Good news!

Good news is obviously relative, but we'll take good news wherever we can find it!

Shawn met with the cardiologist today and is much relieved. The doctor met him in the hallway with a serious look on his face. When he spoke, his first words were "You are lucky to be alive."

I thought Shawn had hurt his knee, but I was wrong or hadn't heard all of the details. The doctor asked him what happened in mid-July. Shawn couldn't remember anything happening then. He went back to when he hurt his foot in early June. He was running at the high school track preparing for the next marathon, when he somehow hurt his foot. His heel and part of his foot got swollen and turned very black and blue and had difficulty walking. The doctor says that's when Shawn's problems started.

Shawn waited about 6 weeks (until mid-July) before he tried running again. When he tried, he couldn't get 600 yards without being short of breath. He tried walking 200 yards and then running again-- and couldn't do it. He was so short of breath that he couldn't even walk from his desk at work to the next desk. He waited a few days and tried again, and was still having breathing problems, so he decided to try biking for a few more days. The doctor says at that point most people just drop dead.

Turns out that he developed blood clots in his foot. When he tried to run again, he apparently dislodged the clots. His shortness of breath was because the clots had migrated into his lungs. It's at that point that most people die. Somehow Shawn's life has been preserved-- and we are grateful!

He started on a blood thinner today and they will monitor his condition for the next 6 months.

There are a couple of blessings here... First, he's still alive! Second, he won't need surgery, he just needs medication. Third, the doctor said that if Shawn hadn't had the angiogram on Monday, they would never have discovered the blood clots because they don't show up in the other tests. Without the angiogram, the doctor would have been assuring him that everything was just fine and he was OK to resume his running schedule-- and really run the risk of dying.

My MRI-guided biopsy was fairly painless today. Hopefully the spot they tested will prove to be the source of my cancer. The results should be in on Monday and we'll take things from there.

Superheroes accept small victories with the same grace as large ones-- and they are recognize them as the tender mercies from God that they are. They understand that we make our lives more difficult than they need to be when we concentrate our attention on the traumas of life. We can choose a mind-set that looks for the good in people, in experiences, even in the trials of life-- and will find that we are never disappointed, because there is always something good to find.

Today has been a good day!