I am fortunate to be alive. It’s been two years now, since Thanksgiving 2021, when I caught the COVID-19 virus and beginning on December 3, 2021, I was hospitalized for 53 days.
It came extremely close to killing me.
Since, I’ve become even more aware of living life to its fullest and capitalizing on its special moments—which has brought an added layer to my gratitude in this season of giving thanks.
To quote my book, Shake Yourself Free,
“When gratitude becomes the center point of your life, everything else begins to more easily fall into place.”
This was written prior to getting sick, as I had already embraced gratitude and the beautiful aspects of life. But now, two years after nearly dying, the clarity of gratitude is even more crystal clear.
My medical records show that during the early days of my fight, there was “a high probability of expiration overnight.”
Since reading that, those words echo in my head daily. Second chances at life, we all deserve them, but most of us never receive them.
I constantly think about what I am going to do with this second chance. I’m sick, so I need to keep my ambitions in check. So, for now my biggest purpose is to be kind and positive. To give someone a little hope when they are struggling to find it.
Shake Yourself Free, was released last spring. It’s helping people, and that gives me a satisfaction that is so deep and complicated, that I struggle to articulate it. I spent five years working on this book–most mornings around daybreak. For it to be out and helping others; wow! It has 43 5-star reviews now on Amazon. My publisher texted me last weekend and said he can’t remember the last time he saw a book with so many reviews with 100% of them being 5-star.
I’m working on my next book, about the lessons learned from this covid battle. But with my the brain issues from this battle, it’s tough for me to focus enough to make as much progress on it as I’d like.
But that’s okay.
Fatigue is still a constant issue. Thankfully, I can take a nap most afternoons. My pulmonologist has recently put me on a nebulizer. This is a small machine that turns liquid albuterol solution into a mist, which allows for easy absorption into the lungs. My lungs are extensively scarred and damaged from the effects of the respiratory failure from covid pneumonia.
As I reflect on how far I have come in the past two years, I truly feel nothing but gratitude.
Ten Thousand Days 