I Know You Redux

Have you ever laid in an emergency room bed and waved at the “civilians” as they walked by your glass walled room and looked your way? There are a lot of interminable waits in the ER and so I did that to help pass the time. Most people didn’t respond and averted their eyes, probably thinking, “Look at that poor demented man, he thinks he knows me or something”. A few waved back with a smile, including a Dubuque County Sheriff’s Deputy, probably thinking, “Oh look at that sweet old man who is smiling and waving at strangers!”

I ended up here and for the third time in two weeks and was greeted by the attending physician and the ER nurse with “I know you!”. I guess I scored a hat trick today!

The long and the short of it is that I’ve been dealing with stomach/bowel issues for a little over two-weeks; ever since I declined the offered cushion for my stool in the Iowa University Hospital because I didn’t plan on sitting on a stool. After three separate attempts to medically define and address the issue things actually seemed to be on the right track yesterday and I thought we were making progress. Then came the evening when things got progressively worse until I left bed at 1am and sat in my recliner until 3:30 as I mentally reviewed “Pain, Despair and Agony on Me”. It was awful and prompted me to decide to make one more attempt at the local dispenser of health care … Mercy Hospital. As we drove there this morning I prayed, “Lord have Mercy on me”.

The Acute Care Physician sat “and listened to a story ’bout a man named Tim. A poor missionary going where the Lord has led.” … When I told her my tale she asked one question: “Have they done any imaging of your abdomen?” “No”, I said meekly, and her eyes got much bigger and she said, “I’m sending you right to the emergency room.” And off we went.

Here is what we have discovered, and that which may have contributed to my Symptomonious Symphony (See recent Post).

• I have some diverticulitis in the upper bowel (unusual location … much more common in the colon) and developed an infection.
• The infection weakened the wall of the diverticular sac and it became perforated (very bad news when this happens and often requires surgery.
• But, praise to the Lord, this fearfully and wonderfully made body of mine went to work to surround and enclose it so it could not leak the infection out. This did create some swelling and manifested some pain….well MORE than some.
• Saw the Surgeon and he indicated that we are going to watch it for a couple of days on antibiotics and carefully moderated food intake (nothing for 24 hours). He does NOT think, at this point that surgery will be needed but holds that in reserve in case things don’t improve over next few days in hospital.

Fun things:

I’ve been getting a lot of mileage out of the Mellow Yellow incident!

For my second hat trick of the day, I found a Pee Hat in my private bath and since I don’t plan on using it I appropriated it for other purposes and took my chrome dance partner for a swirl around the room – Picture included at the top.

On every opportunity I can, I share with the physicians and medical staff that there are hundreds, maybe over a thousand people who are praying for me … but that they also praying for THEM … that they would have wisdom and skill and insights that they might not have except that God gave them just so they could tailor the treatment for me!

In every case they go quiet and then thank me. Some do it with emotion … others with a humbleness. One of them responded by saying, “As long as we are talking about God, we should talk about how you want to be “coded”. Do you know what that means?” … I smiled and said, “Go ahead and resuscitate me” The way I figure it, if the Lord wants me, He’s going to take me … but let’s not make it easy for Him! 😉 Two members of the medical staff today responded by assuring me of their prayers … one of whom, I believe was a “brother”.

That’s it for now…time to get some shut-eye after a long day! Please do continue to pray for me …and for my medical teams. I’ll keep y’all updated.