March 3 – “Sweep ‘n’ Swab ‘n’ Surgery”

The decision to perform surgery on Jennifer was finalized and time set for 3 pm yesterday, so Chris and I put on our custodian hats in the morning and headed out to the church to do some cleaning.  We managed to get a new sign saying put up, sweep and swab the deck, straighten up the kitchen and nursery, and haul out some garbage.  And then my text alert sounded.  It was Bryan letting us know that the surgery time had been moved up drastically.  They expected to go in within as little as thirty minutes.  I let him know we would be there as soon as we could, but it certainly wouldn’t be in the next thirty minutes.  We hustled to put away brooms and mops and get everything locked up so we could get home, get cleaned up, and switch into our pastor hats. 

On our way to Houston Bryan texted again and let us know that the surgery wasn’t happening as quickly as they first imagined.  Oh, they moved her to the surgery area all right.  But then it was at least thirty minutes before anyone came in to begin the prep process.  Another classic case of hurry up and wait.  We couldn’t speed up any more than we were already going, but we had a little bit of a chance to get there before surgery.  As it turned out, we were about five minutes too late to see Jennifer, so we settled in to spend the next few hours with Bryan. 

The surgery went well according to the surgeon.  They had to put in plates and seven screws because of the type of break.  Both bones in the leg had displaced fractures, and one little random piece was floating around on its own with no place to go.  It was deemed unnecessary anyway, so they just washed it out of their way. The ER doc had reset the dislocated ankle, so that was checked out.  All the stretched and wrenched ligaments and muscles will just take a lot of time to heal on their own.  We stayed until she was awake in the recovery room, so we did get that prayer in with her … just after the fact.  After her hospital stay she will be transferred to a skilled nursing facility for an undetermined amount of time. 

Whew.  That’s the report as I understand it.  Bottom line … Jennifer and Bryan really need our prayers over the next few weeks in particular.  Put on your encourager hats, folks.

And speaking of changing hats, we changed ours over on the way home to purchasing agent.  We used the opportunity of being in Texas to make a stop at Sam’s to stock up for our upcoming Easter Sunrise Service on the beach and then breakfast to follow.  Much preparation in store over the next few weeks along those Easter-ish lines. 

Revelation 1:8 says, “’I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.’”

Father, walk with Bryan and Jennifer and prepare all those you will be drawing to the sunrise service.  Amen.