I'll start this with some happy news. A few weeks ago, my wife and I learned that all the practice paid off. We are expecting our second child in October.

With pregnancy comes hyperactive sensitivity's. My lovely wife, Tifany, has an increased sense of smell. Yesterday, at noon, I get a call to my cell phone from my wife screaming about how the dog smells horrible. The dog is Pudge Esmay. I adopted him a few months back. After a few minute conversation, I promised to give Pudge a bath when I got home.

I arrived home at 5:05pm and right away I went to the basement, I grabbed Pudge and began drawing his bath. I gave him a pretty good scrub down. At about 5:20pm I was finished drying him off and I let him run wild in the basement.

Almost immediately after that I started to cough uncontrollably. I leaned over on the washer and it seemed like the worst was over. I took a few steps and almost fell over. I began violently coughing this time. It was then I knew something was very wrong. I tried walking up the stairs and again I almost fell. I crawled the rest of the way and got to my phone.

I called my wife, thankfully she answered. She was at the Verizon store about ready to get her phone upgraded. She answered the phone and I said: "Get home now, something is wrong. I need you." I made my way to the bedroom and grabbed my C-PAP machine. I figured some positive air pressure is bound to help.

I put the mask on and started the airflow. My wife tried to call me twice, but I was in the middle of texting her. I didn't want to speak since I didn't know how many breaths I would have left.

The message was effectively saying that I put my CPAP on and I'm scared.

I was scared because my heart felt like it was going to pop out of my chest and my arm was getting numb. I thought I would be dead by the time Tifany got home. So I said a little prayer and started thinking about my life and what I've done and didn't do. I also began thinking about my Dad a lot. I consider him my guardian angel. I figured he would send me a sign that all will be well.

Tifany got home and paged her Doctor/Boss. She is a medical assistant and has a basic idea of what to check for. Dr. Sturla called back and Tifany described my symptoms. He said I needed to get to the hospital right away. So Tifany and I made our way to Garden City Osteopathic Hospital.

I walked up to the registration desk and collapsed a little and said "I can't breathe. Those are the 3 magic words you need to speak that puts you to the front of the line. I was in triage and my pulse ox (Blood Oxygen) was 85%. Apparently that is pretty freaking bad.

They immediately put me on a bed and were attaching all sorts of stuff to me. It looked like a scene from Grey's Anatomy. I was put on Oxygen and the nurse came in to start an IV.

I was still scared out of my mind, until I saw the sign. The nurse who took care of me was named Alicia. It was confirmed when a colleague pronounced her name "A-leet-see-ah" . That's the Polish pronunciation of the name Alice. My sister Alice has always been VERY protective of me. So it would make sense that the nurse who took very good care of me had that common name.

Yeah, I know it sounds crazy. I've always believed in divine intervention. This was a sign to me that my spiritual guardian angel (Dad) is watching over me. Alicia had told us she was dealing with another trauma on the other side of the hospital and left that one to come take care of me. There were plenty of nurses in the ER, but I had Alicia taking care of me.

Okay, back to the story. Alicia came in, and administered the IV. I was given Benadryl directly to the blood stream. THAT WAS AWESOME. Within seconds I was flying high. A few minutes later the Respiratory therapist came in with a bong like thing, that I had to breathe for an hour.

After two hours in the ER, I was given my release. This was only after I sustained a pulse ox > 95% for 15 minutes after being pulled off oxygen.

The whole ordeal gave me a lot of things to reflect upon, here are a few:

1. When you're dying (or at least THINK you are) it helps that your nurse is SMOKING hot.

2. It's about time I do something healthwise to ensure that I'm around to watch my children grow up.

3. Having a medical assistant for a wife is a HUGE blessing. I LOVE YOU TIFANY!!

Timing is everything. Had Tifany got to the Verizon store sooner, her phone possibly would have been off (as they transferred service to a new phone). I don't know if I would have had the strength to make another call. I got a burst of adrenaline after I got a hold of Tifany. Had she not been there to answer the call, It's probable I would not be here to write this post.

A week ago, I gave Pudge to my friend Kathy whom I work with at St. Raphael. She was excited to take Pudge but wasn't sure if her dog would be receptive to the idea. They seemed fine when we brought them together, but about 18 hours later I got a call from a sleepless Kathy who sadly could not make it work.

I brought Pudge back home and began searching for other options. None were really appealing so I did not press the issue.

Yesterday, my family was finally back into our normal Sunday routine. Up by 9am, church at noon, and Olympic Coney Island at 1:15pm. We had no idea that on this day timing was truly everything.

When we arrived home at 2:30pm, we noticed a different truck in my neighbors yard with some mattresses in it. So we thought that Anna must have gotten a new bed. We went inside and let Pudge outside. That is when the magic happened. Unbeknownst to us, our neighbor John was giving the mattresses to his buddy Jim. Jim, whose wife is a major dog lover, commented to John how cute Pudge was and mentioned that his wife always wanted a puggle.

A few calls later a deal was struck and, within a couple hours, Pudge was on his way to his new home.

I got a voice mail last night from John. He said that Jim gave Pudge a bath and he's interacting with the other dogs like they were life long friends and he's lived there forever.

You don't even know how happy that made me feel.

Timing truly is everything. Had we missed church, its most likely Pudge would have been in the house at the time Jim came over to get the mattresses. But as fate would have it, Pudge was meant to be outside at that time.

Because Jim was able to help my family out, I feel I should reciprocate. If you live in Michigan and are looking for a great deal on a used car, or are in need of an excellent mechanic, give Jim a call: