Strange Blessings

So I've had a strange couple of days. Remember how I puked on Sunday at church? Yeah, well I guess I had a gall bladder stone the size of a marble. So I kept feeling icky, but Thursday afternoon I exploded into pain... pain that just kept on getting worse. I had a doctor's appt that evening, but decided I couldn't wait for it and just went to the ER. Good thing too because, as I said, it was a gall stone so the doc's office couldn't have done much for me... except send me to the hospital.

So even though the whole thing sucked.... and was PAINFUL.... like being in labor painful.... I feel very blessed at how it all worked out. Miraculous I would call it.

So the doc at the ER said I was okay to wait for surgery for a day or two and he spoke with a surgeon on the phone to give him a head's up. The surgeon said he probably couldn't do the surgery until next week sometime, but that he wanted to at least see me in the office "tomorrow" (Friday). So they sent me home with a surgeon's phone number, pain pills, and anti-nausea pills. Also, they told me that the pain and nausea would probably go away a little and come back, over and over until we just got the stupid gall bladder taken out all the way. So I was a little stressed to have to wait for surgery because, the pain was awful and puking is no fun. Also, next week my husband has finals.... including his final in Organic Chemistry... so his week is SHOT. And I have some really good friends coming to stay with us for most of next week. I haven't seen them in a really long time and they're coming up from many thousands of miles away. Could you imagine "It's so good to see you, but I'm off to surgery, go ahead and watch TV if you want." The miracle in all of this is how it all worked out so that I could have surgery on Friday (yesterday). It was like there were all these obstacles, seen and unseen, and God was kind enough to just move them for me. Like David said before fighting Goliath "It is not my fight but the Lord's."

So the first blessing, strange as it may sound, is that I woke up puking on Friday. If I hadn't been so violently sick, I would have definitely eaten so I could've taken my pain medication. And if you eat, you can't have surgery. So my first blessing came in the form of kneeling on the bathroom floor all morning.

Then when I called to see what time I could get an appt with the surgeon, they said "come in right now and don't eat anything." Hooray! So, next miracle is that we found the office without getting lost because it's a hard one to find. Then we were blessed to not have to wait at all to see the doctor. Literally, no waiting. The surgeon was very good, and very friendly and funny. He said that since I was still symptomatic that he felt I needed to have surgery that day, but his schedule was so full he thought it wouldn't be until the evening. So don't eat anything all day, and don't take any pain pills. Ugh.

But the next miracle is that as we were leaving his office he ran to catch us and said he had a cancellation and at the same time the surgery center had a last minute cancellation so I could go have surgery "right now." So I went up and checked in at surgery and got right in again. They even gave me some IV nausea meds, morphine for pain, and basic fluids while I was waiting. Hooray!

There were many other "little" blessings that were big to me, because they enabled my friends and family to be able to help me without having to miss their own important events that day. But possibly the best miracle of all is that my sister found a fat free chocolate cookie.... Snackwell's devils food cookies. SO YUMMY! And right after gall bladder surgery you're not supposed to eat any fat for a while. They are saving my life!

Anyway that's a long and rambling story and possibly quite boring. :) But I'm on heavy narcotic pain meds and a little out of it. So I hope it makes sense. I feel very blessed.