2 Years Ago

It has been 2 years last month since I had to visit this building. Four years ago, I had to visit every Monday through Friday. I would arrive at 6:55am with Maddie (17 months old) and Steitler (3 months old) and wait until the doors opened at 7am. We would all hustle inside, usually in our pajamas. Maddie would climb in my lap while Steitler waited in his carrier at my feet. As Steitler got older, I would hold one on each leg. I would have 2 little tubes of blood taken while the kids watched with fascination. We would go on with our day and the lab would call my doctor and then usually after lunch, the doctor would call to tell me how to adjust my medicine that day, how many pills to take or how many shots to give myself. The ladies who worked in the lab were so kind - on rainy days they would let me pull up to the back door so the kids could stay dry. Every morning they greeted us with a smile and we chatted like friends by the end of the nearly 2 years that I went there. Eventually my visits went from 5 days a week to 4 days and then to 3 days and then finally, to twice a week. Two years ago, my doctor said, "Now is the turning point, the decision is yours to make. You have to decide whether to stay on your blood thinners for life or you can decide to try to stop taking them." It was a very hard decision, not just for me, but for Ben as well. He had been the one who had heard, "A blood clot in your lung is generally found in an autopsy." Not once, but twice. He was also the one who banned me from using knives or scissors or running when I was brimming with blood thinners. We talked about it, prayed about it and made the decision to stop the blood thinners. So ended my visits to the lab.
Yesterday, I drove the kids by the lab building. The kids wanted to go in and see the chair and the ladies I had told them about but a part of me did not want to revisit that time so we kept driving. And I was so thankful, thankful for the lab and the people who work there, and thankful that the lab is no longer part of my life.