Being thankful I made it to another birthday

Many of you know that in May of 2006, about two weeks after Benjamin was born, I woke up one morning and instantly realized I was having trouble breathing, with sharp chest pains on my left side.

Without getting bogged down in details, an hour or two later it wasn't better, so I called my doctor and was told to go to the ER.

It turned out I had something called a Pulmonary Embolism, which is the sudden blockage of an artery in the lung. I was admitted to ICU and wasn't even allowed out of bed for several days. I had to use a bedpan and everything. I had permanent damage on a spot of my lungs, but obviously survived.

I had never heard of a "PE" until I had one. Months later when things were a little calmer and less surreal, I did some research and found thing like this:

At least 100,000 cases of PE occur each year in the United States. PE is the third most common cause of death in hospitalized patients. If left untreated, about 30 percent of patients with PE will die. Most of those who die do so within the first few hours of the event.


and this:


Massive PE is one of the most common causes of unexpected death, being second only to coronary artery disease as a cause of sudden unexpected natural death at any age.

Approximately 10% of patients in whom acute PE is diagnosed die within the first 60 minutes.

The diagnosis of PE is missed more than 400,000 times in the US each year, and approximately 100,000 patients die who would have survived with the proper diagnosis and treatment.


Kind of striking, no?

It puts having a birthday (today, June 7, and yes, I have the same birthday as Prince) in a new perspective.

I'm grateful that God let me live that day. I'm thankful He wasn't willing to have a five year old, three year old, and newborn premature baby lose their Mommy.