Wow!

Once again, I am in awe of God’s amazing ways! To start this story, you need to know that for several weeks now, Jim and I have been planning a trip to Kentucky tomorrow to spend a couple of days with Chance before he deploys.

A week ago Tuesday night, Jim started feeling really bad. After having kidney stones in the past, he knew this had to be the culprit making him feel so bad. The pain and vomiting were relentless and went on for several days. The following Friday he went to the doctor and tests were ordered on Monday. After viewing the test results on Monday, the doctor sent us to a urologist the next day. The urologist ordered a sonogram on Wednesday and told us to come back Thursday for an appointment.

Thursday morning I left work and picked Jim up to take him to the doctor. On the way, he asked me to stop and pick him up a candy bar, just in case his blood sugar went too low. Not being home that morning, I had no idea he hadn’t eaten all day. Had I known, I would have encouraged him to stop and grab something at a drive through, knowing how crazy his blood sugar gets because of his diabetes.

When we saw the doctor, he said that Jim had a small kidney stone, and suggested he try a medication that would make him urinate a lot to see if he could pass the stone. If the stone didn’t pass after four or five days, then they would surgically remove it. We reminded the doctor that we were going out of town Sunday and asked what the likelihood was that Jim would be able to go.

Considering that Jim had recently had a kidney infection and the trip we had planned, the doctor gave us another choice - to have the stone surgically removed. Jim said nine days of fighting the stone was enough, he wanted the surgery done, ASAP! The doctor said they could do the surgery that afternoon depending on the last time Jim had something to eat. Since Jim hadn’t eaten all day, the surgery was scheduled for that afternoon. The doctor said he’d be able to come home that evening.

The urologist came out of surgery and told me that he was able to retrieve the stone, but was more concerned about what was behind the stone than anything else. He said that when he removed the stone, infection poured out from behind it and the amount of the infection was lethal! He admitted Jim to the hospital and started him on IV antibiotics. Around noon yesterday, Jim was released and got to come home.

It is nothing short of amazing, how everything played out. Not only did Jim not eat anything at home that morning, his sugar stayed up, so he didn’t need the candy bar I bought for him. Had he eaten any food, the surgery would have been postponed until Friday. Who knows the difference 24 hours might have made! Had we not planned the trip to Kentucky, we would have chosen to wait out the stone by trying the medicine the doctor suggested, rather than go through the expense of a hospital visit. That would have put Jim four to five more days with all that infection. Taking into account that he is still not fully recovered from his quadruple bypass, either of these scenarios could have been detrimental to his life. As I said to the urologist after the surgery, we are really blessed. “Yes, you are!” was his reply. We are ever thankful for God's many blessings in our lives.