No Joke

One year ago today, my husband almost died. He was cooking dinner - broiling steaks, boiling rice. He was working the overnight shift, so he was planning to eat dinner with Brytin and me and then go to sleep for a little while before going in to work...

And then he started to feel weird. He said there was a weird feeling in his chest. He tried to lay down, but that it made his chest actually hurt. He said it felt constricted, and he could only take shallow breaths.

He tried to walk it off, but then said, "I think I need to go to the hospital."

Chris, Brytin and I piled in the Escape. I used the navigation on my phone to find the nearest hospital. I did my best to reassure Brytin that his daddy was going to be fine. I did my best to encourage Chris that he really would be fine. I flew through red lights. I drove way too fast around corners until we finally arrived at the hospital over by Grossmont mall.

Unfortunately, at that time, Grossmont was doing some sort of construction and it took a really long time to find the emergency room. It was a very stressful situation. We didn't know what was going on, I couldn't cry because Brytin was with me, and Chris couldn't breathe.

It was the worst April Fool's Day of my life.

Obviously, my husband survived :D His left lung had spontaneously collapsed. Apparently, tall skinny guys are susceptible to spontaneous lung collapse. Their chest cavities are too small for their lungs and the air pressure gets off kilter and it collapses. Nothing he did caused it. There is nothing he can do to prevent it. Having it happen once doesn't necessarily mean it will happen again, but it might.

I write about this today, because it's heavy on my mind. My husband is once again working overnights this week. He's been taking the truck instead of his motorcycle, so if something were to happen, I wouldn't have a vehicle to do anything...

I know that worrying won't solve any problem, but I adore my husband so much...losing him would be the worst thing that could ever possibly happen to me.

I'm sure he'll be fine, and we'll laugh about this next week, but tonight, when he leaves for work at 11 pm, I will definitely say an extra prayer. And then I will spend the night playing Farmville to calm my nerves :)