FORCED TO "WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE"
The "avoidance of reality" can get you killed! I learned that lesson a few years years ago - the year I retired. I was scheduled to celebrate the event with a friend of mine by going to France for a stay at a small chateau that someone won at a charity auction and gave to me as a gift. We had bought our plane tickets, our train tickets and had our car rented. Two days before we were to leave, I was getting off my treadmill when I noticed one leg looked a little swollen and was sort of red-looking. I usually do not pay much attention to things like that, but because I would be flying again, I thought it would be a good idea to go to the emergency room to be sure it was OK.
Well, you probably already know about emergency rooms and how long it takes to "get in" after you "sign in." To kill time, I walked around the emergency room looking for people I could introduce myself to and maybe offer some comfort. I saw several people who were suffering from visible and invisible pain situations. After a few hours of that, I was getting restless and had almost made up my mind to go home and go on the trip anyway. I finally talked myself out of that option and in another fifteen or twenty minutes they called my name. I was placed on a gurney and they began an ultrasound on my leg. After that was finished, the technician said to me, "Do not move! Do not get off the gurney! The doctor will be in shortly to give you the results and talk to you!" When the doctor came in, he said very seriously, "Mr. Knott, you have a blood clot in your leg! We are going to admit you right away and start you on IV blood thinners! Do not move about! They will take you to your room right away! If that blood clot comes loose, you could have a paralyzing stroke or be dead in a few minutes if it goes to your lungs!"
I spent three days in the hospital without even getting out of the bed to go to the bathroom with an IV needle in my arm pumping blood thinners into my system. On the third evening, the doctor came in and dismissed me. I had driven myself to the hospital, and my car was still in the parking lot, so I drove myself home - about a mile to my nearby condo.
All the way home, I thanked God for saving my life. If I had left the emergency room in an impatient hissy-fit and left for France with that blood clot in my leg, I have no doubt that I would have died on the plane going over. As it turned out, after four or five years on oral blood thinners, I found out that I did not have a "hereditary blood clotting factor in my blood" after all, as they had first thought. My blood clot probably had been triggered "situationally," meaning from all the flying, sometimes twice a week, that I had been doing over the last few years while leading priest retreats in ten countries.
In such a situation, my advice to all of you is this! Believe your own eyes even if you are only suspicious! Wake up and smell the coffee! Go to the emergency room and stay there till you are checked out, no matter what you have scheduled and no matter how long it takes! If you don't, it could be your last day!
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