patient in affliction

Be patient. God is using today’s difficulties to strengthen you for tomorrow. He is equipping you. The God who makes things grow will help you bear fruit. – Max Lucado

There are very few things that match the relief of being released from the hospital and wheeled into a waiting car to take a patient home.  An itching incision is no match for the quiet of home.  Or the memory of periodic blood-pressure checks, diabetic sticks to  a ten-minute hot shower in the comfort of home.

For five days, six times each day,  walking the floor was my mission to get body moving in the right direction.  To the nursing staff  on the 3rd Floor wing of Sharp Memorial hospital I became the “walker”.  I could teach a lot about hospital recovery after I have been in and out of hospitals for fifty of my nearly sixty years.   Prior to being released this evening,  round the clock I paced my half of the floor.  As for afflictions, as an old hand at the nasogastric tube used for relief for bowel obstructions and after surgery,  the stories I could but will not tell today.  Fortunately when it was inserted I was already under anesthesia.  But that knocked out food intake for five days.

But the first victory came in getting my bladder back in sync.  For those who have been treated for bladder infections,  the pain,  urgency, and desperation when one cannot pee is unforgettable.   Putting a drain in for the second time -after the surgical one was removed ( to relieve my distress)  was equally memorable.

But to the doctors and nurses, milestones after surgery involve passing flatus and having a BM ( a bowel movement).  These are the important conversations in recovery.    But beyond medical tinkering of our bodies,  it is through affliction how we are refined.   I would like to think that sharing my faith, and praying for the comfort of the other patients and skill of the medical staff to be guided by the Creator is the right response.

10 See, I have refined you, though not as silver;

  I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.  Isaiah 48:10  (NIV

Healing involves discomfort, pain, lots of walking and patience. I am working on patience. Walking a lot.  And thinking others more deserving than myself.   I can heal at home.

This post is dedicated to the awesome nurses, aides, pharmacist and dietetic technicians,  surgeons and resident doctors who treated me this week and in past years at Sharp Memorial.