I ought to get free parking at the
hospital. The exit gate should have an
“out of pocket maximum” and when you reach it, you don’t have to pay $2 any
more to get out of the parking deck. If
they did, I’m sure by now I’d have free parking.
Last Sunday we were going to have family
pictures made. The thing I hate about
family pictures is that it stresses me out to figure out the whole clothing
thing. Do we all four wear the same color
or do we coordinate? How far ahead of
the photo shoot do I get my haircut and colored? Glasses or no glasses. Boots or heels? Oh my goodness, no wonder you can’t find any
family pictures of us in this house!
Well, we do have the family picture from last year, which is very
special to me. It was taken a couple
weeks after Mike’s stem cell transplant.
He had lost all his hair from the chemo so in support of him, we all
four wore do-rags for our pictures. It
was fun and I will always cherish those pictures. That is part of the reason I wanted pictures
again this year, just to have a visual
of what a difference a year can make. So,
back to the photo shoot. We were having
our pictures done at 4:30 and our small group would be over at 6:00 for Bible
study. It was about 4:00 and we were almost
all ready to go. I was helping Abbie
finish her makeup and then we’d be ready, coordinating outfits and all! As Abbie and I were playing in my makeup Mike
came in the bathroom and said that his back was hurting. Within minutes he came back in and told me he
thought he had a kidney stone and I was going to have to take him
to the ER. He has had kidney stones
before so he knew the symptoms; he just had not had one since cancer. Like any good wife I dropped everything I was
doing and rushed to take care of my guy.
Ok, actually I looked at my watch and wondered if we could just run by
quickly and get our pictures made and then go to the emergency room. Hey,
don’t judge, I had spent a lot of time on the whole outfit thing. Plus I had showered again and re-done my make
up and hair! I could tell by Mike’s
level of pain the picture thing was not going to happen so I put down the make
up brushes and off we went to the ER.
We got to the
hospital (a very familiar site for me) and fortunately the ER was not crowded
yet. They got Mike back to a room fairly
quick and got him some pain meds. Well it seemed quick to me, he would probably tell you differently. If you followed my journal on caring bridge
back during Mike’s cancer days you will remember me talking about my prayer
posse or my prayer ninja’s that I later named them. Well I had texted my ninjas when I was in the
waiting room and told them what was going on and of course, those women were
johnny on the spot with the prayers. I
just love those women! What a blessing
to have a small group of friends that will pray the minute they get the word
that something is going on! Meanwhile
back at the ranch, I mean ER, they were wheeling Mike off to have some X-rays
and a CT Scan to verify that it was indeed a kidney stone. After many games of Sudoku and Words with
Friends, Mike joined me back in the room and in no pain at all (thanks to the
wonders of modern medicine). What seemed
like hours later, the doctor came in and said that Mike did have a kidney stone
but in addition to the stone they found an aneurysm on his splenic artery. WHAT???
I’m sorry doc but we just came here for kidney stones. He was very honest with us and said he didn’t
know anything about the aneurysm so before he could release Mike he wanted to
talk to a surgeon. When the doctor left,
Mike and I just looked at each other.
Not really surprised. Not really
scared. I think it was just more a look
of, “well of course they found an aneurysm.”
Almost everyday I am amazed at what God has taught us in the last year
and a half. Two years ago, the word
aneurysm would have FREAKED me out! Two
years ago I assure you I would not have been looking at Mike and the doctor
going, “ok.” But today is different than
two years ago (thank you Jesus!). Today
not much surprises me. Today I am
confident that God is most definitely in control. Today I find peace in my prayers and those of
my prayer ninja’s. Today is all I really
have, and it is enough. So back to
Mike. The surgeon says that the aneurysm
has begun to calcify so he feels confident in releasing Mike to go home but
wants him to follow up the next day at his office. We go home.
Did I mention that we were the best-dressed couple in the ER that night
with our coordinating outfits, my hair all fixed and make up freshly applied?
We looked good. Maybe I should have had
Melanie come there to take our family pictures!
So last Monday Mike followed up with two of
his surgeon buddies. They both agreed
that based on the size of the aneurysm, where it was located and the fact that
it had started to calcify, there was not a risk of it rupturing. They said the biggest factor in it not
rupturing is the fact that Mike will not become pregnant (apparently a concern
among women with the same diagnosis). Whew,
one less concern. They will recheck him
in a few months to see how things look.
So these are the things God taught me (or reminded me) last Sunday
night:
1. Faith is continual. Faith just during the easy times is
“selective faith”, which is really not faith at all.
2. A group of praying friends is a blessing
beyond what words can describe. I hope
I’m that kind of blessing to others.
3. God is funny. And He is good. I’m glad I know Him.
4. There is no place for worry AND faith in my
life. It’s one or the other. I choose faith.
5. Once again, mother was right. Always have on clean underwear with no holes
in it because you never know when you might end up in the hospital. Actually, I’m not really sure about that one
since no one saw my underwear but it might not be a bad thing to live by.
So one day maybe I
will get free parking at the hospital, but I hope it is not because I spend so
much time there. Maybe they will award Mike
and me free parking because we wear coordinating outfits to the emergency
room. And clean, non-holey
underwear.
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