I am going to warn you, this is a bit disturbing..I spent 8 long days watching my sweet man like this, and it was awful.Valentine's day of last year Sid was put on this ventilator. He had suffered severe complications from a surgery gone beyond bad. He had a softball size clot close off his airway and he was unable to breathe on his own. After they did this, they told me they had just made it in time. Otherwise they would have had to cut a hole in his throat. He underwent several blood transfusions, 3 separate surgeries, infections, pneumonia, and 8 days on life support. 30 days in the hospital, over half of it in ICU. I will tell you at the time we were going through it, I didn't really realize how awful it was. One of the bad things about this is they had to tie his hands down. He was sedated, but still fought the restraints. He has never been able to stand being pinned down or constrained in any way. I told my Mom after he was out of the woods, that it never occurred to me that he may not survive. She told me that it had occurred to everyone else. I am grateful that God gives numbing grace in times like these. I had no time to think that way, I was too busy praying and doing my part in fighting for our life together. You may wonder what provoked me to take the picture. Sid was a heavy smoker for 40+ years until the stroke. He quit the day he had the stroke. It was probably about 11/2- 2 years later that I caught him smoking. I was crushed. I explained to him that by smoking he increased his risk of another stroke by 80%. He promised he would stop.
you guessed it, I caught him again. This time really got me angry, mainly because someone else had to get him the cigs..grrrr. Well, after much discussion we agreed he would stop. I took the picture so I could show him what I see. I wanted to be able to reach him in a way he could truly grasp. So that fateful day about 7 months ago when I caught him smoking again, I showed him this photo. He hasn't smoked since.
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