Trading One Malady for Another

Last night I slept the best I've slept for as long as I can remember. What a blessing! I've had a lot of really rough nights--shortness of breath, chest pain, diaphragm pain. Well, there was none of that last night. Hallelujah!

I then made an observation: Often one malady has been traded for another.

During my early childhood, for example, I had severe asthma. As soon as I was diagnosed with diabetes at age 13, the asthma disappeared.

More recently, the chest pain I have felt almost 24/7 for many years has subsided and some days I don't feel it at all. It's replacement: discomfort, aching, and stabbing pain in my diaphragm.

And the nasal congestion that has made lying prone and breathing, especially at night, very difficult for the past two months suddenly disappeared. A nurse said he was adding antibiotics to my IV yesterday. That must have been some powerful stuff because it knocked those little buggers right out of my system. Thank you, thank you, thank you for that! But of course the trade-off for that blessing is a catheter in my abdomen.

Perhaps the lesson is that nothing is wholly good or bad. There is the hint of a dark cloud in a sunny day. And always a silver lining around a cloud.