An uncertain call.

Today, I am enjoying a day off from seeing patients, and I was once again reminded of the challenges life can throw one's way .  I got a call from a wife of one of my patients this morning at 7:30am.  When a call comes that early in the morning, regardless of who it is from, it is usually not good.  Unfortunately, this particular patient, took a turn for the worse this weekend and his family is now admitting him to hospice care.  In a matter of one week, he went from recovering and working with physical therapy, walking, feeding himself, remaining independent...to becoming pretty unresponsive and unable to fend for himself.  This man, a very gentle, kind and caring guy, is only about 50 years old.  Plagued with a rare degenerative neurological disease classified as a "Leukodystrphy", this patient went from being a well traveled, well established architect, to being confined to a wheelchair and unable to manage his daily care.  I enjoyed visiting him, as we talked about everything from the many countries he had visited to the types of movies he enjoyed.   It was the simple pleasures he got out of life, like that of a visit from his son who is hearing impaired, or a new book, that lead him to remain as happy as possible in the condition he was in.  The first question this man asked me in his very gentle voice was always, "How's Bob?".  When I first started seeing him, Bob was in Switzerland and we talked about his own travels to Switzerland.  Since that first day, he understood how much my marriage means to me and my happiness, and he was always so sincere in asking how everything with Bob was going.  I think he could see that when we started talking marriage, and about Bob, my face always lights up and I am reminded of how happy I am to be married to my best friend.

Sometimes, it is so easy to get caught up in what is happening to me.  While I never would wish any harm or disease/pain upon anyone, it is mornings like today that I wake up and am thankful that I can get myself out of bed, take care of myself and take care of others.  As a nurse, I am constantly reminded of how precious life really is.  While my situation with my lungs isn't ideal, it could always be worse and I am so thankful for the health that I have.  I am so thankful that I was able to walk my dogs today, outside for an hour.  I am so very thankful. 

On closing, I urge everyone to remember those little things in life that we often take for granted.  Having the ability to go to work, to be with friends, to walk the dogs, to feed ourselves.  Always remember, your life could change with that one early morning call, so be thankful when you get through your day and your biggest stressor is that of a work deadline, a meeting or a bill.  Life is too short, to be caught up in those things that really are secondary.

Declutterization

The process has started! We attacked our first decluttering project today in preparation for a hopeful move in the near future.  We want to get our house on the market around April 1st, and we have a lot of work to get done before we can officially go on the market.  It's amazing how much clutter you accumulate.  So far, we have 7 trash bags full of donated items and this is just the beginning.

Bob and I are ready and committed for this change that we need.  A move has been in the conversations for about 6 months now and we are more ready than ever to get the process started.  Over the weekend, we talked about our options and came up with a hopeful plan. 

If all works out, we will be living in Texas again by the end of the year and hopefully much sooner than that. For now, we will continue decluttering!!