I walked downstairs this morning, poured a cup of coffee, and watched my daughter walk down the street to the bus stop. As I am watching her walk I glance at our front yard and realize that it is completely decorated for Halloween. I had no idea... I got emotional for a second and realized that I had essentially lost the last week of my life!
The past week has been rough. For those who were not scheduled, or trying to schedule, during that time, I missed three days in the office. That fact alone should give you a pretty good idea just how sick I was. I was confined to my room, with little interaction with my family, or anyone else from the outside world. My youngest had a birthday party in my home that I was completely unable to attend. I couldn't even help with it at all. My youngest and middle daughters, evidently, had soccer games. My youngest was a guest at another birthday party. My oldest attended her first Homecoming Football Game and Dance. At least, I got to see the pictures... As you can see, I missed out on a lot. The illness was rough, but missing out on these opportunities to see my daughters was even tougher.
After some reflection, I found a couple other lessons that could be taken from this experience. Any time we face an obstacle there is often a lesson to be learned if we are willing to look back at the struggle. Sometimes that struggle is tough to process and we don't necessarily want to look back through it again. This particular one was easy to dissect though.
Lesson 1
Sometimes if we don't slow down from time to time, if we continue to go, go, go with no end in sight, our bodies will FORCE us to take a break.
Lesson 2
I definitely took for granted how good I typically feel until I felt like I had been "hit by a truck."
Lesson 3
Isolation from the ones you love can be even harder than any physical illness.
Lesson 4
I have a new level of empathy for those struggling with just getting out of bed in the morning.
Lesson 5
This was another example that confirms what I have been saying for years - I can do everything that I could in my 20's, I just can't recover as quickly as I would have then. This applies to a tough workout, one night with 4 hours of sleep, dehydration, one slice of pizza too many, one drink too many, and now, recovery from illness.
Lesson 6
(Probably the most important lesson!)
Dr. Carol is a ROCKSTAR! I truly do not understand how she was able to do all that she did during that 4 day stretch where I was completely incapacitated. She treated patients that she wasn't scheduled to see in the office, planned and hosted the birthday party, helped with Homecoming prep, shuttled girls to and from soccer matches and other events, continued to run our home, all while still managing to keep me alive!
These are my lessons learned from 4 days stuck in bed!
