The way I see it...

First of all, I want to start by thanking you all for your thoughts and prayers for Blake.  He had his surgery last Wednesday to replace his dialysis catheter and things went as well as could be expected.

We headed down on Tuesday for appointments and were able to come home Saturday afternoon.  I remembered how much I dislike hospital stays, but it was nice because my husband was there with me to pass the time.  It was not fun that Jenna, Brody and Bowen were in State Center and I missed them like crazy.  

We are gradually getting Blake back where he was pre-surgery for his dialysis.  You have to take things kind of slowly so his catheter doesn’t leak.  We also have to head down to Iowa City weekly for the next four weeks or so for dressing (the gauze/bandages covering his catheter) changes.

While I HATE being in the hospital, I’m also grateful for the time and perspective I get there.  I don’t get it anywhere else.  I’m grateful for the conversations that I have and the people that I meet.

We met a student from Chicago who is starting his junior year at Iowa and is majoring in Microbiology in hopes to be a Physician’s Assistant someday.  He was awesome and really took to Blake.  We met a family who had six kids (three girls, three boys) who had one of their daughters in for surgery to fix her kidney reflux.  We met up with Blake’s kidney buddy from Des Moines who had his transplant a week before.

I didn’t really see who was staying next to us, but I said hello to the parents several times.  Well, Aaron actually talked to the dad out in the hall.  His teenage daughter has an inoperable brain tumor and was given three to six months to live.  She will spend her last days in the hospital.

As Aaron was telling me this, I could not hold back the tears.  Why should this teenager, who should have so much life in front of her, have to go through this?  Why?!

I ran on Sunday because I needed to.  I thought about that sweet teenager, whose name I didn’t know, but whose story brought me to tears.  I ran for her.  7.1 miles that day.  I bet she would give anything to be able to run, walk and just do whatever the heck she wants, but she can’t.  But, I can.

I saw this quote on Twitter while at the hospital, “Our health always seems much more valuable after we lose it.”  It struck a chord with me, for obvious reasons.  All you need to do is people watch and see the wheelchairs, tubes and machines that pass by you at the hospital.

I don’t want to take my health for granted.  I don’t want to value it after I lose it.  I want to embrace it, right now while I have the opportunity to do just that, but that’s just the way I see it.