perspective

Occasionally, life happens in such a way as to make me regain perspective. It yanks me out of the minutiae of petty drama, and shows me the cinema scope of what is most important. That has happened this week. I get so torqued over the unimportant drama of my job, sometimes losing focus of why I go in to work in the first place. Well, this week has been a lesson.
I was struck down by my first ever case of bronchitis. I thought it was just a cold-with-cough, but after 4 weeks of it (compounded by laryngitis) I went to the doc. It took 2 courses of antibiotics to get rid of it. Well during this personal illness, my dear, sweet hubby was assaulted by a kidney stone. Not his first, but certainly the worst-7mm in size. Tuesday morning at 5am we were in the ER. They doped him up, did a CAT scan and told him to schedule an appointment with a urologist. The pain meds they gave him only took the edge off. He went on Thursday and was supposed to go back Friday (yesterday) for a pre-op appointment, to get ready for lithotripsy (sonic blasting of the stone). Well, the intense pain hit again about 6am yesterday. He took both of the pain drugs, but they did not help. He threw up on the entire drive to the doctor's office in Hickory. He threw up the 45 minutes we waited to be seen, he continued to throw up while they were x-raying and examining him. They gave him a strong injection (50mg Demerol & 50mg Phenergan) for pain and nausea and he continued to throw up. In the whirlwind of it all, they got him for emergency surgery. He now has a stent to bypass the monster stone until they can blast it. The kidney was not draining and that was making him very ill. It could have been even worse, but the doctors, nurses and all those involved at Frye Hospital took care of him. They even had valet parking so I could get him in very quickly. He is tires and sore from all the vomiting, but at least he is more comfortable and his kidney is able to drain.
What I do at work, I do to earn money for us to live. My job is not my life.
Sometimes I forget that.