Ups and downs

Monday was a good day: Total cleaning frenzy on my part which means that my windows are now sparkling clean for the first time in months. Hurrah!
It was filled with dogs and horses and birds as always.

A friend came for dinner and stayed the night, we had pear cider in the sunshine and salmon and macadamia nuts and avocado salad and yams and great conversations about relationships, the meaning of life, hippies, spiritual things, and the good old days.

Our dogwood is blooming for the first time ever and I caught a magical moment in our kitchen where the sunlight was streaming through the freshly cleaned windows and bathed my table into a magical, glowing light.

 



Magical afternoon light streaming in through sparkly clean windows. 'tis a thing of beauty



Then yesterday: BOOM. Health scare. Rich had quite a bit of pain in his leg, we went to his doctor, were sent to the hospital. Got an ultrasound. Needed to go to the emergency department. Got the results: Deep Vein Thrombosis. Were sent to a specialist today: It's in his lower leg, 20cm long. Treatable, he will be on blood thinners for 3 months or maybe longer.

All in all: things are fine. Or will be again. But man, what a scary 24 hours. I love him so, and we were so worried. Really down. People can die when the blood clot gets lose and makes its way to the lungs. Or cause a stroke.
I can't even think about it. I need this man so much, and he needs me.

Seriously, our health is the most important thing in our life.
We tend to forget it or take it for granted - until we are in danger of losing it.

source

On the bright side, this whole experience has given me a newfound appreciation for our health care system and the people working in it.
Richard called for an appointment with his (very busy) GP, and they fit him in the very next day. He was so concerned that he arranged an ultrasound for the same afternoon; from there we were sent to the ER for treatment.

We spent there about 3 hours, which is really very good nowadays; but even though the wait wasn't that bad and we were comfortable, we had 2 nurses and the ER doctor apologizing to us for the delay. Wow!
The (young and pretty) ER doc made an appointment for us with a specialist whom we saw today. He was young and gorgeous as well (is there something in the water in North Van?) and very thorough - we spent nearly an hour in his office.

All this medical attention and excellent service for $0.00! Where else do you get this?
Plus everybody we were involved with was friendly, efficient, and competent.
They made this scary experience as pleasant as possible, and it makes me feel proud to be part of the medical community here in BC.

Okay, I'm getting mushy now, so it's time to stop.

Peace out!
Miriam