In the very early 70’s, our daughter Kathleen and me, enjoyed a special song entitled, “Have You Ever Been Mellow?” Well, I’ve been mellow whole bunches in my lifetime. However, the past couple of days have drawn my focus to another very important question. I don’t know if I’ll set it to music or not, but here it is: Have You Ever Been Stoopid? Let me explain.

When I checked into the hospital on Super Bowl Sunday with an extremely fast heart rate, I was given several drugs to not only reduce the rate, but help my heart get back into a proper rhythm. (If you didn’t catch that story, look in the archives of past Inside Out articles for: “Like A Rock? Naw, More Like A Jackhammer!“)

When I left the hospital, I was told exactly what medicines to take, how many of each, and when to take them. Let’s face it. I was kinda like a guinea pig. The doctor certainly didn’t know for sure how many to take or in what strength. In the beginning, we did well in our attempts to balance all the factors. My blood had to be kept at a certain consistency. Too thick? Possible stroke. Too thin? Possible bleed out.

At one point, the dosage had to be changed. My blood became quite thin. I was taken off that particular medicine for a couple of weeks and all the numbers came into a proper range.

I was then instructed to take a 1 mg pill every evening. Well, I had just purchased a 100 tablet prescription in the previously prescribed dosage of 5 mg. After I brought home the new prescription, 100 1 mg tablets, I sat the two identical bottles on my night stand. I went so far as to take what I was sure was the wrong bottle, put it in a little paper bag, and put it in the back of one of my dresser drawers.

Have you ever been stupood? I’ve purposely misspelled the word “stupid” just to show you how “stupood” I was. I accidentally picked up the wrong bottle and tucked it safely away. Then, for more than two weeks I took the higher strength — five times the dosage I was supposed to be taking. I’d gone on Thursday to have the levels checked in a sample of my blood. In a rather comical, yet sad mix-up, the doctor who’d been treating me apparently had a falling out with his partners and was leaving town. My blood test report was not phoned to me as usual.

Over the weekend, I noticed a lot of blood in my urine. I knew something was terribly wrong. About that time, I discovered that I’d been taking the wrong strength pill. I immediately quit taking the medicine, but I was a little late.

Monday morning, I called the doctor’s office and was told to go directly to the emergency room. I was not to pass “Go”. I didn’t collect “$200”! There was an air of barely controlled panic that rippled through the personnel. I was told that I was headed for death had I not come in when I did.

Monday evening, I was given a heavy dose of Vitamin K through an IV. This treatment restored the clotting factors in my own blood which I’d lost through the heavy bleeding that took place. I came home Tuesday morning, a MUCH wiser man. One of my nurses gave me some very sound advice. She said that even in the hospital she reads all labels at least three times before passing the pills along to patients because even the hospital pharmacy makes mistakes. I will never take another pill without following her sage and sound advice.

After returning home Tuesday morning, I began catching up on my E-mail. The following letter was in my mailbox: “Hi! Just a note to let you know that I will be on earth for awhile. The doctor told me that I have the start of endometriosis, clogged arteries, and BAD circulation. While at the doctor’s office, I got all the medicine I need to take and have started it. Thank you for your prayers and the writing you did on going for help (previously mentioned piece from ‘Inside Out’). Don’t do an article on mental health or then I will really be in trouble (ha, ha). Love, CK”

I received similar mail from several other people. What a blessing to be part of an Internet ministry that not only informs, educates, entertains, and challenges, but also leads people to practical action that could prolong and even save their lives. Thanks, readers, for feeding back to me on this and other subjects.

All of this got me to thinking about how God treats our stupidity. He doesn’t call us “stupid”. He does tell us to deal with the areas of our lives in which we’ve demonstrated poor judgement and made sometimes serious mistakes. He told the woman who was found in adultery to go and not practice the sin of adultery again.

I shared this story with you in order to let you know that no one has a corner on doing something really dumb. I also want you to understand that as long as we have breath, we can make corrections, pick up the tools of our lives and give it another shot!

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