blustery

Winter is surely hanging on this year.  I rescued as many buttercups as I could over the past couple of days so they are everywhere in vases.  A friend and I were talking about when you absolutely have to get out, like a medical emergency.  She described how she put mom on a coat and 'boggin and threw a thick quilt over her.    And that gave me a flashback.....

My mom's hip broke in December and she went into rehab.  I insisted on going to every doctor's visit to see what was up, because I'm controlling like that.  Our last visit to a doctor's office was to the ortho who showed me plain as day an x-ray of the hip with that pin hanging down.  No wonder she was hurting!  He said she should go straight to ER and prep for a bigger surgery.  I will never forget hauling my poor frail mother through the freezing wind with nothing but a nursing home blanket around her.  It almost killed us both.  Why wasn't EMS called?  Because I knew those folks well enough to get her there right then and walk up to the ER doors.  Nursing home transfers take forever and it's not the fault of EMS.  It's how the system rolls today in healthcare.  

I feel blessed to have had a hand in every medical decision regarding my parents.  Had I not worked there?  It would have taken me being some poor lost soul trying to advocate for her parents.  Those people loved and respected me professionally enough to look me in the eye as if to say "you know what this means."  

I remember rushing to the "old" ER when my husband had a heart attack with him kicking the dashboard and yelling to run the lights.   After we got up in there and an EKG was done Dr. Hayes and the nurse ( who later became my sister-in-law!"  explained to me what tombstones are.   His LAD was totally blocked and they safely opened it with a clot buster so that he could be airlifted out.  When he left, the EKG was normal.  Now tell me that ain't a miracle.  

They happen every day.  My surgery is a perfect example.  I called up the church secretary today to add someone to our prayer list.  Nobody there will know who she is by name, but she is a very special person to our family and times are hard.  I think about some of the people I've prayed for over the years.  Not really for miracles but for God to work and reach them in their pain.  And I can feel when others are praying for me, believe it or not.  It's that bump you get when you think all is lost and life sucks and then here comes a happy thing.  A baby is born.  There's a rainbow.  Somebody begins recovery from addiction.  It's hard when you're in the middle of it to realize that this too shall pass.  It will never completely go away, but it will pass if you leave room for the spirit to work.  Words directly from Billy Yates and my daddy ^j^