The text came this morning. Trying to translate it with my husband, we hit upon the words “hospital” and “catsuit” – aka “cat scan”? Alarming for sure.

And, so, I called him. He was with his staff in a noisy environment so I couldn’t hear him well. Add to that the stuttering with him crying into the phone. I still wasn’t totally clear on the whole story. The words cat scan, pneumonia and “__tibiotic” came through.

Texting his roommate and program specialist, I finally was able to piece together the story: For the past few days, Bryan had been complaining about back pain. Because the hour was late last night, he and his roommate had to head to the hospital emergency room. This environment scared him, especially getting a cat scan. He said his roommate held his hand to make him feel better. He didn’t get back home until 12:30 a.m.

Diagnosis: pneumonia with back pain due to a persistent cough. Nothing some rest and an antibiotic won’t fix with routine PCP follow-up and a chest X-ray in a few weeks.

But even though he wasn’t feeling the best, he wanted to go with his staff to the church today where they would be making lunches for the less fortunate.

And now I can replace the initial morning panic with a warm sense of pride in this son of mine. What a kind and selfless soul he is!