Emergency room

6/29/08 Sunday
Yesterday, at about 4:30 in the morning Cherie woke me up. I had already been kind of awake hearing her walking around saying things like “I’m so tired” but never really became cognizant till now. “I think you need to take me to the hospital” she said. That woke me up. Cherie explained she had a burning pain on her left side down in the abdominal tract and that it was bad and getting worse. I asked questions like “Have you been able to go to the bathroom?” and “What did you have to eat?” to search out an answer. There wasn’t one for my limited knowledge of human ailments. I asked her if she could hold on and see if this passed in order to not incur the big bill that would come with a hospital visit because we have no insurance. She reluctantly agreed. Understand that I was more than willing to take her and eventually did but left the decision in her hands.

A few hours later she announced “I know what this is! It’s a kidney stone. I can tell because the pain has moved”. Come to find out Cherie has had three kidney stones prior to this so was familiar with this pain. I did what I could to make her comfortable. Asking if there was anything I could get she said “Cranberry juice and some popsicles” so I got in the car and went to the IGA when it was late enough for them to be open. By this time Cherie wasn’t very coherent or able to think well. Upon my return I asked if she would like a popsicle and she just stood there. “It’s a simple question” I said in frustration but she still didn’t answer. Finally she said yes so I unwrapped one and held it out for her. She looked at it blankly for a bit and finally said “Put it in the freezer”. Seeing as it was unwrapped and there was a whole box full I ate it. At 9:30 or so she decided we needed to go to the hospital. “This hurts more than the other times” she said.

She had called her mom for prayer and on the way called up Jen as well. Jen asked about coming to the emergency room and visiting as well as telling her she would put this out on the Simon Department (Our Sunday school group) internet thing. As Cherie did this I thought about how foreign it was to me. I can’t remember ever having or needing people I could call for prayer or support. I suspect they were there when I was a pastor but don’t recall much about that. What I do know is that I have always depended on myself and seldom if ever asked for help. This is one of the things that has changed since I woke from the coma. I have been brought down to where I do need the help of others but I’m still not good at asking for it. That is part of the humility that I am still being taught. It started with having my diapers changed in the hospital.

At the hospital they were busy. Cherie was in the reception area when I came in from parking the car. They called her name soon after so I followed her to the nurses’ station where they asked the standard questions and took her temperature and blood pressure. She was asked to give a urine sample so I went back out to the waiting room. After a bit Cherie came out with a strange smile on her face. Come to find out, when she gave the urine sample she passed the kidney stone. She could see it in the clear container they had given to her. She still was in pain but it was fading. We sat there for an hour or so waiting for her turn to be seen.

After discussing it we decided there was no sense in waiting because the problem was solved as far as we could tell. This would reduce the bill as well. Just as we came to that decision and were preparing to get up and leave Jen walked in. “You’ve got a visitor” I told Cherie, pointing to Jen. What a surprise it was and a blessing as well. It is so good to have friends like this who truly care and such a relief after our rejection in Stanton. We are truly blessed to know these good people. Jen took us out for hamburgers and malts at…a pharmacy who’s name I can’t recall. It has an old time style counter similar to the one in Stanton and makes great simple hamburgers like you make at home and great malted milk shakes. The store was full of neat nostalgic gift items too. We were tired, especially Cherie so we didn’t stay too long. It was great to visit with Jen and we talked about lots of things. She reads this so “Thank you Jen”.

We got some light rain that lasted till about noon or so. I had forgotten that I was to pick some blackeyed peas for Don so got out early this morning and picked them in the rain. I kind of like working in a light rain. Keeps everything cool and that’s quite a break from the normal heat out here. At church it was heartwarming to see how many had heard of Cherie’s kidney stone and expressed their concern and how glad they were to hear things “Came out OK”. (pun intended) We are touched.

I’m taking advantage of this cooler day and the wet soil. It’s only supposed to get up to 88 degrees or so. The tiller will be getting a workout for sure and I hope to get a lot of seeds planted, mostly the rest of the melons. Melons and squash I seem to have the most luck with out here. It is so late to be planting but like Jen said, if it works I’ll have melons when everyone else has run out. Cindy bought Cherie a canner and we picked that up from her at Sunday school. It’s exactly the same one she had been looking to get. Another blessing from our new family. The lesson in Sunday school was on the early church as described in Acts. In that first beginning of Christianity they all gathered together sharing and caring for each other’s needs some even selling their possessions to help others. How appropriate that is and how good it is to see people living what they believe in this day and age.