Sunday, January 27, 2013

A Burst of Speed

"Life is just like an old time rail journey . . . delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed." (Gordon B. Hinckley)

This week, amidst the travails on life's proverbial train ride (including a lower-than-hoped-for grade on my Blood and Lymph test), I had a brief glimpse of one of those occasional life-affirming vistas.

During a class on immunohematology, a professor was discussing Rh(D) blood types and pregnancy. Explaining the situation (namely, the steps that are taken to protect the future children of an Rh(D)- mother after she gives birth to her first Rh(D)+ baby), he drew the following picture for us:

As I chuckled at his rudimentary drawing, I was suddenly filled with a feeling of tremendous excitement and anticipation, akin to that of a six-year-old at 5:30 on a Christmas morning - heart racing, chest warm, head giddily dizzy. Sundy is pregnant, I thought. She is going to be a mother. I'm going to be a dad. In less than 2 months our little baby will be in our arms, and we will hold her, comfort her, talk to her, sing to her. One of the greatest desires of our lives will soon be realized.

Then it was back to immunohematology. But in our near future there are bursts of speed sure to thrill us.

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