Small But Very Large Miracles

My wife and I lost January 4, 2008. It was not the best way to begin the first few days of 2008. We lost the day by having to sit in the Hospital Emergency Room along with possibly hundreds of others that were waiting and waiting and waiting. So our day disappeared with waiting and waiting and waiting – right long with every one of the other poor souls that we so very sick as well.

The pain that my wife experienced started on the Thursday evening around supper time. We had six grandkids with us plus one daughter and a great grandmother. We were eating Chinese Food in a very large Chinese Shopping Centre. Each hour the pain increased.

By the middle of the night the pain had her tossing a turning in absolute agony. It is at that point when husbands feel their greatest feelings of absolute “Uselessness”.

A call to “our doctor’s office” proved totally useless. He is not available for about four weeks….but you can call the clinic that is part of the big operation that he is part of…but they are not open until after 4 PM and by that time who knows how dead my wife would be?

But that really stupid system is for another time and another rant.

So we were off to the Emergency Room at 10 AM… a small line up and only a half hour wait for Alida to get to her turn at the Triage Nurse. Then with our coats and few items we brought with us we retreated to two chairs off to the side to watch and wait and wait and then wait some more. They officially call this “a waiting room”.

By now the spasms that my wife is feeling happens about every two to three minutes. She lets out small moans as she deals with the worst ones. She was thirsty and the cool water helped but also required more trips to the washroom…with more sharp pain when voiding. Alida’s guess was a urinary tract infection that was growing worse by the hour.

After the first hour her pain increased. After the third it was steady and at the four no change. Her trips to the washroom were now dangerous for me – I was guarding her empty chair from other people waiting and waiting and waiting. When she got up they tried to take her seat – from the place that they were sitting on the floor or leaning against the walls.

At the four and half hour mark my “desperate husband” mode kicked in and I asked a hospital volunteer if there was a possibility that they had called our name in another area of the waiting room and we had been missed. She checked. No, they knew we were there but dozens of emergencies had appeared with ambulances. I could see that – the ambulance attendants were coming through not only the ambulance bay, but through two different front doors with extremely sick people.

At five and half hours my wife’s name was called… and she limped back to the next level of the E.R. with me in tow. We passed many people from the morning that had gone in before us, sitting on the inner waiting chairs inside, still with no relief or help. They had a bed for my wife.

The tests began. Blood, Urine, and the physical exams and then more waiting. At that point she had no fever. Other than the pain she seemed normal.

At the seven hour mark she fell asleep and woke up a half hour later with a very high temperature. From a normal temp of 98.6 F to 104 F in one hour. The infection had progressed to her kidneys and we entered a new, more serious level.

The doctor at that time brought the results of all the tests and confirmed a major kidney and urinary tract infection. Alida was right all along – she knows her signs and her body.

IT WAS A SMALL BUT VERY LARGE MIRACLE FOR US.

If she had been given access to a doctor earlier when the pain was bad but manageable – they may have missed the serious nature of what we were facing. We had to wait and wait. It was during that time that the full issue appeared and it was then dealt with.

Last Sunday I preached a sermon on “giving thanks in every situation”.

It was at the five hour mark, when I was a whole lot frustrated that I prayed a small prayer and told God that with everything I had in me I was thankful that we had a seat to sit on, that we were able to get help sometime that day and that soon the nurse would come for Alida. At five and a half hours they came for us.

At the seven hour mark I prayed for her beside the bed as she was sleeping. I thanked God that her pain wasn’t as bad as the lady that was two curtains down… and not as bad as the man in the next stall… who was cursing with his terrible pain. Alida was sleeping quietly with small groans as she breathed.

At nine hours they let us go home. Alida said the cold fresh air never felt better. The anti-biotic was kicking in as well as the Tylenol.

At ten hours she crawled back into her own bed and snuggled between her own sheets.

The last thing that I thought of were the other folk that were still sitting and waiting in the outer area and the others that were still waiting in the inner area as we walked out of the hospital.

Thank you God for small miracles – than you so very much!

~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~