SLOW DOWN AND ENJOY EACH DAY

Last week my day had begun like all others. Except for one difference.

It was one day until summer was going to begin and I was going to have my office to myself.

I greeted the day like I normally do. With my Chai Tea and was laughing with co-workers when I began to feel "weird".

Weird in a bad way, like I needed to take a deeper breath. Weird in the way that you feel when your asthma is going to cause you problems during the day. No matter, I was getting used to it since the heat wave had gripped the DC area earlier in the month.

I decided to give my gut feeling a nod and go check with my nurse. Just for my own satisfaction.

She checked my blood pressure and was 'a little concerned' but not overly. She gave me some aspirin and told me to come back.

A little backstory: I rely on my school nurses and trust them over anyone I have every talked to. Even my own doctors.

When I went back at 10:12 AM, she took my blood pressure again and said, "Go to Patient First, right now".  I walked back to my office and gathered my things and said, "Apparently I need to go to Patient First".

I walked in, sat down but my school nurse had already called. They came and got me and while performing the 'check in process' the nurse came and said, "We are going to send you to the closet hospital".

Two days later, I was released after having a cardiac emergency.

I tell you this for one reason. No matter what you are doing in your life, SLOW DOWN and ENJOY each day.

Not knowing if you are going to walk out of a hospital is a very sobering thought.

Being put on a heart monitor and taking blood pressure readings six times a day, along with Heparin injections and nitrogylcerin pills is also the sign that you need to slow down.

My writing will continue and so will my tiny house build but I am enjoying each day and nothing is more important to me, right now in this moment, than slowing down and realizing that I was given a few more moments to enjoy the world around me.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Today is July 25, 2013 and I have a brace on my left arm. You will see why that date is so important. Well, technically it is on my wrist.

You may be thinking...oh she must have carpal tunnel or maybe tendonitis, right? Wrong!

On Monday, July 20 I closed my door of my car and noticed a sharp pain in my wrist but didn't want to stop what I was doing long enough because in the words of Sugar Brown, "aint nobody got time for that". So I bared the pain and kept it moving.

That was until July 23, when I was headed to dance class. Yes, I am dancing like a fool every Tuesday night and having a blast. That's a different blog. Back to the story. So on Tuesday, I got out of the car and put my hand down on the seat as I got out and let me just tell ya; the pain that shot through my arm all but sent me sprawling onto the pavement. I wanted to cry like a 6 week old baby wanting her bottle but I tried to pull myself together. It didn't work. The pain got worse and worse; kinda like a contraction when you go into labor and just like a contraction, it went away.

Now on July 24th, I was sitting in my sitting room doing a little writing and sat my laptop down beside me and went to get up. Placed my hand down, to help myself up and when I opened my eyes; I was looking at the ceiling! What! What! Goodness I passed out from the pain and that is when I decided that maybe, just maybe, I needed to see a doctor.

So at noon on July 24th I went to the doctors and at 4pm I walked out with this on my arm. Courtesy of two cracks in the bone in my wrist. 

So for four days, I walked around with a fractured wrist; thinking that the pain would go away if I didn't touch anything!

Moral of this story: If you hear a crack, or pull something or are in pain. Go to the doctors.

Because I didn't make time, I have to wear this thing for at least two weeks; making my life much harder. (note: I probably would have still had to wear it but the pain was something that could have been handled with the right pain meds)

Boston Marathon

I had to write about the tragedy in Boston on Monday.

Whoever did this is getting exactly what they want.

The news is talking about 'them' every day but I refuse to.

I want to talk about the +Jeff Bauman who lost both of his legs while waiting for his girlfriend to finish her first marathon. The 8 year old, who has been described as 'adorable' and Ms.Campbell, whose parents 'are heartbroken".

Those victims didn't deserve to die in such a horrific manner, doing something that they enjoyed. Supporting their family and friends.

The memories of that day will forever be in the minds of the people who were there. We have only seen the images and seen the videos of the heroics that were done by people like + Mr. Arredondo, who helped wheel Mr. Bauman to safety.

The runners, who were exhausted but ran back with the little energy that they had left and helped the massive amount of people that were left wounded on the sidewalks. The news teams that worked for hours to cover this horrific story and the men and women of the +Boston Police department who worked into the night trying to restore calm and order.

The volunteers who stayed to make sure that many people, who left their backpacks behind, were able to retrieve their belongings.

Those are the people that I would like to say thank you to. Those people showed incredible courage and strength to the people who were running a little low.

To the people of +Boston, we salute you and we stand with you.