Freaky Friday

We had a pretty exciting weekend around here. Ok, not so exciting, but scary, stressful and just plain freakish. I spent Friday morning going to garage sales with Brooke. While we're on our way home I get a text from Doug saying he had inhaled a pin and that it kinda hurt. To be honest, I was more mad than worried. To be so flippant as to just send me a text message about it and we don't currently have health insurance. We ended up going to the ER that afternoon. The Er doctor said there were two possibilities. One, it could have entered his GI tract. If that was the case, it would simply pass through and they wouldn't have to do anything. Second, it could have entered his bronchial tract. Unfortunately, there's no "other end" with the airway system of the human body which would mean they would have to go an get it. I immediately started praying that he had simply swallowed it. They would send us home, Doug would be fine and our bill would be small, or relatively so. Of course, the doctor comes back and it's in his bronchial tract.

The doctor informed me that they would go in, right there in his ER room, with a bronchial scope to get it out. Most of the time, they can get it just fine, but sometimes, through fits of coughing, it can become embedded in the sides and they won't be able to get it out. He said since it had been a relatively short time since it happened, he was sure he would be able to get it out. After an hour of sitting in the waiting room the doctor let me know that he could not get it. He transported Doug up to xray so he could xray and try to get it out at the same time. The xray would help him be able to see much better. If he couldn't get it out, Doug would have to have something more invasive done. I immediately went outside and texted my family, Doug's family and our church family about what was going on and asking them to pray!

Well, the doctor could not get it out. I asked him if we could wait, we had a health insurance discount plan that would go into effect on the 20th, so if we could wait, they would help pay for anything else that needed to be done. He contacted the doctor at St Vincent that he was referring us to and did some research. He came back to say that people have died that had things left in them. That the pin was very close to Doug's heart and he was afraid that it could prick his heart and mess up his natural heart beat. He was having Doug transferred by ambulance to the St Vincent Medical Center that night. At this point, I am pretty freaked. We went from having a simple freak accident to a life threatening situation. I also quit worrying about the bills. I figured God would just have to take care of it.

He was transferred late that night and had the same surgery performed again by Dr Freeman. He had a little bit better equipment and was more of a specialist for this type of thing so he was hopeful he could get it out. He said there was a good chance he could get it out but there was also a good chance that he couldn't. If he couldn't, we would talk about the pros and cons of an operation vs leaving it. If he could possible die from leaving it, what in the world could be the possibilities if they operated??? We again went into major prayer mode. My sister came and stayed with me during the procedure. Neither of us can remember how it came up, but she started asking about cobra with Doug's previous job. There was a possibility that we could still sign up for that, pay the premiums and we would have insurance to cover the whole thing! We did some research about it while we waited, but there was no way I would know for sure until Monday when I could call the insurance company.

After about 45min or so, the doctor came back and said they could not get it, they couldn't even see it. He recommended for it to just be left. I told him the other doctor had said people had died from stuff like that in their body. Dr Freeman said he had never heard of anybody dying from something like this. I also told him the other doctor had said it was close to the heart and Dr Freeman said it was about as far away from the heart as it could get. He said it really couldn't move any farther and that it would just lay there and within 3-5 days it would scar over and Doug would never even know it was there. Wow! We went from near death to no big deal in less than 24 hours. We went from having possibly $15k - $20K+ medical bills to probably having to pay less than $2k in less than 24 hours. My God is amazing.

To keep this blog even longer, here are the things I learned over the weekend:

1.) God can take a situation from 0-60 in a blink of any eye. We went from absolute worst case scenario to a no big deal scenario overnight. He sent Doug to the right doctor. He provided for us for all the medical bills (I found out our cobra papers haven't even been mailed yet and by law there can be no gap in coverage. So, I'll receive them next week, fill them out and mail the premium in and they will pay for basically everything!)

2.) Having a church family is vital. Not that I didn't know this before, but when I was sitting out front texting everybody about what was happening I had a total peace come over me. I've never felt that before because I've never been in this desperate of a situation before. I know it was the prayers of believers surrounding me. Such peace knowing that others were worried about and praying for my family.

3.) Last and certainly not least is that my sister ROCKS! Along with that is my mom and Joe, my brother-in-law as well. They completely took care of my kids, so much that I didn't even worry about them at all the whole weekend. I knew they were being cared for and loved where they were at so I could just focus on Doug. My sister also took care of me. Just listening and making sure she was there during the procedure so I wouldn't have to sit through it alone. I am so thankful that God's call on my life included me living next to my family!

Wandering in the Desert

Well, it's been 5 weeks since Doug quit his job. I have to say that I have loved him being home. He got our shed and fence put up. Made a dress-up cabinet for all of Jazzy's dress-up clothes and has been keeping the house clean. I even came out one day and he had washed and waxed the van. It's just been awesome. He's also went fishing and disk golfing with the kids and we're just able to spend a lot of time together as a family. I would love for this to just be our life. Unfortunately, he will have to get a job at some point. He has been looking, earnestly in fact. He had an interview and test with a company last week and we're waiting to hear how the test went and see if he gets a second interview. I know something will come up. I totally trust that God has something for him in His time.

But...

Sometimes I just feel like the Israelites. I started a reading plan to read the bible through in one year. I like to read all the commentary that goes along with the chapters I'm reading, so it's going to end up being more like a two year plan. Anyway, I'm currently in Exodus and the Psalms. I learned so much about how God brought the Israelites out of Eqypt, things I never understood before. So now they're out of Egypt and every time something is not perfect, they wine and complain and question why they ever left Egypt. Sometimes I can totally understand where they're coming from. Every once in a while I get a glimpse of what we left. Doug would be Sergeant making about $70k a year. Jazzy would still be near her best friend and heading to the same school as her in the fall. Austin would still have a friend to hang out with. Live would be good. But then I stop and think that if we would have stayed, we would be in slavery. We would be slaves to money, to comfortableness, to our own selfish desires. Right now I am FREE! Freer than I have ever been. I have often referred to myself as a worrier, but I'm not worried right now! I can sometimes get stressed out if things feel out of my control, but I'm not stressed. All I am at this point is in awe. Just in awe and humbled that God chose Doug and I for this journey. In awe and humbled that He can use us to help further His kingdom. Just in awe and humbled by the awesome God I serve.

We're on this journey. This journey called life. And I am so thankful for the freedom from myself that God is teaching me through it. He can keep us wandering for as long as He needs to, we'll just keep our eyes on Him.