about 10:00 am saying his hemoglobin was just above five, blood wasn’t expected until at least 2:30, and transferring by plane. I didn’t understand. Are they transferring the blood or you by plane? After a few more texts I called, better communications that way.

Mike in his garden.

They were transferring him by plane. The doctor had been talking with his pulmonologist (who happened to be on call) at KU Med Center. They needed to see what was going on. Someone, I’m not sure if it was the flight company or insurance wanted to take him to Denver. That doesn’t make any sense, all your doctors and records are at KU, I said. His primary care physician was holding out for the KU route.

OK, I’ll get ready and start driving east so I have transportation. At around 12:30 he was in the air and shortly after that I was on the road. I would arrive around 6:00 that evening. He got there around 2:00.

Why a wake-up call. Things had been fairly stable for the last few weeks. We had been going to Hays for chemo and he had some appointments at KU but besides that, there hadn’t been anything urgent.

I had gotten complacent and was taking things for granted. Maybe I was a little cranky (I’ll blame that on the steroids I was taking during chemo). Life is much easier when things aren’t up in the air.

A glass sculpture in the lobby of the heart hospital at KU Med Center.

When I went home on Friday afternoon after he was admitted to the hospital in Colby I turned on Pandora. It is amazing how the Universe gives us what we need. The songs that played were the smarmy ballads that I loved when we were dating. When I got in the pickup to drive to Kansas City one of the first songs that played was the first song we had danced to on my 18^th birthday.

The wake-up call is to look at everything through Fresh Eyes. Don’t take anything for granted.

I’m A Believer in the lessons we learn from the Universe.

Onward! Treatment And What I Wasn’t Prepared For

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