In 2013 he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. It's one of the reasons that we sold just about everything we owned including our home and left our comfortable life in the community we'd been in for ten years. I think a lot of people have in their minds, "One day we are going to travel to (fill in the blank)." We had always talked about seeing the Pacific Northwest and Maine.
When you are diagnosed with MS, you can't say for sure what your retirement years are going to look like. He may still be going strong and I may still have to yell at him that we are NOT taking that "shortcut" when we go on hikes. Or he may be in the condition that he's seen some of his own MS patients in when he worked in home health.
We decided to make the changes that needed to be made to prepare for the future. So we are creating memories now. We are not waiting until retirement. He went back to school to become a Family Nurse Practitioner, which we believe will be less physically stressful than being an ER nurse.
A few weeks ago we took a trip back to Texas to see his neurologist because he'd been having some new symptoms. A new MRI showed new plaques on his brain and the doctor prescribed a medication with a cost like no other I've ever heard of. As I sat in the exam room with him, in the midst of this new information, we were laughing. I don't remember at what. But we were laughing so hard I was crying and hoping that the doctor didn't walk in and think I was crazy.
We laugh a lot. James just wanted to go get some Texas chips and hot sauce after that.
While in Texas he also suffered a back injury that resulted in other complications that had us sitting in a California ER for 6 hours yesterday. Talk about entertaining! Interesting place.
Everywhere we go he makes at least one nurse or receptionist laugh...like really laugh.
He is so great at navigating the bumps in the road and getting on with life. He doesn't sulk and check out of life. He is the best husband I could ask for and my girls are lucky to have him for a father.
Happy Father's Day to our Superman!
God blessed us with you.
