Answered Prayer In The Midst Of Yuck

Snuggling with Joy as I rest up

I shared about my fun times with appendicitis.  But I left out a few things that are pretty amazing to me.  Things that really showed God's love and blessing despite my misery.

Previous to going into the hospital, I had a sinus infection.  Stuffed up, could barely breathe through my nose, head pounding sinus infection.  I actually had a doctor's appointment for the next day so I could get an antibiotic to knock out my illness.  Incidentally, my research suggests an infection of another sort (sinus) can cause appendicitis.  Who knew those sinuses could be so dangerous.  Anyway...

I was laying in the bed in the ER, miserable, in pain, exhausted because it was well after my new normal bedtime of around 10:00 pm.  The CT scan was taking forever to happen due to a back log.  I just wanted to sleep.  But I couldn't sleep because...my nose was stuffed up.  And I'm funny where I can't sleep if my nose is stuffed up.  I have to use nasal spray to clear it up.  The nurse offered me morphine.  I asked for Afrin.  "I'm sorry, I can't give that to you."  Fine.  Then I guess I won't sleep.

So I just laid there, kind of brooding in my head, how the heck am I supposed to sleep?!  I didn't want to watch TV--like there's anything on at 2:30 am anyway.  I had already stalked my email and facebook and any other website I could think of.  I decided to pray.  

Lord, I know this is silly when I'm laying here in a hospital bed most likely looking at surgery soon.  But if you could just heal my sinus infection and help me to breathe, I would really appreciate it.

Nothing happened.  Oh well.  I will just wait for drugs to cure me.  But then an hour passed and I started breathing better.  A few minutes later and my nose was completely clear.  I finally drifted off to sleep.  When I woke up a while later, my nose was still unstuffed and the fog in my head was gone.  Like completely healed of my sinus infection gone.  Just like that.  This is the only time I can ever remember being completely healed almost instantly.  My appendix was still broken, but God healed the rest of me.  

And then the fun part.  Around 6:30 am they finally admitted me to the hospital and someone came in to wheel me to my new room.  I was groggy, having just been woken up, so I didn't realize who was pushing my bed at first.  But then I looked up and was like, "Hey, I know you."  Pushing my bed was a guy I used to work with back in my A&W Restaurants days.  I haven't seen him since I was 18.  We had a nice chat between the ER and my new room.  

Finally, the last surprise was that out of all the places they could have stashed me in the hospital, I ended up on the floor where my sister-in-law works.  She was off work at the time, but I was very well taken care of by her coworkers.  They were extremely nice.  If I ever end up in the hospital again, I hope I get placed back in the same unit.  

Yes, I am one of those weird people who actually thinks hospitals are fun.  I was sort of sad when they kicked me out a few hours after my surgery.  I was looking forward to laying around all day being waited on, my meals delivered to me, and not having to do my own dishes.  I don't even mind shots and tests and surgery--I think they're actually cool.  When I woke up from my surgery, I asked the nurse if the doctor took a picture.  She handed me a glossy picture of my appendix and let me keep it.  I showed the kids who were not as excited as I was to see it.  And no, I will not share it here because it is kind of gross if you aren't interested in that sort of thing. Ha!