I couldn't make this stuff up even if I tried . . . When God has a plan then you had better just sit back and go for the ride. When I have a plan God laughs.
Today's plan was for me to be in the operating room right now with my heart stopped so the surgeon could fix my aortic valve. It seemed like a good plan, It has been a long time coming with heart scans every 6 months for the past 15 years. Each year there were small changes, nothing major but the cardiologist was watching me closely. Then this year things were getting to a point of "poop or get off the pot". The decision was made to have open heart surgery and take care of my poor old ticker. A date was set for the surgery and all was getting ready for lift-off.
As with any surgery there are all the pre-op tests to be done. Last Thursday was set aside for all that. Arrive at the hospital at 7:30 and go through all the tests to be sure I was healthy enough to go through the surgery and recovery. I passed everything with flying colors! Meanwhile the previous weekend I had gotten a stomach virus where every thing I ate went right through me. So for the 5 days prior to the testing I had basically been eating nothing but toast, bananas and applesauce. Fortunately for all involved my tummy settled down and I was ready to start eating normal food. By last Thursday I was feeling back to normal. I was ready for surgery ! Let's do this !
Then the second shoe dropped. On Friday I woke up with a swollen cheek. (Not the butt one, the other cheek on my face). The gums in my mouth had been sore since I had a tooth pulled 3 weeks ago. Just a little irritated, nothing to worry about. Until my face swelled up. Not horrifically where I looked like the Pillsbury Dough boy but swollen enough to notice. With surgery now only 3 days away I wasn't sure what to do. I spent the two hours from the time I woke up till about 12:30 before I decided to call my dentist who had pulled the tooth. Naturally . . . (God is chuckling) . . . Dr. "C" leaves his office at noon on Fridays. OK . . . I can figure this out. I left a message with the answering service knowing someone would call me back eventually. I called my regular dentist but she is leaving her practice for medical reasons so she was no longer available. I called the dentist that I had seen a couple of months ago when we were trying to figure out if I needed a root canal, a cap or an extraction. Her office closed at 2:00. It was now 2:15. (God is starting to laugh).
By 2:30 I was pacing up and down trying to figure out my next move. Then my phone rang !! Hooray !!! Someone is paying attention. It was Doctor "C's" office getting back to me. Karen the secretary asked what was going on. She told me the doctor would probably put me on an antibiotic. I reminded her about my upcoming heart surgery and asked if taking an antibiotic would interfere with that. She had to check with Dr. "C" and get back to me. Karen got back to be within about a half hour to say the medications should not make a difference. She will send a prescription to my pharmacy.
Now one of the things that was made extremely clear to me at the pre-op meetings was that if ANYTHING, ANYTHING . . . even a bug bite . . . should occur before the surgery I needed to call the hospital immediately . ( I had called my surgeon's office early on in all this but no one answered. I left a message on their machine.) I now called the hospital and was told by them that my surgery would probably have to be postponed. My surgeon would call me. Sure enough within minutes the surgeons office called and told me it was in my best interest to postpone until all this got settled and the dentist could check me out. Then, AFTER the surgeon got back from his 3 week vacation the office would set up another date for me.
I'm not sure if I was happy to get a reprieve or upset because I really wanted this over and done. I think relief won that battle. A whole month to relax more and prep for this couldn't be a bad thing.
But by Saturday I was second guessing myself. "My gums were probably just sore from the stitches that were supposed to dissolve but are still in my gums. That's probably what's rubbing and irritating my mouth," "I never should have called the dentist," "What was I thinking?" , "stupid me!" All day Saturday I was beating myself up thinking I had screwed the pooch. (God is now laughing out loud).
And this is where I am made aware that nothing is in my hands. When God wants something to happen or, in this case, NOT happen HE makes sure we hear Him.
Sunday morning I woke up with a sore throat and as the day progressed it got worse. My eyes started to water and my nose began to drip or clog depending on the moment. I realized that if all this nonsense had not happened I could have been in that operating room with a bunch of cold germs running around my system just waiting to attack. There was NO doubt in my mind that all this was happening for a reason. What ever that reason is I will never know but what I DO know is that I was not meant to have surgery today.
I guess I must be fairly stupid not to have gotten God's message the first time, or the second. Thankfully I heard the last message. If I hadn't paid attention to that I imagine I would have been hit by a bus.
When God speaks you had better LISTEN !!!