One could say that my last blog was a precursor needed to prepare me for what we were about to experience. Some may say it was a coincidence, but I know better. God was preparing me by reminding me of His promise of peace, if I submit my requests to Him with thanksgiving. Although this promise can be applied to every problem we face in our lives, what God was going to allow to come our way, was going to put me to the test.
Let me first say, that I believe that God did not “make” this happen. We live in a natural world that has natural consequences of being a part of it. Nature takes it’s course, regardless of our faith. I do believe that God can and does intervene in the natural consequences of our lives and spares us at times. But, He also promises to walk us “through” the circumstances of our lives. I liken it to raising my children. There were times I would intervene in solving their problems, but in contrast, the life lessons learned by allowing them to experience consequences, were invaluable to making them the intuitive, intelligent, sensitive, Godly, etc adults that they are today. It may sound cliche to say that His purposes are greater than ours, when we are facing difficulties, but the fact is, they are. He promises to make all things work together for our good (Romans 8:28). So even though the enemy is out to steal, kill and destroy us, God is able to take what the enemy meant for evil and make good of it. Don’t believe it? Read on.
Just about 3 weeks ago, my husband and I were returning from another enjoyable trip to see our kids in Nashville. We came home via the Alabama and Louisiana coast line, and stayed in New Orleans for a couple of days. A wonderfully memorable trip. The day after we returned home, he began to get a fever and chills. It all seemed like normal flu-type symptoms, but by Tuesday AM, his neck, shoulders and head were in so much pain, he could not get up without assistance and agonizing pain. I had no idea what this was, but I knew it was not just the flu. My first thought was meningitis. First sign that God was directing us, both Mike and I felt we should call “Evelyn”. Now you have to understand, that Evelyn was merely an acquaintance. We had run into her through family friends several times over the years. We knew only that she was a nurse and would probably know where we should take him. I called her and she immediately thought the same as we were thinking and thus we made the trip to the urgent care center she recommended. His obvious pain level and stiff neck, caused them to send us directly to the ER for the proper meningitis tests. Was this a wasted trip to urgent care? Not at all, because this Dr used to work at the ER he referred us to, so he paved the way for us to get directly into the private room in the ER, without having to wait the normal hours and hours in an ER waiting room. For Mike, that was more than a blessing. Although laying down gave him little relief, sitting up was intolerable. Sitting in the ER room, with my husband in such miserable pain and being miles from any family, was overwhelming me when Evelyn walked in. This lady had tracked us down and came to offer her support. I hugged her with such relief to see a familiar face, even though I really didn’t know her. It was such a gift to just have her reassurance that we were in the right place and in good care. After hours of pain meds and tests, they determined it was not meningitis and sent us home with more pain meds for the diagnosis of muscle spasms. None of the meds would help his pain level, but they made him able to sleep.
Wednesday, we saw no improvement and by Thursday early AM, he was even more impaired by the pain. We headed back to the ER by late morning. As another blessing, the ER receptionist recognized us and paved the way for us. They did not have a bed when we first arrived, but found us a couch in a private room for him to lay down until they could get him one. If you’ve ever been in ER, you know this is not normal consideration. His pain was so apparent, they bent over backwards to try to help him. After more tests they determined he had pneumonia and by then his fever had gone to 102.7. He was very sick and although pneumonia was a viable reason to admit him, they knew they had not yet identified what was really going on. Our God given angel, Evelyn, arrived again to offer her support and to explain what all the concerns were. Just as we got him into a room upstairs, he broke out into violent shakes as his fever spiked. I can’t say I’ve ever seen anyone shake that hard from fever chills. It was tough to watch, but Evelyn assured me it was nothing to panic about. I went home alone that night and even though I felt numb, there was a real sense of urgency that God needed to help these doctors figure out what was wrong with my husband. Pneumonia did not explain the pain in his neck, shoulders and head. All through the night that was my prayer.
Arriving back at the hospital early Friday, things were already a buzz. He had been on antibiotics for about 12 hours and he was not responding. The fever was still up and his pain level was still off the scale. Somber doctor, after somber doctor came in to ask him questions. By afternoon, each doctor was coming back in and explaining to me what they were finding and/or looking for. A new face, the infectious disease doctor (ominous title) came in and explained that his initial blood cultures were coming back positive for staph infection in his blood. They wanted to do an MRI on his neck to see if there was abcess there from the infection causing his pain. Then arrived an echo-cardiogram tech to look at his heart. Strangely, I was excited when I saw them come do that test because it gave me confidence that these doctors were checking everything, not just the obvious. (Side story..our realtor had recently lost her 55 year old healthy husband to undetected ecoli infection that ate up his heart in just a few days. The doctors missed it in his case, until he went into cardiac arrest.) Then came in the hospital doctor to tell me that if he had the abcess that he would have to have emergency surgery and then he got called away. So, there I sat, trying to process all this information and realizing again how alone we were in this hospital, so far away from anyone who knew us or loved us. I had been texting the family to keep them abreast as each event was rolling out and as I told them about the possible surgery, I got a text back from our son, telling me he was 30 minutes away. He had left early that morning to drive 10 hours to be with us. That was my son listening to God’s prompting, because none us had known what this day was going to unfold. After some pent up tears and lots of hugs, we pulled it together as the neurosurgeons walked in the door to tell us all the reasons why you should never do surgery on someone with an out of control staph infection in their body. But, the MRI had shown a large abcess all up and down his neck centering around a herniated disc (we didn’t know he had). Without the surgery, he would likely be paralyzed within 24 hours. So, there really was no option but to risk the surgery.
Evelyn was waiting for us when we arrived early Saturday morning. Mike was still not responding to the antibiotics. His fever was still 102-103 as they rolled him off to surgery. As the waiting began, we started texting the family to pray that the infection would not have eaten into his vertabrae yet, requiring a longer surgery and causing more risks of complications. It was all good. The surgery was quick and they were able to replace the disc, clean out the abcess and flood the cavity with antibiotics. The surgeon reported he had done his job and paralysis was no longer a concern….but, he said, he is a very sick man and should be in ICU. He was very concerned that he was not responding to the antibiotics and his temperature was remaining too high. More phone calls, more texting and now the family was making plans to fly in asap to be with us. Those whom were flying were able to find amazingly cheap fares within hours of their flight times…how unheard of is that? Mikes brother and wife, whom we had not seen in years, had driven all night and arrived after the surgery. The family was coming together to offer their support and love. Unfortunately for Mike, he was so drugged, he has little memory of all that love coming his way but God was doing a healing of another sorts by bringing us all together.
Mike’s fever remain elevated Saturday PM and into Sunday. He was hooked up to all kinds of things after his surgery. He had not eaten in a week by then and his throat had swollen so that the opening was the size of a toothpick. When I arrived Monday AM, the ICU nurse told me that I could not see him. She said he had a resistant form of staph and they were putting him in isolation. I could look in the room and see that his fever was still high, as he was so red. She told me to come back in an hour, after they had received the gowns and masks we would have to wear to see him. That tipped the scales for me. If you have ever heard of MRSA (pronounced mersa) you know that is it very difficult to treat. God and I did some serious talking during that hour. I told Him I was willing to be thankful for all of this and that I knew He could bring good things from it. I could definitely see God’s hand in so many of the little things along this journey. I knew He was there working on our behalf and for that I was extremely grateful. But, I was not ready to give up my husband. So, if He was bringing all of this family down here for a funeral, I wasn’t on board with that. Then I remembered our realtor. She wasn’t ready to let go of her husband either. I had to be willing to let God’s will play out. That was a tough hour but in the end, I was at peace. After that hour, I went back to the ICU and the nurse said I could go right in. It had all been a mistake on her behalf. He did not have MRSA, he had MSSA, the non-resistant form of staph. Ok God..I guess we needed to have that conversation. When I walked in, his temperature was already down and everything starting improving from that point on. We still spent a total of 14 days in the hospital, down from the expected 24 days. He has a long recovery still ahead, but he is progressing better than expected.
In the end, we were within 24-36 hours of losing him to a deadly infection, but it was not in God’s plan. He surrounded us with people who dug in and figured out what was going on in time to turn it around. He led Evelyn to be with us every day to support us, answer our questions, pray for us, and encourage us along the way. Of all ironies, the doctors that Evelyn works for are the infectious disease doctors. We were officially put under her care the last day in the hospital and she is overseeing all of our at home treatments going forward. Only God works out things like that. There is so much more to tell about the things that God did during these weeks and maybe I’ll share in future blogs when it is relevant. But, the real story here is that God was faithful not only in allowing Mike to come through this, but in providing healing throughout the family in other ways.
As a result of this experience, Mike will be off of work for the next couple of months during his recovery. This has provided an opportunity for his sister and mother to stay with us for an extended visit. With Christmas around the corner, it means they will be with us this year. And, Mike’s brother and some of his kids and their families are planning to join us also…a first. All of this is timely also because Mike’s mom has been recently diagnosed with Alzheimers. This Christmas she will be able to spend it will all three of her children. I don’t know how many years it has been since that happened. God’s purposes are greater than we will ever understand. I hope you will see in our story that even though Mike had to go through this, God has used it for good.
Webster says that “thankful” means to express gratitude and relief. I am thankful to God for what He has done for and in our family these last few weeks. I have lived this scripture out and I can tell you, this peace of God is real.
Philippians 4: 6) Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7) And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
PS..read back over “Where am I?” posting. In light of our medical emergency, there is no doubt, God had us right where we needed to be at this time. PTL
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