Saturday, September 9, 2023
Memorial of Saint Peter Claver
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Hospital stories
God has now reconciled you in the Body of Christ through his death, to present you holy, without blemish, and irreproachable before him.
Ashley brought me down in the widest wheelchair I’ve ever seen, and I left Ascension Seton Main Hospital today. Andi picked me up at 11 am. It was only 95 then – by late afternoon the thermometer read 105 degrees.
Again.
It’s been hot. I remember when Margaret spent six weeks plus two days in three hospitals in June and July of 2021, when covid restrictions made getting into the hospital difficult whether you were a patient or a visitor. It was hot that summer too. Every day I drove south on Rte. 1, hoped for a sheltered parking space, walked inside, checked in with the guard, and went upstairs to Room 350 at Seton Main. Sweating all the way from the garage.
The air conditioning felt so good in 2021. Margaret had become accustomed to it, although the hospital did have an outdoor atrium where we ate a few breakfasts and lunches. When we left the atrium and walked back inside, the conditioned air felt cool, refreshing, a relief, to both of us.
This time I was the one who got accustomed. My room 361 was directly across from Margaret’s old room 350, in an older section of the hospital where the ceilings could use a little work, where the rooms are small. But the nurses and helpers roaming that hall made me feel at home. My nurses were not legalists, and they were proud of their work. Kathleen, the first nurse, made a point of telling me her replacement was not a legalist either. Kathleen was flying to see her parents in Milwaukee the next day. Before she left she pulled a recliner and a second straight backed chair down the hall for us.
Behold, God is my helper; the Lord sustains my life.
Alexandra, Kelly, Savannah and Katie took me the rest of the way. Because of a ding (not the medical term!) in the “Bundle of His,” a bundle of muscle fibers that transmit electrical impulses within my heart, I spent two nights in the hospital on a heart monitor, to be sure no problems develop. I slept poorly the first night, then slept well in the morning. Just as if I were spending two nights at a resort, the full day between them felt like a spa day.
I stayed in my own bed for a chest x-ray at 5 am and an echocardiogram at 10. If it weren’t for that “ding,” I would have headed home after that.
Instead I lounged around all afternoon and in the evening watched the Cubs and Chiefs lose their baseball and football games. I read parts of two books. Alex showed me where to find the snack room, I had a leisurely shower, took several naps. And that second night I slept like a rock. In the morning before I was discharged I listened to the end of 1 Samuel, getting ready for Matt’s sermon on Sunday. I think I’ll be able to attend. A few years ago I would have still been in the hospital, just beginning to recover from an open chest.
But not this week. I continue waiting for pain, or bleeding, swelling, but none so far. There were problems at 4 a.m. on the first night, when my IV wouldn’t draw blood and Alex had to put in a new one, after getting not quite enough blood from the small vein on top of a knuckle. My blood sugar and blood pressure were too high. The adjustable bed was a little hard to understand, so my knees went up but my feet stayed down.
While Jesus was going through a field of grain on a sabbath, his disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them.
The food – stuffed porkchop, pot roast, pancakes, migas, yogurt parfait … ah! When Andi and Margaret came for their second visit on Thursday, along with friend Jennifer from church and Miles, all of us had chocolate ice cream. Miles said, “This is good. I’m going to savor it.” Since he won’t be seven till November, Andi and Margaret wowed his use of that new word.
He did have a good idea. After that, I savored mine too.
(Colossians 1, Psalm 54, John 14, Luke 6)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
#
