I Think I'm Gonna Live

I have been pretty sick for several days and have not felt like messing with the blog thing. Truthfully, I have not felt like doing anything. In fact, I slept away almost all of Friday and Saturday, waking only for brief periods and then finding my way back to the couch to snooze some more. I did manage to get myself up and together enough to go to church on Sunday and preach a Mother's Day message, but the truth is, I was so out of it that I hardly even remember it. When I finished my sermon I made my way back to my office and lay my head on my desk for several minutes just to catch my breath and get enough strength to go out and great a few people and drive home, and yep... back to the couch. By late Sunday night my lungs were rasping and weezing so much that my wife actually thought the noise was coming from outside. I lay in bed at times fighting for breath and I remember thinking, "my goodness, how do people with severe asthma make it?" I am not ashamed to tell you that my struggle for breath scared me, and I thought, "this could be the night I cash them in."

I was awakened by the phone rining on Monday morning, and came down to see who it was. The caller hung up without leaving a message when Libby said I was not available, but she told me that she had already called the doctor and they would be calling soon to give me an appointment. Two hours later I am sitting in my doctors office and he is going over my medical records of similar respiratory problems I have had over the past two years. The good news (I guess) is that he thinks that there is something that I have an allergy to that is triggering this. It is puzzling however, because there does not seem to be a particular season or connection to this. Or at least we thought. But I think we may be on to something.
The first year I pastored this church, I had a terrible case of this problem, which finally developed pneumonia late that fall. I then went months with no trouble, only to have it rear up again once last spring, again later in the summer, and then again in the fall. Then it hit me.There is a correlation to when I have cut the grass at the church. My first year here, someone from the church usually cut the grass but I did mow it a couple of times late in the season when it stayed unusually warm late in the year. Last year another guy usually cut the grass, but I did mow it once when he was out of town, again when he hurt his back and then several times later in the fall. All seem to correspond with the illness. I had just cut the grass last week when I got sick again. Could be a coincidence... but I gotta wonder. The funny thing is that it does not bother me cutting my grass at home, so there must be something funky growing out there behind the church. I guess the only way to find out if this is what is doing it is to cut it again and see what happens. I don't particularly relish this test to see if that is what it is, but I have got to track down what is causing this problem.

Of course, with all the rain we are getting right now and projected to get for the next several days, the yard is going to be a jungle before I can get back out there to cut the yard again.