It's Easter Sunday, I'm sitting on my bed watching TV, and listening to the family going about their business. The Easter morning service at theChurch@CedarCreek was awesome this morning; God is so good, I am so grateful that He has me where I am today. He loved me/us so much that he sent his one and only son to die on the cross for me (for us all!); he took our place; Praise Him! My life is exactly where he wants it and I thank him for that. God is good; all the time God is good...
Well, back to my story; Carla and I had been in the restaurant for about two hours eating, but mostly praying. It was time to head to the orthopedic doctor's office, so we paid for our food and truly began our journey (little did we suspect just how hard this journey was going to be, but hey, things come as they are supposed too!). I hobbled into the doctor's office and heard the term aneurismal bone cyst for the first time. After looking at the x-ray from my family doctor's office (and as I have recently learned, talked to an orthopedic specialist from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, but that becomes important later in the story), my doctor tells us that I need surgery and schedules it for the upcoming Friday (January 8, 2009). This surgery will be to repair the fracture in my femur and to remove the bone cyst; plus send a sample of the cyst to the Mayo Clinic for pathological evaluation. Also, I need some tests before the surgery and the doctor says his office will call me the next day with the dates and times for these tests. Carla and I leave the doctor's office with all this information, thinking maybe this won't be so bad after all...
Once we got home, Carla and I explain to the kids about my surgery scheduled for Friday and that it will be a big change but maybe not too disruptive for the family. Of course that turned out to not be true, but we did not know it at the time. Once we had explained everything to the kids, we all settled into our normal routine for a Tuesday night. Around 8:30 PM I was on my laptop surfing the internet, looking for nothing in particular just surfing, when I sneezed. Now sneezes do not normally cause much concern, but this time I felt a little twinge in my hip and along with it a feeling of panic. Not sure where this feeling of panic came from, but it was definitely there (of course at the time I didn't know, but I do now). I went back to surfing the web, I can't remember what Carla and the kids were doing, maybe taking down Christmas decorations, but to be honest I do not remember. Well anyway, around 9:00 PM I felt another sneeze coming on and was able to suppress it and went back to the internet and the panic feeling gets stonger. Then at almost exactly 9:30 PM January 5th 2010, another sneeze began forming in my sinus area and I put up a great fight, but was unable to suppress it. When that sneeze made it to the surface and my body reacted to it; the first thing I heard was an audible SNAP from my left hip area that was quickly followed by the most blinding, black pain I have ever experienced. Back to the snap for just a second, it was not the loudest snap I have ever heard, but it is one that I will never forget. The snap was the fracture in my femur becoming a break and the bone cyst rupturing.
After the snap and the blinding pain, my reaction was to scream and that is what I did, I screamed. Now when a man screams, unexpectedly, in his own home, the focus of everyone else in the house is turned toward him. So here I am screaming and Carla and the kids have gathered around and are trying to find out why, all I manage to say is for someone to call 911. Carla does and as the pain subsides, I am able to explain to her what has happened. My first personal thoughts, after the pain has eased is to pray; I pray for forgiveness, I pray for comfort, I pray for my family to be safe, I pray and pray and continue to pray for everything and everyone that comes to my mind. That is all I have at this point, because without prayer all that I would have would be fear and I refused to give in to the fear. I cannot say that I was not afraid; when the local rescue squad arrived, I realize that they will have to pick me up from my sofa and place me on their stretcher and no pain medication can be given until I get in the ambulance. I was afraid because I knew that blinding, black pain would come back when they bodily picked me up and put me on the stretcher (left leg dangling and all). Of course, I had to give in to it because there was no other way to get to the hospital; my options were to either let the pain bring overwhelming fear or stay home. I chose the pain, God help me...
Again, please do not think that I was not afraid; I was very afraid and so was Carla and the kids. I just want you to know that I put my trust and faith in my God and my Savior; there was some fear, but my faith got me through that first night, that and the love and support of my family, my wife Carla and my kids, and my church; I praise God for them all.
I will stop here today. My story is really just beginning and is even now unfinished, so there will be many more posts coming about it. Hope you come back for each one. So until next time, I pray that God blesses you and yours.
