8SNAKE;
Good afternoon to you sir, I hope the day's been behaving itself for you and you're well.
I'll start with a sincere thank you for the thread and for those who've shared some of the bumps in the road they've had.
When I read them it's difficult for me to comprehend the anguish it'd cause me if I was asked to go there, you know?
Then again the Good Book indicates we'll not be asked to go through what we cannot endure, but I'll admit sometimes when I'm in the midst of it I do wonder.
Personally I find it easier to deal with "stuff" happening to me than it happening to others I care for. My gut feel is we're all that way.
A week or not quite back I outlined on the catheter thread how I ended up in a Stryker frame for 5 weeks and then another couple weeks on top of that with a body cast. It's interesting you noted a white light as I've talked to a few people and they've related similar experience. I want to say I felt like I was about to walk across a bridge - more like a BC railway trestle though as there was that "no guardrail" feel. All I had to do was reach out and go and I'd be on my way, you know?
Because of the extent of my injuries breathing was intensely uncomfortable so I did give stopping that activity some serious consideration.
Parents weren't easy either for us or 3 of the 4 were not. I was there at 2:00AM when the EMTs loaded Dad into the ambulance with another stroke. I was the one who told the doctor not to take measures like you've described to save him at a little after 5:00 as well as Mom wasn't in any condition to make that decision. Bless Dad's heart, but he'd discussed that with me many, many times - but never once with Mom.
Both of our Mom's ended up in dementia care facilities. Having to accept that we couldn't take care of them and then watching them unravel before our eyes wasn't pleasant either for sure.
That all said and taken into account, I'd have to say holding one of our daughters on my lap as we sped to meet the ambulance - her bleeding from a head wound from a high powered pellet gun - me not knowing if she was crossing over or would have permanent damage...
Indeed that's it for me sir.
Funny how we don't even think about some of those moments, much less attempt to articulate them is it not?
We've had some financial ups and downs like everyone else, been evacuated for a wildfire once and on standby last year, but that's all pretty insignificant in comparison.
Still, when I look back on my life I'll still tell you or anyone who will listen that I've been blessed far, far beyond anything I could ever have done to deserve it.
Thanks again for the thread, I do believe it was good for me personally today and I appreciate it.
Good luck on your hunts this fall.
Dwayne
