There’s a version of our story which allows my husband, Patrick, and I to grow old together. To watch our children take on the world around them, and to make decades worth of memories. When we got married in 2018, that was the future we hoped for.
We met in September 2017 and have two little boys who were born just 13 months apart. I stayed home with them for the first few years, while Patrick was in law enforcement. Our little family was the most important thing in the world and Patrick was a very involved father.
I never had to make him a check list before leaving the house, or check in on him to ensure he’d done certain tasks. He knew it all and was very much an equal partner. We lived a very active lifestyle, and Patrick was very invested in his health.
He prioritized physical fitness and nutrition more than most. We regularly worked out together, he took the kids on bike rides, and we spent a lot of time enjoying homemade meals as a family. Nothing mattered to Patrick more than me and the boys.
While we did not know why until August 2024, when I look back, it’s clear that Patrick’s problems started about five years earlier. Blood tests back then showed that he was anemic, leading four oncologists to tell us that he should have had a colonoscopy and endoscopy to figure out why he was losing blood. Instead, his doctor simply told Patrick to “take some iron.” By 2023, Patrick started feeling cold all the time and could never get warm.
He also had hormone imbalances because his testosterone was abysmally low. But again, his doctor said there was nothing to worry about. At that point, we switched providers and got a second opinion.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
