....
Alone.
Not unlike parents meeting their child in a sonogram, one of my life's most stunningly profound moments was when Judy had a echocardiogram, doctorspeak for the sonogram of the heart. There it was, healthy with a strong beat and I got so excited I clapped my hands in glee.
You see, Judy was my mate, my partner, friend, playmate and savior from the misdirected path I was on, and I was awed by what I was privileged to experience.
Judy's mighty little 71 year young heart stopped at 0022 AM Sunday, October 11, 2015.
It had to. COPD, more specifically Emphysema turned her lungs into a substance incapable of providing Oxygen and removing Carbon Dioxide so the inevitable happened.
Judy never once complained that cigarettes were the cause, she acknowledged her situation and lived her life.
I am honored and so proud she chose to take me in and love me.
There is a lesson for us, and it is: Be aware of .... yourself.
In the same way you know the condition of your baby by the way she drives and feels on the road, pay attention to your body.
Judy epitomized stoic to the point that her excuses for not participating in anything physical completely hid that she had no strength and stamina. She hid symptoms so well, I thought the extreme weight loss was due to Menopause. when, in fact, her body sacrificed itself trying to stay alive to the point you can see what she looked like by looking at starving POW's and children photographs.
And, in the way your car slows to a crawl if the fuel and air filters are plugged, Judy thought the way she felt was normal when she finally decided to heed her doctors advice and discovered her O2 saturation level was 58 when a normal person's O2 level is in the high 90s. Had she paid attention she would not have passed the point where she could not survive the lung transplant that would have saved her.
Moral of the story; Smoke. It only affects the other guy.
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