It has been said that a successful marriage is the joining of two good forgivers. I have discovered recently that a successful marriage is also the joining of two good senses of humor.
Let me tell you about my friend, Jake. (The names have been changed to protect the innocent.) Jake’s wife, Leona, has MS–a terrible disease, one that both of them have been living with for a long time. Among the many complications of MS is the lack of ability of the body to control fluids. There are often too many or too few fluids. The MS body typically will retain way too many fluids. To the point where retained fluids make it hard to breathe, and hard for the hard to do its main job, which is to pump fluids. To the point where a medication–lasix in this case–is required to get the body fluids to a point where they’re manageable.
An unfortunate “side effect” of the lasix is its tendency to make the taker pee, and pee, and pee… And, oh, did I mention pee?! That’s what lasix does. It’s a diuretic, which means it makes you pee! Our friend, Leona, is at the stage with her MS that she requires lasix to maintain other bodily functions.
Today, I talked with Jake. He’s been sitting in a not-too-local urgent care with Leona since yesterday (!), having nursing staff give Leona enough lasix so that her bodily fluids are restored to normal enough levels for her to be able to breathe. So far, Leona has shed 7 liters (approximately 7 quarts) of fluids–mostly water–and she is starting to breathe easier again–in the urgent care. Jake says that they expect a bed to become available in the local hospital, so that Leona can be “observed” until the complications of her bodily fluids being that out of whack, can be assessed, treated if necessary AND she (and Jake) can go home.
You gotta laugh. What else is there to do? Fortunately–and I just discovered this today–Jake has got a terrific sense of humor.
I contacted him, when I’d heard about Leona being in urgent care. When I asked him on the phone if there was anything I could do, Jake said (and I can only imagine his deadpan expression), “Can you finish my pressure washing for me?” Jake has a yearly project of painting one side of the outside of his house. This year, this painting task was prepared for by pressure washing the siding on the house. Jake was set up to pressure wash (and I believe he had already started the job). To his query, “Can you finish my pressure washing for me?”, I replied, “No.” I tried (unsuccessfully, I’m afraid) to reply with the same deadpan delivery as Jake used when he asked the question.
No. No pressure washing for you.
I could almost hear Leona in the background, saying, “Jake! How dare you ask that guy to do YOUR pressure washing!”
It all comes out in the wash, as they say. Or in this case, in the pressure washing. Some things are important, life and death. And some things are not. For instance, pressure washing. In a lot of cases there really isn’t any difference. Again. You gotta laugh.
Please respond in the Comments box if you are so inclined. As always, thanks for reading.