In a previous post, I told you about the whirlwind that have been spinning around me (to get caught up, click here).  An upcoming marriage, a new business, new place to live, a new part time job; A lot of things that are happening all at once.  Well, things finally caught up with me.

I was doing so much, and handling it all.  I was “taking care of business”, or so I thought.

One Friday, I woke up with a pain in my upper back.  “No big deal,” I thought, as I continued tending to the cares of that day.  Well, that pain got progressively worse.  By Sunday afternoon, the pain had grown and traveled to my upper left side of my back.  I was worried, but when did I have the time to deal with it?

After some urging from my fiance’ and her friend, I decided to go to the doctor on Monday morning.  The nurse checked my blood pressure, and it was quite high (150/100).  Checked my heart rate, and it, too was high (120 beats per minute or bpm’s).  A short time later, the doctor came in.  She said, “Well, based on your symptoms, we want to rule out a pulmonary embolism: That’s a blood clot in the lung.  I will send you to the ER to get a CT Scan.”  I thought, “WHAT!? Are you serious?”  I didn’t think that my pain was that serious.  After the doctor told me that, I realized the severity of things in that moment.

Upon arrival, I thought I would just get a CT Scan and be on my way.  Not so.  I was brought back and laid on the bed.  By that time, my blood pressure was higher than it was a few hours ago (161/100).  To make matters worse, my heart rate was higher as well (131 bpm’s).  I thought, “I don’t care what it is, God: just handle it.”  I still maintained my cool, but inside I was starting to worry a little.

They hooked me up to the EKG machine, to check my heart’s circuitry.  So far so good.  I had an x-ray of my upper chest.  That came back fine.  I also was given something for the blood pressure, that instantly returned back to normal.  The doctor diagnosed that I had a viral infection.  He prescribed plenty of rest and Tylenol.  That was it.  Nothing more, nothing less.

By the time the doctor came to visit, by fiance’ had arrived. Why did she have to hear the part about rest?  For the next couple of days, she hounded me about resting.  She texted me several times throughout the day, making sure that I was resting.  My nerves were wearing thin, but I was thankful for the check in.  I could only eat, sleep and relax.  You don’t know how ridiculously hard that was for me!  I wanted to do so much, but could do none of it.

Fast forwarding 48 hours later, I eased into doing work.  I stress the word “ease.”  Honestly, I took this time to reset.  I’m trying not to do “too much” anymore.  I do my work, but I’m slowly learning to do what I can, and pick up the rest later.  It’s tough, but well worth it.

I don’t want to be have to be told by God to, “have a seat,” again.

Until Next Time,

Love & Peace.

-Herbie #haveaseat