About me...

Pop the lid on my Mason Jar and meet my family. Jim {Jimma} and I have four kids, Creston (Ashley), Jami (Matt), Brandon and Chance. Our grandkids, Cade, Kirby, Eisley, Beck and Reed bring us more joy than any Mason Jar could ever hold. I am counting my blessings over and over and thanking God for His amazing love and grace.

Thursday, May 31, 2012

On January 19 I had thyroid surgery and wrote this draft a week later about my experience. I had forgotten about it until I came across it yesterday. Even though it's four months later, I feel the message is worth sharing. Enjoy!


“Does anyone have anything they want to share?” my friend Christy asked as we gathered around for prayer time before the clinic got started. I didn’t say a word and she looked right at me and said, “Molly?” I knew I needed to share what was going on in my life, but didn’t really want to. I don’t like things that draw attention to me when I’m going down a bumpy road in life, yet it is during those times that I need the prayers and support of my friends. I looked at the circle of ladies holding hands and shared my situation. I told them about my thyroid surgery scheduled the next morning and then shared with them that I have a needle phobia. Every since chemotherapy I have an aversion to needles and seriously struggle when I have labs drawn or an IV started. At that Christy bowed her head and prayed for the clinic, for the volunteers and for my surgery to go well with painless needles.

Painless needles? Seriously? I thought how could that happen. At that point there was a little sarcasm in my thoughts. I guess I’ll just walk in tomorrow and they’ll say, “Oh, there’s been an new invention and we now have painless needless.” Oh how I wish that would be true, but I’m sure if it had happened, it would have been all over the news. This is so typical of my thinking - painless needles would be a new invention, so that was one prayer that wouldn’t be answered.

Thursday morning the nurse came in to start the IV and I thought it would be best to lay it all out for her about my issues and said to her, “Please, no fishing with the needle.” It so happened that my nurse doesn’t like needles or IV’s and assured me that she doesn’t fish, and if she can’t get it the first time, she finds someone that can. The IV went in with little effort or pain and I thought, “Wow, that wasn’t that bad after all.” For some reason, I felt a need to send Jami a text telling her the IV was in. She sent me a text right back, “I specifically prayed for the IV, so glad it’s in.” That prayer was answered, but I still had more needle sticks to go.

Since I can’t take morphine, the anesthesiologist ordered Dilaudid for pain after surgery. I don’t know if it was the combination of coming out of anesthesia with the Dilaudid, but I couldn’t stay awake and felt like I was fading in and out of consciousness for the first eight hours or so. I remember a nurse coming in and telling me she had to take some blood to check my calcium level and thinking, “Oh no, here goes a needle stick.” Next thing I knew it was several hours later and I noticed the band-aid from the stick, but couldn’t remember any pain from the stick. Painless needle sticks? It still hadn’t sank in at this time.

A nurse came in the middle of the night and apologized for disturbing me. She said that my calcium levels had to be checked again, and she would be drawing blood. I cringed in anticipation of the pain and she looked up and down my arm. She held the arm and proceeded to do the most pain FREE needle stick I have EVER had done in my life! I was in awe and said, “Jayne, that is the first time I have ever had blood drawn that it didn’t hurt.” She looked at me and said, “All my patients say that to me.”

Painless needle sticks? Yes, a prayer for painless needle sticks was answered in ways I never would have thought possible, teaching me a new way to pray - more specifically for what I need and to never underestimate the creative ways God can answer our prayers.