A change of habit

In 2011, I lived with my husband in a foreign country where we had been living for three years.

One day, something unexpected happened to us in that city and we didn’t have friends or acquaintances near to help us.

I used to go to the doctor for regular check-ups but my husband, as most men do, didn’t do that. So, I asked him, with love, to come with me and he agreed. When we arrived there, he noticed that I had arranged an appointment with the doctor for both. He was surprised. Apparently, everything was good. The doctor examined our body but we were disappointed when we knew the results of our blood tests.

My husband had his triglyceride values high and I didn’t accept it. He didn’t use to eat fast-food and he was slim too, as all of the members of his family. We changed our eating habits and started to do gym. After four months, he went to the doctor to have a check-up again and he realized that my husband’s triglyceride values were much higher than the first time. In that occasion, the doctor prescribed a medicine in order to reduce his bad cholesterol and recommended to continue with the new eating habits and exercises.

My husband continued doing what the doctor told him to do and after three months we had to face an unexpected situation: He had an acute myocardial infarction because of some unsaturated fat in his blood.

One Thursday morning, we were in our house after arriving from a trip that lasted three days. Suddenly, he felt a hard pain in his chest and had also vomits. The pain continued and I took my husband to the hospital very quickly. I didn’t know how serious was the disease but the doctors did a lot of tests. At 6 p.m, one of the doctors took him to the emergency room. Then, he had to be given a mechanically assisted ventilation and some injections. I didn’t understand anything so I asked to a nurse if they were doing all that in the right patient because nobody told us that my husband’s disease was too serious. A first-aid doctor called the main doctor of the emergency room and he explained to us what had happened. He told to my husband that the pain he felt during the morning, had been a heart attack. If they had allowed him to come back home, he could have died because his arteries were closed. Also, he explained that his heart didn’t work well because of that.

Later, they took him to the intensive care unit and he stayed in observation there for forty-eight hours until doctors made on him a catheterization, an angioplasty and a Stent.

It was our 16th wedding anniversary. My husband was still in the hospital and I was alone at home. I cried and I was angry with the situation. I prayed to God and said to Him: ‘How could this happen if we did what the doctors said to avoid this problem? How could this unexpected thing happen to us?’

I had the same sensation that a person who was constantly told by thieves that they were on the point of entering her house. Although she did everything to avoid the robbery, she couldn’t and she had the horrible surprise of being robbed. The following day, during the half-hour daily visit, I talked to the doctor about my indignation and he told me that if he hadn’t taken care of himself before, I would have been a widow the day my husband had the heart attack.

The lesson I’ve taken about this experience is that all the things we do to take care of ourselves worth it. I associated this situation with the parable of the ten virgins, who says that we don’t know the day or the hour that our Lord Jesus will come back but we must be prepared.

 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him! Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’ Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” (Matthew 25:1-13)

Our salvation is conquered every day and you’re the only person who can analyse the state of your soul.