Life Changes Quickly

Last Thursday, a dear friend of mine who is only 45 years old suffered a rupture of an artery in his head - an aneurism. Usually this is fatal. For some reason, his was not. He woke up Thursday morning dizzy and unable to stand. From there it got worse, until his wife took him to the Emergency Room Thursday night. There, another friend who is an ER doctor, told him he had had a stroke and air-evaced him to Barrow's Neurological Center in Phoenix. That airlift saved his life. It turns out that a large part of his cerebellum was damaged beyond repair. Saturday night he had surgery to remove the destroyed brain tissue and reduce the swelling. Jan and I went to visit him Sunday and his doctors told us that they expect a full recovery. We are thankful to God for preserving his life through wonderful medical knowledge.

It turns out the cause of this stroke was very simple - Wednesday night he had popped his neck as he often does. You know (are you reading this, Andrea and Cynthia?), he cracked it to relieve the tension in his neck. This caused the artery to rupture. The doctors told us that in the last two months they have had FOUR young people there with strokes who had just had their necks adjusted by chiropractors. The doctors said, "If you have neck tension, take an Advil - don't pop your neck!"

Anyway, here is a young man who had all sorts of other plans for Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and the next month. Instead of accomplishing those plans, he will be resting in bed - all because of a very simple thing that he has probably done thousands of times. He could have died - in almost any prior time he would have died - just from popping his neck.

It made me think about my life. I have thought many times since Friday about how anything I do could be the last thing I ever do on this earth. Not that I am paranoid: I just want to make sure that I don't do things that I know are wrong. I set a life goal many years ago not to die doing something stupid like bridge diving. I also don't want to die having just committed some sin.

This experience has not made me fearful. I am not walking around thinking, "Am I going to die right now? Right now? Right NOW?" It has, however, made me think about all the time I waste. What if I were do die playing Solitaire? Stupid!

Thank you, Heavenly Father, for preserving my friend's life.