Emergency, Surgery, Appreciation

I’m sitting up in my hospital bed. The clock on the wall says it’s 3:17am. Post surgery. I’m enthralled with the thought that our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Our bodies are amazing.

And disgusting.

My recent five-day hospitalization was a revelation. There are gross things happening out of sight inside me every day. Those gross things keep me alive. Grateful.

I have a new aversion and appreciation for bile.

9-1-1

April 10^th started off as a normal day. Half a bagel for breakfast, coffee, read a portion from the Bible, prayer, journal, and at my desk by 7:30am. Around an hour later I felt some deep cramps. Imagining they would pass I kept working until I couldn’t. The pain was intense, so I laid down.

That was no help. The increasing pain made me throw up. Jocelyn wasn’t home. Finally, around 11:30am, I dialed 911. I don’t like to be a bother, but I worried my appendix or gall bladder had burst.

By now Jocelyn was home and trailed the ambulance to the Sturgeon Hospital in St Albert. Even morphine didn’t touch the pain. Jocelyn tells me that in the Emergency public waiting area I repeatedly threw up and was shaking uncontrollably. That was good. It drew attention and I was wheeled into an examination area. Four hours later an x-ray and CAT scan informed the doctors I had a twisted bowel.

I was sedated. Through a haze I remember a doctor telling me I needed surgery. Hours later I woke up in a hospital room minus 15cm of gangrenous bowel.

Post-Op Reflections

Over my five days in the hospital, I had plenty of time to think.

When normal gets kicked to the curb there is a renewed appreciation for just being alive.

Surgery reveals the complexity of human existence. Post-surgery, just going to the washroom was a miracle.

Health care at the Sturgeon Hospital was exceptional. My nurses were Sarah, Kristen, Elaine, Elin, Sheila, Kelsey, Brittany, Britteny, Angela, and surgeons Dr. Naureen Wasy, Dr Saleh.

There were a number of Godwinks. The Emergency ward nurse in charge was Cathy, whom I’ve known since the early nineties when she came to Central Tabernacle as a nursing student. And on my way to post-op x-rays I had a hallway encounter with Julie, a friend and employee at the hospital, who had time for a quick hug and a “take good care of that man” to my nurse, Angela who was from Newfoundland and knew a lot of the pastors that I know.

NG Tubes

My Nasogastric tube (NG Tube) sucks. Sarah, my emergency room nurse, coached me in assisting her to get it through my nasal passageway, down my throat, and into my stomach. We made a great team. Its purpose? To suck bile out of the stomach area to give the bowels “rest’. We have some gross things in our body. I saw stuff sucked into a container I don’t ever want to see again.

When my NG tube was removed, I was allowed a popsicle, and then a can of Gingerale, and some apple juice. None of them ever tasted better. Simple treats feel like major delights.

My first meal was vegetable broth. That was not a major delight.

Jocelyn was incredible. She came to the hospital twice a day to just hold my hand. She walked me around the ward a couple of times to aid with recovery. The nurses loved her. She brought them Timbits and cupcakes.

My roommate was Richard. The first time Jocelyn visited, his wife asked Jocelyn how her father was doing. Her father. Both of us laughed. Silently. I guess surgery can age a person.

That was a compliment to Jocelyn that I told to her to embrace. She is SO much younger than me.

Amazing

I’ve been home for a few days. Jocelyn asked me if I wanted to go for a walk. I felt like the family pet. But with no treats. She is patient. I am slow.

Our team in the District leaned in with prayers and kindness.

Do you think about your existence often? I don’t. Life just happens. A forced pause, with some overtones of seriousness, create clarity about how many things must function in unison to simply survive, even for twenty-four hours.

Laid end to end, an adult’s blood vessels could circle Earth’s equator four times.

 The incision went through my belly button. The average person has 67 different species of bacteria in their belly button.

The human heart beats more than three billion times in an average lifespan.

Systems

There are 11 major organ systems plus the skeletal system. All must function to survive.

All have associated intricacies that hang on a knife edge. The nervous system’s intricate network of neurons and synapses allows for incredibly sophisticated communication and processing of information, making it the most complex system in the body.

That doesn’t even consider the human brain, part of the nervous system, which is the last and grandest biological frontier, the most complex thing we have yet discovered in our universe. It contains hundreds of billions of cells interlinked through trillions of connections.

Wow.

Just wow.

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“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Psalm 139:14

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Have you had surgery? What was your experience like? Please join the conversation and post a comment below.

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