When Poker Just Does Not Matter

I've really been struggling for the last few days about how much, or even whether, to share certain parts of my life with this blog. After all, aside from CK, I've never actually met any of you, off of the virtual felt, that is.

But I just felt the need to briefly express here about one of the most frightening experiences you can possibly imagine...and that is seeing your spouse, the love of your life, and your entire world slipping into very severe illness.

My wife, the Good Doctor Mondo, did not return from our Alaskan cruise in good health, and while I know I can write as much as will spill from my brain here, I don't feel I can completely express all the details just yet, as they're too painful. Of course, most of my trip reports suck, too, because my blogging skills are weak.

At any rate, over the past week, my darling sank into an extremely serious pneumonia, the cause of which they have not been able to ascertain, even a week later. By Friday midday, I was starting to seriously doubt she would live through this past weekend, as the doctors placed her in a medically-induced coma. But she's as tough a cookie now as she is at the poker tables, and she has refused to succumb to anything.

Thankfully, I can report that she's making steps in the right direction. These are baby steps, truly, and I can't even fully grasp how far she has to go. But she feels the love and support of those around her, and by extension, those around me. Still, as of now, the doctors aren't even contemplating trying to bring her off the ventilator and awaking her from her coma until at least a few days from now. And, as is common when someone is befallen with life-threatening illness, complications arise now and then. It's almost a sick twisted game of Whack-a-Mole, where doctors give her steroids to help her lungs, but then the steroids raise her blood sugar to where she needs insulin, to where the insulin leads to needing something else.

But the medical staff here have been uniformly brilliant, and she's getting the best care anyone can imagine. And she's getting better, baby step after baby step after baby step. Right now, I only wish that baby would start running, rather than crawl.