I was mostly kidding on Tuesday night, when I asked my wife very nicely… to kill me. Good thing she didn’t comply with my request, I am feeling better right now, than I did that night.

So I have had a horrendous cough going on since the weekend, and since I’m not sick often, I don’t enjoy the experience one bit. Deep and overpowering, the coughs would come in uncontrollable waves. The dry ones, the gummy yucky ones, the creeping cruddy cough tortured my abdominal area, and exercised it more than I have in a very loong time.

The headaches would squeeze in, and tears squeak out. I was a big bawling baby, coughing all night, out on the couch, or recliner where I had moved, to keep from waking Lindsay every 20 minutes or so.

All week long, I have not felt like myself, unhealthy, weak and in pain.

And yet, as I learned this morning. It was still, a very First World type of problem.

I don’t use medicine often, taking nothing regularly. I rarely visit the doctor. I generally think I will eventually heal up, if I can be tough for a few days, well not this time.

I woke up again in the living room this morning. Again without enough sleep. Nestled into a soft enveloping pile of pillows on a comfy chair, but still uncomfortably exhausted. I made a decision to try to see a doctor. It was 7:15 a.m.

I then grabbed my laptop from a nearby end table. I punched in the words Ottawa Family Phy… into Google, and the rest came up. I looked at the website, to find a phone number, and maybe to call and make an appointment for today. Instead I saw a sentence, that said Monday – Friday 8:00-9:00 walk-in clinic… Hmmm…. By 7:59 I was in their parking lot, seven miles from my home.

8:15 a.m. (one hour, after waking up) I was in front of Dr. Ojeley. He asked some questions, he used his stethoscope, he did doctor stuff, quickly, efficiently and assigned me some medication. He said that my pills would be available across the street momentarily.

I said “Ack-ah-huuuuhack-hak-hu-hak-hu… Thank yaaaa–aaaack You.”

Then I drove across the street. I walked into the pharmacy and was told I would have a 15 minute wait for the drugs. I walked through the place, grabbing a big jug of orange juice from the cooler, I started sipping, while looking at wonderful AS SEEN ON TV stuff.

Not long after that, I paid for the two white sacks, and sat in the parking lot. Right there, I downed the first taste of hopefulness, and peaceful coughing relief, that I had been looking forward to all week long…. It was 9:30 am.

We are lucky people. The severity of this throat torturing cough of mine, was basically cut in half, and sentenced to death, in a two hour period, after I decided to get the help. The help was there all along. Bronchitis stands no match against a basic doctor visit and your basic drug store. Wow.

From the very moment, that I could use a machine to search the world of information, to driving a car to get anywhere close very quickly, to walking into a professional, well equipped medical facility, and receiving almost instantaneous help, I was beyond blessed.

These are magical moments. We are truly rich. In the context of the world at large today, these First World Problems are so easily and quickly solved. Wow.

Would I be so tough, in another world? The Third World? Places like that, coughs can kill. I wouldn’t be joking with my beautiful wife about it there. It wouldn’t be funny. She wouldn’t say sarcastic things, like quit being such a baby about it, if you’re not going to go to the doctor. There wouldn’t be one. Or he would be days away. The drugs may not exist there at all. My little short week of pain, could be months, or more. Ouch.

Dawn Ferguson, from our church, goes to Guatemala every year, to nurse the local people. She brings students of medicine, she brings the medicine itself. She brings a little bit of the First World into the Third World. I thought of her today. She has seen first-hand, how a package of medication can make a huge difference in the lives of a whole village. I wandered past thousands of those very bottles today at Walgreens…

I want to Thank God, that we are here in the First World, and don’t have to spend most of our time, just surviving. And God’s Blessings to those that do 🙂

hmmm…..

‘cough’

hmmmm……

Sincerely,

Aaron Nichols