Well
I guess you could say I finally got into a little bit of excitement yesterday. The day started when Chris left for a dentist
appointment and I went to the monthly Cops and Clergy breakfast. I saw a Hitchcock officer who went to school
with my big brother and said hi to him.
And I met the assistant chaplain of the Texas City Police
Department. Really nice guy. But I had no sooner sipped my first taste of
coffee than my phone went off with a text.
One of our Seasiders was getting ready to have surgery on her toe.
OK. Quick back story there. She teaches one of those Zumba classes. One day she was practicing her Zumba moves at
home. When she slid her foot across the
carpet, that big toe discovered an errant sewing needle lurking amid the
threads. It proceeded to embed itself
into the bone of her foot and, to make matters worse, break off. The minor emergency clinics were all closed,
so she made her way to the emergency room.
Now from this point on I get a little fuzzy on the timeline and details,
but it sounds like there was a series of unfortunate events. Apparently the medical staff was fine. But somewhere in there she was told by the
office staff that before they would do the surgery required to remove the
needle, she would have pay her entire medical deductible, an amount they did
not have access to. No payment plan was available
since the surgery wasn’t considered an emergency. They were told to return when they did have
it, and the surgery would be scheduled at that time. She decided to wait it out. Also somewhere in there she was told by an ER
resident that he would order a tetanus shot and send her home. She left the ER around 3 in the morning and didn’t
realize until she got home that she never received the shot. After an hour or two of sleep she called the
ER back around 8 to see if she could come back in and get the shot. She was told she could, but would have to pay
the ER visit fee as well as a doctor fee again.
Again, not happening. So how did
she the surgery scheduled? As usual, it’s
who you know. Someone she works with
knows a nursing administrator who greased some wheels, and suddenly they were
treated like royalty.
So
yesterday at the surgery, after they wheeled her away, her husband and I went
to look for a place to eat. A guy with a
hospital nametag offered to help us, and ended up escorting us to the in-house
Subway. Along the way we chatted. He said he was “One of the hospital
administrators.” He asked why we were
there, so we told him the Reader’s Digest version of the surgery. His eyes immediately arched. He cocked his head to the side just a bit,
like a dog trying to figure out a strange sound. And then
he said, “I know your case.”
Apparently all the administrators now knew the case. And he assured us they would be all over the
situation. Not sure what “all over the
situation” actually meant to him, but the young couple was happy to have to the
surgery completed and that needle taken out.
Oh, any by the way, the surgery went well. The surgeon couldn’t give her back the
needle, though. It was considered a “potential
weapon,” so I guess it had to go into evidence lock-up. Can’t be too careful with those Zumba-hunting Nasty Native Needles. Gotta capture ‘em and keep ‘em locked up.
1
Corinthians 12:12-13 says, “The body is a
unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many,
they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into
one body — whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free — and we were all given the
one Spirit to drink.”
Father,
help Heather heal quickly from her surgery.
Amen
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