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4 comments:
Your mom and I were comparing memories just now about your illnesses in early childhood. (Necessary exposition for others reading this:) You had some life-threatening episodes starting before you were even a year old. You were born with a trachea about two sizes too small, so that when you had a cold or any upper respiratory problem, the trachea tended to narrow down to the diameter of a pencil lead. Obviously, that meant you could barely get enough air.
And at times you flat-out could not get enough air. Because the condition tended to get worse at various times of day, you had episodes of being almost unable to breathe. After one particularly horrible one, during which your heart stopped and had to be started again with an injection of adrenaline directly into the heart, the docs finally decided to perform a tracheotomy and leave the device in for – for however long necessary. That turned out to be several years.
You eventually outgrew the need for it, simply because, as you grew larger, your trachea also grew larger. Good old Pi-R-squared came to your rescue. A trachea that is twice as wide as it was before will admit four times as much air.
I was kind of disappointed when they took it out, because I had seen it as a great emergency backup. Taking it away seemed like taking the ejection seat out of a jet and telling the pilot “You won’t really need this from now on.” Besides, you could always amuse people by breathing through it.
I’m probably babbling on about this because (I think) we’ve been through tough times before, and will again.
--Dad (Sorry, don't have a GoogleLiveWhatever account and don't want one.)
Thanks for the excellent post, Mike's Dad. I feel this too, that life is a struggle at times, and you struggle through those times that are hard.
Looks like some hard times coming.
Anyway, I've got your cancer blog back in my daily internet read, Michael - can't say as that I'm glad about it, nor are you, I'd guess.
May the Goddess bless and keep you!
John
Damn. Well, I guess it's time for you to get back to fighting it.
Be strong, be well.
When I first Read this, I wanted to punch something, but I'm a bit of a wuss and not much good at that. You are strong enough to beat this and I hope you know that there are many many people in your corner. Anything I can do just let me know.
Be well my friend.
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