Precious Time

Pretty big scare today.  My mom called last night, worried that her leg was hurting, swollen, and getting worse.  Took her to the doctor, and when she came out of the exam room she was shaky.  Turns out the doctor wanted her to go straight to the Emergency Room.

So after a battery of tests, it was determined that she has a large blood clot in her leg and a small one in her lung.  The doctor and nurses all seemed optimistic about Mom's recovery with blood thinners.

Although this wasn't quite as scary as Dad's falling off the ladder problems of a few years ago, in the ER waiting room, I was definitely dwelling on just how much time I have left with my parents and how many more trips to the hospital we might be taking in the near future.  Not a pleasant topic for meditation.

My mom, dad, and uncle are all losing their hearing and visibly slowing down both physically and cognitively recently.  I always thought they would become this way in their sixties, but it wasn't until the very late sixties, and now early seventies, that they really are beginning to be like old folks.  So, looking at it from a selfish angle, that gives me only 20 more years, tops, before I'll be constantly saying, "What?!"

Makes me wonder how many more elk hunting trips, how many fishing trips, how many games of pinochle do I get with these folks I love dearly?  After Grandpa, Mike, and Steve, I put a great deal of mental physics into the topic of dying and living.  Hadn't thought about it much lately, but today there was the elephant in the Emergency Room, staring down his trunk at me.

Time.  Priorities.