Gratitude day #7
Today I am grateful for good medical and dental care.
Really. I should be dead.
I was born to a woman in her 40s. In today's world, that doesn't seem like much. In 1955, it was. Mom developed high blood pressure that would never leave her; putting both her and me at risk.
I had normal childhood accidents. But, I wasn't often taken to the hospital or the emergency room.
However...in my adult life, I have become a hazard to my own self.
I will always be grateful for the good and tender and clean conditions surrounding me when each of our children were brought into the world. When the last one was delivered, there were some frantic moments that resulted in emergency surgery. We made it, when only a few years ago neither of us would have.
Our children had the opportunity for good care, and we kept on top of it. We wanted to give them the best start in life that we could.
Just over ten years ago, I nearly lost my life due to a bowel obstruction. I can't recall a time where my life was in such peril. I was rushed to Columbus for surgery that began at 11:30 pm, and lasted through the night. I was hospitalized for a month...then was released. Out for a week...then back in with a collapsed lung. Out again...then back in for pleurisy.
It was when I was reading my medical records that I realized what peril I had been in. It also made me realize how important prayer is - especially the prayers of others. I was so out of my head that I couldn't formulate the words to even say one. I had no choice but to depend on the prayers of others to say what I could not say.
It would take me nearly a year to recuperate.
I later learned that a distant cousin would die of the very same thing that I had. He dropped to the ground at a gas station, and they couldn't save him.
For some reason, I was saved. I will spend the remainder of my life figuring out why, and to show my gratitude to God for preserving my life.
My grandmother used to say when your foot, your tooth, or your ear hurts, you hurt everywhere...for, you just can't concentrate on anything when you have pain there.
She would know. She always went barefoot. She had one tooth. And, she couldn't hear very well.
How grateful I am that doctors can tell what is going on in my body without actually having to go in there. We live in a day of medical miracles. May I never forget that.
Ever.
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