The Monster (Part II)

If you haven't read part I, please go there now before you read this.


Serendipity

Websters defines Serendipity this way:

1)The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.
2)The fact or occurrence of such discoveries.
3)An instance of making such a discovery.

My definition of Serendipity is when a confluence of events occur simultaneously, and the end result is good fortune on your part.

Luck, in other words.

I lived in a home that was no more than a half mile down a residential street from a fire station. A fire station that in fact also had an EMT set-up. My wife - a registered nurse who always works the nighttime shift, was off the night before and was subsequently sleeping next to me. My daughter - 18, intelligent and fast becoming responsible, was living with us while she went to college locally. This my friends, is serendipity at it's finest.

I'm told that within a matter of 3-5 minutes, the ambulance and fire truck were at my front door. The reason this happened so quickly is in no small part related to the fact that I had a medical professional lying next to me...someone who kept a cool head, called 9-1-1, and calmly assisted in the disposition of one rather frantic patient - me. Time IS of the essence in a stroke or a heart attack, and the lack of even a single wasted minute could very well be part of the reason I'm sitting here typing to you today.

I have no recollection of the arrival of the ambulance at the hospital (again - less than 6 minutes away), so I can't go into specific detail. My first memory is how bright the fluorescent lights were in the emergency room. I knew where I was because I saw some sort of a sign as I passed under it while drifting in and out of consciousness. The first words I heard were that of a female saying "the code is here now". I can only assume she meant me, because I was suddenly transformed into a race car with the pit crew pouring over me attempting to find out what was wrong with the engine. I remember a rather somber (maybe she was tired) female doctor asking me to open my eyes and talk to her. I attempted to speak, but what came out was a gibberish of slurred, mispronounced, and totally destroyed words. I couldn't speak.

And I was horrified.

I remember trying to tell her the lights were hurting my eyes, but I couldn't. My frustration was mounting, and she could obviously sense that. While the doctor attempted to reassure me, I suddenly felt a hand close around my right hand - the first sensation I had on my right side in...in....how long had it been, by the way? I didn't feel the skin touching my skin. I felt the warmth of the other hand. I turned my head to the side, and it was my daughter. Suddenly I started to calm down. I asked (this part took fully 3 or 4 minutes to get out), where everyone was. My daughter told me she had brought my son to school, and my wife was registering me in. I think we tried to have a conversation, which we both quickly knew was an impossibility. I started to laugh. She started to laugh. The next thing you knew, there I was on a hospital gurney, tubes in me and paralyzed, and I was laughing harder than I ever had in my life, and I couldn't stop.

Sunovabitch, I had the giggles.

I kept on laughing and laughing, and I remember one point where the doctor came over and gave me a disbelieving look. To be honest, to this day I feel as if it was a look of condemnation. Here is what she didn't know. While laughing uncontrollably, my mind was still functioning fairly well under the circumstances. I had made a commitment to myself right then and there. You see, I knew the deal, and I knew what an uphill battle I had just inadvertently become a combatant in. Given that knowledge, I had two avenues I could go down. I could give up, give in, and call it a day - permanently. Or I could accept the facts, deal with the issues, and fight back hard. I chose to fight, and step one was re-instilling my self-deprecating nature, and with it laughter at my own predicament. When you think about it, what was the alternative?

That's right. Crying.