The New Year That Almost Wasn't

A wondrous lesson in synchronicity, intuition, and co-creating with a loving force

The days surrounding this new year involved more than bringing 2024 to a close. It almost brought my life to an end. Mixed within the ways it could've gone and the ways it did go were profound lessons in synchronicity, intuition, and co-creating life with a loving energy that binds us all together.

How it could have gone

I started feeling sick on a Sunday night. I live in a nursing home, and I presumed I was coming down with yet another urinary tract infection (UTI). I experienced symptoms consistent with previous infections. The nurse provided Tylenol to break the low-grade fever I was forming, and we talked about needing a urine analysis (UA) and blood work. I stayed in bed Monday but worked with one of my life coaching clients online. The core of my body started to feel chilled while my face felt hot. I canceled my evening appointments. I started feeling nauseous and feverish, although the temperature appeared high normal. We completed the UA and blood draw Monday late afternoon with the results expected Tuesday. This being like any ordinary day, likely the nurse would have given me a Tylenol to quell the symptoms. I would've gone to sleep. I'm not one to ring the call light for help in the night. On that night, eventually I would not have been able to ring the call light. In the morning they would have found my body.

How it did go

Early Monday evening, my best friend Terri stopped in to deliver a container of chicken salad. She's been a nurse for over 40 years. She didn't like what she saw. Intuitively she knew I needed to go to the emergency room to have the tests that could determine the reasons for my feverish feeling, elevated heart rate, and nausea. She consulted with the staff nurse who agreed to call 911.

Terri joined me at the emergency room and never left my side during hours of testing. She kept in contact with my beloved partner Elaine who lived some distance away, as the fever rose to over 103.5°. I kept focusing on her face trying to stay present and conscious as it became harder to speak more coherently. The ER doctor determined ultimately in addition to a UTI I had an infected kidney stone blocking my right kidney and this had built up bacteria in my body and sepsis had gone into my bloodstream. He ordered my immediate transfer to a hospital in the capital city with the team of doctors who could perform emergency surgery.

I spent New Year's Eve in septic shock for almost 24 hours, moving quickly through surgery and landing in the ICU. Three teams of specialists worked to elevate my heart rate, identify the multiple forms of bacteria to treat aggressively, and treat the wounded kidney and stone. No longer critical, I was transferred to a new room 15 minutes to 2025.

During the week I was hospitalized, one night I was on the verge of being critical again. On this night, a synchronistic confluence of events intersected with my deep intuitive listening to my body. My soul sister Terri visited every evening, while my partner Elaine took the morning shift. As she was leaving, Terri struck up a conversation with my new roommate behind the curtain. She eventually opened the curtain and introduced us. After a few minutes talking, my new roommate and I discovered we had an incredible number of overlapping relationships, and she worked at my former high school. The more we talked, the more she picked up on my feeling worse.

My body was calling out for me to pay attention. On the one hand I was experiencing the same symptoms of high fever and I put myself back on oxygen for difficulty breathing. But my body was saying there was something else and urged me to get help. I called the nurse who was a very thoughtful gentleman from a culture in which I knew intuitively he would understand somebody listening to their body. I explained everything I was experiencing to him as clearly as I could, attempting to translate just as my body was describing.

My body expressed two possibilities. Down one avenue, my body was simply experiencing more of the same symptoms it had been for days. I was simply feeling worse in the process of treatment. In the second possibility, my body expressed sepsis had gone to a different part of my body. The sepsis was infecting a part of my body entirely different from what had already been explored. Having MS, my body was focusing attention on the brain and central nervous system as possible areas of infection.

My roommate was emphasizing to the nurse that she had been observing my decline throughout the evening. The nurse was listening carefully and messaging back-and-forth with the doctor. My body was conveying to me that if it was the first possibility, I would be OK. However if it was the second possibility, I might not recover.

Then something interesting happened. My body began to settle down and appreciate that I was listening to it and relaying its messages to the nurse as clearly as I could. My body felt heard, understood, and validated by the nurse. The doctor at the other end of the computer decided to stay the course of current treatment and not explore further possibilities of infection. I went to sleep and woke up the next day with my body having manifested the first possibility, and there was no longer any evidence within my body of the second possibility.

Synchronicity and intuition: Co-creating with a loving force

Terri stopped by to drop off some chicken salad and ended up saving my life. What powerful synchronicity. Based on her knowledge and clinical experience but also something she felt in her gut, she knew something did not add up. Despite her experience, she did not have a lot of evidence to suggest something critical. I felt nauseous and had a barely noticeable low-grade fever. She knew any tests done earlier that day would not reveal any information in time. She knew I needed help and convinced me and the staff nurse to send me to the hospital.

Moments of synchronicity continued in the hospital. My roommate was supposed to go home the previous day. Later she said she was supposed to stay one more night so she could support and advocate for me during this peculiar decline. Along with her, I was gifted with a unique nurse who understood that lab tests are not the only way of understanding what is going on in the body. And my body and mind experienced deep presence and intuitive communication. My body charted two possible courses, one leading to eventual recovery and the other potential death.

Throughout this whole adventure, I experienced a process of co-creation with a force of love that binds us all together. I could feel the love, prayers, and energy healing from friends and family around the country. When I was at my most critical, I visualized each person I knew and loved, extending to them love from my heart to theirs almost as though I was saying goodbye for now.

It's a new year. I'm still here. I can still co-create with that dynamic force that conducts a symphony of wondrous synchronicity. How have you been touched by moments of synchronicity in your life? What might that inner voice of intuition be saying to you now? How do you experience a connection with something that is both larger than you but seems to also be uniting you with all that is? How does it feel to you when you experience moments touched by invisible grace? How can these gifts support you in creating your own life?

***Normally, I share one of my own photographs. Credit for this photo goes to my soul sister and gifted photographer, Terri, in loving gratitude for her role in helping me see more sunrises!