Blessings

When you are laying in a hospital bed having just lost half your blood supply, you tend to think in different terms than ever before.  I couldn't help but look at that red liquid running through a tube into my arm and wonder who gave that blood to me.  To them it probably didn't seem like much of a sacrifice but to me, it seemed that person and the three others who gave their blood became very important.

It is not the first time I have had a blood transfusion but the others took place 30 years ago and I didn't need nearly so much.  I didn't even know I was bleeding this time for quite a while and then suddenly they were telling me that I had lost a whole lot!  What if I hadn't bled externally ever or what if my daughter hadn't responded to my phone call or what if I had passed out before getting in touch with someone.  What if, what if, what if!

Our lives are all so tenuous and we repeat something to that effect frequently but do we ever really "think" what that really means.  This all happened so quickly and I didn't even know it was happening.  How many of us have lost loved ones to a really quick event.  One minute they are here and the next, they are gone.

My experience is pretty much in the past now.  They gave me four units of blood, checked my blood count and said,  "You have a full tank now." as if I was an automobile but I'm not.  Our bodies are miraculous and they can be fixed pretty readily in the right circumstances but our thought processes are altered for a very long time.  I still find myself repeating that old "I'm so tired!" phrase but this time it is physically tired for a very good reason.  My brain processes aren't tired and I find myself thinking about this a lot.

I am soooo grateful that none of the what ifs happened.  I am still able to do pretty much that I have always been able to do but now I do it with so much more appreciation.  What a wonderful gift life is.  How wonderful is it to be blessed with such good family and friends.  How wonderful that there is a hospital within 10 minutes of my house where they can "fix" so many things.  What if I had been a pioneer on the plains when this took place.  It would probably have pretty much been good bye to "This is the place!"  A prairie grave would probably have been mine.

Being so fortunate is sometimes a heavy burden but it can also bring great delight!  Thanks whoever you are for giving blood for some unknown being.  Thanks Heavenly Father for putting me here and now when  this technology is available and I have all these amazing blessings.