My first stop was but a brief one at Kel
and Christina’s house. The boys stayed
with us the other day, and when they went home, somehow Jachin’s epi-pin decided
to remain. It certainly would do me no
good, so I hastened to remove it. The
fewer needles around the house, the safer I feel.
Stop two was St. Luke’s Hospital, land of
the Parking Garage Maze and Multi-colored Elevator Bays. An old friend and former Seasider had a heart
valve replaced the day before, and since I was going to be in Texas anyway, I took
the opportunity to stop by and say hello.
I had to pull the Pastor Card to get in to see her. She was still in the recovery room, a
stop-gap measure to avoid a trip to intensive care. Visiting increments had just ended (not
visiting hours there. You can only go in
for 15 minutes at a time) and the next ones didn’t start for a while. I mentioned something about being a pastor
and everything changed. I was personally
escorted to her bedside with the explanation, “we make exceptions for pastors.” It was great to see Marilyn again. She was doing really well, sitting up and
anxious to have the remaining tubes and wires disconnected. She said her doctor told her she had the
arteries of a 30 year old, so she was on cloud nine. He attributed it to her lifetime of not
smoking. That meant they didn’t have to
worry about lung complications and could do the least invasive surgery
possible. You don’t have to convince
me. I’m a believer in not smoking. Of course it’s easier for me. I can’t breathe around second hand cigarette
smoke, so I’m sure not going to put it inside on purpose. I just missed seeing her husband and son, but
I checked FaceBook when I left and sure, enough they had posted a video of her
for all her fans to see. Great
family. Sure miss them at Seaside.
After a grand meal at the hospital
cafeteria, I swung by my rheumatologist’s office to drop off some paperwork,
then continued to my final stop, which was the impetus for the journey in the
first place. Another Seasider was having
surgery to remove one of the pins holding her ankle in place. It was to be a key step in her recovery,
because it meant she would be able to bear weight on it for the first time in
six months. I think the surgery itself
took only fifteen minutes or so. The
wait time before and after sure made up for it though. It wasn’t bad at all for me and Bryan, her
husband. We worked together on that new
iPhone app called “What’s the Word.” Did
pretty well, too. He was better at
coming up with possible words. Once he
did, I knew how to spell them. Great
teamwork. Jennifer came out of the surgery
quite well. The first time she eased her
foot to the ground and felt the coolness of the floor against the bottom of her
foot, she looked like she was in heaven.
That didn’t last long though. She
was still in a lot of pain from the adjustments made to the other pins still
holding her ankle hostage. She’ll be
fine. One step at a time. Literally.
After trudging through rush hour traffic, I
made it back to Galveston in time to pick
up a prescription at Randalls and hit the Family Fun Friday out at
Seaside. I missed the volleyball game,
but the food was still hot, so I enjoyed some spaghetti and talked with some of
our new folks. Stuck around for the movie
as well. Night at the Musuem. Classic.
A stop for milk on the way home brought an end to my long day.
All in all it was a good day, ministry-wise. Sure miss having Chris by my side on these
jaunts, though. It’s just not the
same.
Psalms 68:28 says, “Summon your power, O God; show us your strength, O God, as you have
done before.”
Father, thank you for continuing to move at
Seaside. You always do, after every
period of slack we bring upon ourselves.
Walk with Marilyn and Jennifer as they continue to recover as well. Amen.
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