Good Morning

Last night as I went to bed I decided that in the morning I’d wake up early, head up to the temple and get a little more direction on what I should do with my life. I’m not one for turning down free direction. That’s right, folks – direction regarding life’s toughest issues for the low low price of only $0.00! We’ll even break it down into three EEeeaasY payments of only $0.00! And if you call within the next 15 minutes, we’ll throw in peace of mind AND a dose of serotonin that comes when serving others!

Anyway, I woke up as planned, ate breakfast, came in my bedroom to give Jo a kiss goodbye and heard a thump downstairs. I’m not sure how to describe it really. I couldn’t decide if someone shut a door too loudly, if something fell off a shelf – I wasn’t sure. A thought crossed my mind that I should go down the stairs and see if everything was OK. I went into the front entry way, put on my coat and was about to leave when I heard Sharon downstairs – yelling for my help. Pretty much everyone reading this knows that my cousin Jesse and his wife Marissa live in our basement. We’ve had a few scares with Jesse and his diabetes – but nothing like this. I came downstairs to Jesse on the floor, next to his bed, with a distorted face and a stiff body – completely unresponsive. I pulled out my phone and called 911. 10 seconds into my conversation, the iPhone strikes again and drops the call. I seriously hate that thing. What a piece. What an honest piece of… Anyway… All I got out was “we’re having an attack, a diabetic attack” I don’t think she heard the “diabetic attack” part before the call dropped – so I was half worried that the house was going to get surrounded by action-hungry cops. (wouldn’t be the first time – I’ll blog about that later) So, I called them back on a REAL phone and got medical personnel on the way. For anyone who has ever called 911, you know what I mean when I say that it felt like an eternity for them to get there. It was probably 3 minutes – but felt like 300. Long story short: The guys came – they helped Jesse. They answered all my questions and helped further my edumacation in the ways of diabetes and what I can do to help if this happens again.

Looking back on the whole experience, I feel that I learned what I needed to learn this morning. It isn’t really anything I can put into words – or anything that would make sense, unless of course you’ve been living in my head for the last few years. One lesson I did learn, however, was that if someone you know has a disease – you may not have to “live” with it, but that disease is now part of your life and you need to learn how to manage it. Now, if this ever happens again, I’m in a better position to handle the situation. I don’t know everything about it – but I know more than I used to; and that’s the way we learn.