I am a leukemia survivor. By all statistics I shouldn't be here. I was working as an outside sales representative for a major distributor. I drove a company vehicle long distances and did a lot of bending and lifting. I went to my doctor's office because I was tired,losing weight, getting dizzy and had a huge black and blue mark that wouldn't go away. The nurse practitioner had me go for bloodwork that friday. Monday I get a call that I had irregular bloodwork and I was instructed to see a blood specialist. I walk into Norris Cotton Cancer Center and say I'm in the wrong place. They put their arms around me and tell me I am in the right place. They said if I had waited any longer I would be dead. They shipped me by ambulance that Monday morning up to Dartmouth Medical Center in Lebanon, NH where I started chemo three days later. My first round was over a month. Only 10% survive AML-if they make it to transplant which took place 5 months later.

Duke, you ARE a total badass!

Let's try to put everything in perspective. I am in the Navy stationed in a small base near San Juan. Thursday FBI commence an operation arresting puertorican terrorists that favor the independence of puerto rico... is all over the news. That day I took my 8 months pregnant to see her doctor for a checkup so her medical record is still in the car. Because I worked with classified material, TS clearance etc, My badge has the disclaimer if ever found return to the FBI. Friday I went out and I got car jack by 4 individuals, because of my badge, my wife med record, the FBI operation and my composure under pressure I was able to convince the individuals that killing me will be their end... because I am active member of the Military, is not the local police that will be looking for me is the FBI that already has an army of agents here because of the operation first reaction will be retaliation and they will not stop until solved. They let me go naked on a field very close was a bar I went in naked and inside was a policeman off duty that gave some clothes took me to the police station. While that was happening the individuals murdered a security guard trying to get his gun and tried to pin the murder on me, when they abandoned my car his wallet was left on my car. The local police of course turn me over to the FBI as soon my base was contacted... The headquarters for the FBI operation was in my little base. So I got to see their operation center as FBI tried to find out if they were terrorists or just thugs... I had to say that the military took care of me and my family. I never slept again in the house I was renting out in town. I was transferred to a Larger base until the baby was born, Moved to a house on base etc, etc. Baby was born healthy my second daughter and so mother was well too despite my ordeal. Reason I am saying all this was... there was a moment at the beginning of the situation were an incoming police car passed opposite us and for a second I thought about grabbing that wheel and forcing the car into the police car. My first instinct was the hell with it... we all gonna die right here, right now. But I just couldn't leave my unborn child without a father or my wife. I always wonder if I would had been single. I won't be here today. Everytime I see my son... child number 3... he would had never been born. My ex wife still says with everything you went thru and made it out in one piece and you still not believe in god... and my answer always is the same. No. But I understand that many of us don't know how easy it is for you to be removed from this plane. And that no matter what pains you we the ones here on earth are the only lucky ones. And that if you don't like the odds, find the way to move the odds in your favor. Why I am alive I always wondered and that is why everything is good to me because I lived to tell the story that many others never survived to tell. I just under my circumstances talked my way into living. Never Give Up Your Chances. I almost did if I would had grabbed that wheel. But I still not believe in a god intervention.

Ok. I have one life event that still baffles me. I was working as a case manager for people with major mental illnesses. A friend of mine, who was also a case manager for the same agency, had a client who died. Anyway, I was helping him clean our that client's apartment. When the client was alive he was always playing the flute. The clients flute was on the table while we were moving the furniture out of the apartment. I remember we were moving the sofa when a very distinct sound/note came out of the flute. We both stopped and looked at each other. We both had a surprised look on our faces. Then another resident of the apartment complex came bouncing down the stairs. We had the door open while moving his possessions. She just nonchalantly said, "Oh that's just David." Then she just went on her way. The problem was I shared the experience with two other people, which rules out my imagination. My best bet is a gust of wind blew through the flute. However, it is why I'm only 90 percent an atheist - rather that 99.9 percent.

One morning I was looking for a sock to match the one I had in my hand, and I moved a t-shirt, and there it was, the very sock I sought!

One day my car wouldn't start, so I longboarded to work. I passed another longboarder going the opposite direction and we silently high-fived. Only time I got that close to another 'boarder on the road.

That's all I got.

On a lighter, more simpler form... My son was born in Jacksonville FL, The first song played in the radio when we drove him home for first time was "take me home" by Phil Collins. There I knew... he was going to be maybe not special but sure alright. He would had never been born if the events in my other post had gone in the other direction.

There is a story, possibly apocryphal, of a woman who was walking along a street in London one day when a public phone rang next to her. She answered it, and her sister said "Hi Sarah, I was just wondering how you were?"

"But how did you know I was here?" Sarah asked.

"Well, you're at home - it seemed a good bet!" her sister replied.

"No I'm not... I'm in a phone box..." she said - and realised that the number of the phone in the phonebox was only one digit different to her home phone, and her sister had misdialled.

(I've always thought you wouldn't have to be very mentally ill to start seeing connections where there are none - coincidences do seem to happen far more often than we might expect.)

About 15 years ago I was reading a book that was a minute by minute account of a plane crash in Georgia. I had gotten the book at Sam's Club where I was working as a cashier. One morning I was at my register when a couple walked up with their items. The man looked just like one of the passengers in the book. (There were photos of most of the people on the flight.) The woman handed me her membership card, but it was a different last name than the passenger. I just rang them up as usual, but kept stealing glances at the man because the resemblance was so remarkable. When she wrote me a check, I saw that the co-owner of the account was the name of the passenger! I was so surprised and couldn't believe that it was actually him. I didn't say anything at all though because just a day or so before, I had read about his actions following the crash, and they were less than valiant. I'm sure the accident was incredibly traumatic as it was without the added burden of embarrassment about his portrayal in the book. I was a bit freaked out about seeing him and never read any more of the book (though I still have it.) A few months later I was telling my Grandma about this coincidence, and she told me she had just read about the plane crash and the book in Reader's Digest. Weird, right?

The weirdest thing that ever happened to me was on the night of 11-9, that ill fated presidential election 2016. I had a bad feeling all day and that night the feeling became really bad. I avoided the news until around 9 PM. I had previously voted absentee several days prior so I had no need to visit the polls.

Well, we all know how the night turned out. We elected a dictatorial fool as PROTUS and turned the ship of state firmly in the direction of major disaster (a direction we are still cruising obliviously towards,I might add.) I don't know why I had that really bad feeling in my stomach all day. Somehow I knew, but I don't know how I knew.

My dad explained it as the collective unconscious. Being a skeptic - I'm not totally buying it. I suspect most of me realized that things had been horribly wrong and the people were deeply confused. Apparently, my subconscious had already calculated that the result would not be good. But this all despite the overwhelming polls saying it was not going down the way it did.

Anyway, I think my non-metaphysical explanation is adequate but I'm honestly not sure.

Good to see you around. I salute you.

An for last, my brother, my keeper... big brother, the first of my siblings to die, I am the only boy left now since elder also gone now. My brother died a night while i was in route from Norfolk, VA to Rota, Spain. I was in the Navy. That night I played Terence Trent Darb'y "If you all get to heaven" that features the line "say a prayer for your brother". I replayed that song about 7 consecutives times, rewinding that cassette over and over before I went to sleep. Message came in the morning and when I was awaken around 6:00 AM, I worked in the staff of Admiral Tom Lynch and was told the admiral need to see you before you go to work, I knew what it was. I didn't cried that day. I had already make my peace with the brother that was my keeper. So yeah I believe in the soul, in spirits, in the will that you won't go without touching those in need to be touched one last time. He was a boxer, he was fighter, he died from AIDS complications but he never quit and last time I heard his voice was on his birthday but that promise to see him when I return from the 6 month deployment was not possible so we reached out for each other the only way souls and spirits could. We don't have to understand every Bond in earth.

I had an odd coincidence that I cannot explain.

I was blogging (actually arguing) with proponents of man made climate change. I was thumbing the text on this very iPad that I am on now...while the tv was droning in the background ( "Cops" episode I think. Love to hear "taser/taser/taser!" And someone flops around on the ground).

I remember typing: "human beings are as insignificant as fleas on the back of a Leviathan". No sooner than I typed that with satisfaction and pressed the post button...that the end of a commercial was playing. "Did you know that mama fleas eat their young?"

Never had an explanation. I can't even guess the statistical probability of that.

Many many times. Nothing quite on par with some of the 'I'd not be here but for . . . ' things but enough to realize there are forces we are not always aware of. I just don't thinks is 'god'.

As an 8th grader I was watching the lottery numbers being picked with my best friend. We were trying to guess each number right before the ball drops. I got 4 of them correct.

I have had a few things happen to me that seemed beyond coincidence

I believe that a lot of these odd feelings relate to subconscious clues that we are picking up about a situation. We react to these and may not have a clear answer as to why.

One, I believe nothing is a coincidence that it just may have a component that strikes us. Two, I don't believe in someone mentally reaching out to us after death. It is our grief causing us to think an incidence holds particular significance. I have had both parents and my only child die, and at each time I was looking at anything or for something to either change that fact or make sense of it.

I was diagnosed with PTSD after my daughter's death because for three years numerous physicians told me they could find nothing. One doctor even pompously stated that "sometimes teenaged girls did these things for attention." Thee days later she died of a brain tumor. When I returned home most of those doctors sent me letters about their having lawyers.

My point is that we are all going to have something in our lives. We get through it somehow, or we don't depending on our charcter or sense of self. Not to be trite, but none of us get out of this alive or a little bit battered or bruised.

I had a similar incident but was at home. It happened a couple of years ago. At first it was just like an unfamiliar feeling in my chest. Then the pain hit my neck, and my shoulders. I thought it was back pain due to my uncomfortable office chair. I made an appointment online with my doctor. The incident happened on a Friday, and my appointment was for next Tuesday. The nurse told me if it got worse go to the ER. I shrugged it off and thought it was nothing. The pain continued into Saturday but by Sunday it was gone. When I went to the doctor on Tuesday, I drove myself, and walked in like usual. I had the doctor convinced it was because I had just eaten an Extreme Tatar tot's from Sonic. He said just in case let's do an quick EKG.

Next thing I knew everything went fast forward. The doctor came back in WITH A WHEELCHAIR! He said you are having an active heart attack. I'm taking you to the ER right now. I was like, "No way." He nodded. I got in the chair. In the ER I told the ER doctor I thought it was the Extreme Tatar tot's from Sonic. He said no your blood works indicates its an active heart attack. Mind you, I felt no pain, and really couldn't understand it at all. They life flighted me to the nearest heart specialist about 45 miles away. I enjoyed the ride. Flirted with the pilot and watched the gorgeous view. As soon as we landed the cardiac care team rushed me in and did a heart cath on me. They determined my blockage was 85% but the arteries? were too small to stent. They released me the next day to go home on some medications and I see a heart doctor about twice a year now.

I think for women the main thing to note is the difference between a woman's heart attack and a man's. Often a woman will feel it in the back of her neck and shoulders. I finally did have pain down the left arm but that came later. According to Duke his was like a gas bubble. Mine was not. So I guess its different for each of us but the doctor told me women's were often different from men's. I'm glad to still be here. Duke it's nice to meet you. Glad you're here too!

Serendipity. Chances are if we have a word that describes it - it's happened to many of us. I'm sure a math genius could explain this.

Can totally relate to hiking at 1200 feet! RNP is beautiful. I wish I was there!

million to one chances happen to me on a weekly if not daily bases but I don't know why.

if anyone is of a mind to....

[npr.org]

Wow. That was luck.