On December 29, 2012 I wrote a blog post trying to describe my belief that things happen for a reason. Now whether you believe in a higher power, or you consider yourself "spiritual but not religious," life brings us circumstances that leave us considering that there is more than coincidence working when an incredible series of events take place that lead to awesome outcomes. Here is one such story.
This was a summer to remember! It started with an emergency surgery with two days left in the school year. I woke up on Monday morning with a little bit of a stomach ache and a bloated feeling. Over the course of the day, the pain started to move down the abdomen and to the right. By the end of the day, the pain was located around my belt-line on the right-side, almost to my hip bone. It was the end of the school year and as Department Head I had to inventory all of our math books, so I associated the pain, that was much more intense now, with a pulled muscle from moving hundreds of books around the school.
That night our staff softball team was playing their third game of the season, and I am the manager and pitcher. While warming up, the pain was intense and a teammate asked me why I was grabbing my belly. I said I thought I maybe had a hernia, to which he asked if I should be playing softball with a hernia. I smirked and said, "We'll see." I played through the pain, and would have hit for the cycle, but I made the mistake of taking it easy on the other team by stopping at third when we were up 14-2. They later came back and we tied 17-17.
That night as I was getting ready for bed, I noticed the pain had not "worked itself out" as men sometimes claim muscle pulls will when playing a sport. I hoped that I would wake up in the morning and things would be better. Nope. That's not all what happened. Instead I woke up at 3:30am with increased pain that was more steadfast than most pains I have experienced. It was bad enough that I called the hotline at my Doctor's office, and asked for advice. Upon hearing my story of the day and current pain levels, the nurse urged me to go to the ER. Yay!
I had to research, or really my Mom did the research on what the appendix is used for in the body. Most of us have heard that they are not used for anything, so why do we have them? Turns out that there are some enzymes in the appendix during the gestational period that cannot be found anywhere else in the body. So it is useful during the time we go from a peanut, to a slimy-delivered baby. After that, no use what-so-ever. Oh, except to cause extreme pain and a surgery that makes me miss the last two days of school!
You might be wondering, "This does not seem like coincidence or like it happened for a reason. It just sucks." And you are right! But this did start a chain of events that led to awesomeness!
Come back for Part 3 soon....
