The one thought that scares me more than losing my own life is the thought of losing someone close to me. Yet, that is precisely the frightening reality I confronted when my wife of thirty years was diagnosed with a life-threatening heart condition.
And it may be one of the best things that ever happened to me.
Why?
Because it taught me an important lesson about how to live a happy life; the importance of wanting what you already have rather than getting what you want.
My Story
I woke in the middle of the night to the cold realization that my wife might no longer be breathing. Earlier that day, she had undergone a routine medical exam and testing. Afterward, she handed me a piece of paper and asked what I thought.
That piece of paper was the tracing from her electrocardiogram (ECG). I’m a general surgeon and not a cardiologist or even an internal medicine doctor, so when I recognized this was dangerously abnormal, that should tell you it wasn’t subtle.
I could see that although her heart was generating a regular electrical signal to beat, it responded inconsistently.