God's Timing - God's Plan

Someone once asked me if I knew the difference between minor and major surgery. He went on "minor surgery is any surgery done on you, major surgery is any surgery done on me. One of my passions in life is writing and our Pastor has encouraged me to write about my experience so that is what I am doing today.To that end my surgery one week ago appeared to go fairly well. The doctors made an incision in my back and an incision in my left kidney to remove two large and one smaller kidney stone. They got the two big stones but the smaller one got away. Not sure what they are going to do about that.
They use a small camera that they insert into the incisions so they can see what is going on. The first problem occured when the camera fell out of the first incision.
They then had to make a second incision into the back and a second incision into the kidney. Double your pleasure, double your fun right.
They then retrieved the stones after a two and a half hour operation and sent me off to the recovery room. I remember them coming and talking to me in the recovery room but nothing after that. The rest of the story I have gotten from talking with Louise, Jenn, Tim and Karla and hospital staff.
I was sent to my ward. Louise said I was in tremendous pain and so the doctors told her they would give me morphine and I would be pretty lucid so if she and the kids wanted to leave the hospital would call them if there were any problems. They decided to go to Tim's house which is only about five minutes from the hospital.
They were called back almost immediately and told that I stopped breathing, was unconscious, had no pulse and was not responding.
This is where God's miracle, God's timing and God's plan begins to go to work. One of the ladies from our church, Trenna Graham, works at St. Paul's Hospital. I am not sure if she is a nurse or nurse's aid. Doesn't really matter. Well Trenna, just happened to be in my room and she noticed that I had turned blue and was going purple. Apparently she called the nursing staff and they put on a full code blue to the ICU team who responded in seconds. One nurse did CPR and restarted my heart. Today I am grateful that my ribs and chest are sore because the
nurse did what she had to do and saved my life. They then attempted to put an airway down my throat and couldn't succeed. Unfortunately and unconsciously I really fight anything like that. So today I have a very sore throat and neck area.
I also bit my top and bottom lips really badly and today, one week later, the swelling has finally gone away from that.
Louise and the kids arrived at the hospital while they were still working on me in the ward and Trenna was there to comfort them and I am really grateful to her for that. She also went to a sitting room and prayed for me as they worked over me.
Words can never ever express the gratitude that I feel to her for that and it goes
without saying I am so grateful to God for giving me a second chance at life.
I have been asked by people if I saw any bright lights or angelic beings. I have to answer no and I am somewhat troubled if that means anything at all. My Pastor says no it doesn't so I hope he is right. Honestly I have no recollection of anythng.
I remember being in the recovery room and then everything is blank until I came to in
the ICU with my hands tied to the bed and Louise and the kids being there with me.
My doctor came in the next morning and said "you were halfway to heaven and we called you back"
So now there are so many people to thank. First and above all (other than God) I have to thank Louise. This has been a difficult 12 months with Mom being hospitalized and then in the fall I was hospitalized for a week. She is tired and deserves a rest. We have booked an Alaskan cruise in July for our 35th wedding anniversary and I am glad I will be there to take it. Every day as I attempt to recover Louise tells me to focus on Alaska and that is what I am doing.
And then I thank my kids, Tim, Jennifer and Karla. They were there everyday for me and the first day out of hospital Karla came over and her and Jenn made me lunch and got me one of those great smoothies from Tim Horton's. Then I again thank Trenna and also the hospital staff and especially the nurse who adminstered the CPR - the booster cables of life.
And also to Ed and Linda for their support. I think Linda phoned, texted or emailed every night. Linda and I share a love of writing and a love of hockey and everynight through the Stanley Cup playoffs we have been texting each other, pulling each others chain and having a little fun. She is a Vancouver Canuck, Ed is a Montreal Canadien and I am a Boston Bruin so it has been fun. We may even see a Canuck - Bruin final.
So what have I learned from this? That is a difficult question. It sounds clicheish to say slow down - stop and smell the flowers (and my fish pond) but that is what I know I must do. I know now I also need to make more time for God and less time with the wood and stubble of this life that is just here today and gone tomorrow. I said in one of my emails it is amazing how you take the normal things for granted until they are taken away from from you and you can't do them. Mina wrote a beautiful email in response to that and I thank her for her thoughts. I have the utmost of admiration for Mina as she struggles cheerfully, never blaming, with a burden that most of us could never even relate to.
So that's my thoughts. The surgery and all the excitement was exactly one week ago.
I want to get back out there, hitting the bricks running and then I remember that may have been what put me here in the first place. Slow down, trust God, smell the flowers.