Normally I blog all about Melanie and my adventures with her
but Tuesday, 12/18/12, was such a crazy day that I couldn’t even share the
whole thing on Facebook since they only give you the option to continue
reading, and not read on forever so here was my day, yes only one day….
I had been feeling not so great for eight days with a sore
throat and runny nose, typical “virus” type stuff that you get from working
with children all the time. I hate going
in because you always get that look like “Seriously, you can’t tough this out,
IT’S A VIRUS!” So I had avoided it and
as luck would have it my doctor was now out of town until after Christmas. I woke up Tuesday morning unable to swallow
and it was very hard to talk. That was
it, unable to talk, that does not work for me.
As many of you know, I love to talk.
I talk for a living. I teach
children to talk (correctly). I have
been that way all my life. When I was a
teenager (back in the day before texting, emails, and I-Pad’s) it was a weekly
occurrence that my Dad would find me on the phone after telling me to get off
several times and he would unplug my phone and lecture me under his breath as
he walked out with it with the final sentence being, “You are never getting
this back!” Luckily my Mom was a voice
of reason in my life at that time and after an acceptable amount of time would
talk my Dad back into giving me my phone.
However, upon further thought maybe it was simply she was tired of
hearing me talk to her and thought I better get my phone back so I can call
people before I drive her crazy. Either
way, worked for me.
Anyway, back to Tuesday….
I decided I was going in to be seen and I was not going to accept being
told it was a virus; they were going to help me!!! I confidently walked in and asked to see a
doctor. I was seen immediately and given
a strep test. I thought, “Great, quick
test, positive result, prescription antibiotics, and on with my day, all before
8:00.” Then the doctor came in and
examined me. The strep was negative and
she said I had “a growth in my tonsil.”
The confidence immediately drained from me and I became worried. She said that best case scenario it was an
abscess in my right tonsil because there was nothing visible on the outside of
my tonsil but it was so enlarged it was pushing against my uvula and my uvula
was touching my left tonsil and restricting my airway. She said I would need to get a CT of my neck
done immediately and some lab work and probably emergency surgery to reopen my
airway, so off I went. I was okay until
I then thought, an abscess is the best case scenario, what is the worst????
I am probably a
little more sensitive about this kind of thing than most due to the fact that I
know two amazing men who have both suffered from mouth/throat cancer in the
recent years. One was a dear friend from
high school who passed back in May after the cancer that was treated (and
thought to be gone) decided to show up in other parts of his body. The second was my dear pastor who was
diagnosed this time last year and has went through an amazing year of surgeries
and treatments and appears to be cancer free (PET Scan to follow next week,
major prayers for that). Luckily my
pastor recounted his experience publicly because it was certainly his voice of
reason that I needed Tuesday. As I sat
there waiting to be seen for further testing I recalled how my pastor had
handled the stress, anxiety, fear, unknown, and laid it all at God’s feet to
handle. This is hard for me because I
can be a little controlling but I have learned from the experiences of losing
both of my parents to cancer that when it comes to the big stuff you are really
not in control of the outcome, only the way you choose to approach and handle
the situation. So I just began to
pray. I prayed for the best and if it
was any worse, I prayed that God would give me the strength to deal with it and
comfort and help Charles and Melanie in any way they needed. I prayed for the doctors and nurses I would
encounter that day. I went in for the CT
which required an IV because they needed contrast. Due to not being able to swallow to eat or
drink I was a little dehydrated and my veins were hard to find and rolling like
crazy so after three failed attempts they called in the “vein whisperer”. She got it first time and we were set. After the test they put me in what was like a
holding cell. Really it was just like a
tiny room with two chairs to wait until they knew where I needed to go
next. Thanks to today’s technology they
had my CT up on the computer outside immediately which was good and bad. Good that they could see, bad that I could
hear them analyzing it. One doctor was
sure it was a “mass” as she kept describing it and was sure surgery was
necessary. The other doctor thought it
was a puss pocket that could be drained and medicine would clear it up. The lady who took the scan chimed in a little
here and there too. The decision was
made that a specialist would be called in to review the CT and consult so off I
went to an actual exam room to wait.
Apparently they needed the holding cell for someone else. J I sat in there for a long time or maybe just
47 minutes (which seems like forever in this case) while I waited. I prayed some more. I thought of both of my dear friends and what
they had went through and thought that if this was even a small fraction of the
feelings they had been through, how terrible, but then again God was always
forefront in their battles and I knew that was the path I was GOING to take and
I was even more confident of that then I was of the fact that IT WAS NOT A VIRUS!!!
J So after the waiting I was told they were
pretty sure it was actually a serious infectious pocket that had formed and
they would drain it a little, give me some steroids and antibiotics, send me
home, have me check the swelling and airway, and come back for check-ups. It was also the first case they had seen of
only one tonsil becoming infected on the inside like that and to that extreme
without there being an abscess or mass that needed removing so they suggested I
may want to be seen by an ENT when all is said and done to have my freakish
tonsils checked. I left soooooo relieved
and could not Praise God enough for the results but for more that that, seeing
me through my day. It is moments of
faith such as this that make me wonder how people ever get through strife in
life without God.
But wait, there’s more…….
I decided to pick Melanie up from school early so that I
could go home and just rest without having to go back out. I figured we could snuggle on the couch,
watch a Christmas movie, and just have some mother/daughter time. Sounds nice huh???? Oh but no, our dog Droopy had other
plans. While I was at the doctor all day
Droopy had decided to open some Christmas presents. One in particular, he just ripped a few
getting to the one he wanted. Without us
knowing, someone had sent us a large box of See’s candy. As Mel and I walked through the door we found
our lovable dog with a piece of chocolate hanging out of his mouth. I could not even imagine where he had gotten
it from until I looked outside to see Christmas wrapping paper everywhere and
then realized someone had sent us candy and we had put it under the tree and my
dogs 13 year old sniffer found it even through the wrapping paper, clear
plastic wrap, and box. I immediately
call the vet clinic because I know that chocolate can be toxic for dogs. They of course asked me to get him there
immediately so I loaded me, Mel and the 60 pound basset hound into the car and
off we went. Melanie was whimpering
because she was worried about Droopy, Droopy was whimpering because he was
scared and probably starting to develop a tummy ache, and while I wanted to
whimper too, I instead just prayed. I
know that at the age of 13 our old guy may not have a ton of time left but it’s
been a tough year for the Lucas family in area of loss so I just really wanted
him to at least make it through one more family holiday. Confident that if God could heal me that
morning he could certainly handle a dog with a sweet tooth, we marched into the
vet clinic. Luckily we got him there in
plenty of time. They induced vomiting
until all the contents of his stomach came out (I will spare you the details),
rehydrated him with an IV, gave us post care instructions and we were on our
way. We had to watch him for several
hours but the vet was fairly confident he had escaped seizures from the
chocolate and a heart attack from the mass amounts of sugar.
I got everyone home and settled. By this point I needed a whole box of
chocolate to eat! As we sat talking
about our day that evening we definitely had a lot to be thankful for and
realized that it was really divine intervention that made our day so
wonderful. I had no intention of going
to the doctor so I am positive God intervened there and taking my voice
certainly convinced me to go. Had I not
gone to the doctor and went to work instead I wouldn’t have been home until
after 5:00 and who knows what state Droopy would have been in by then so again
while it seemed like an awful, no good, horrible, terrible day it was actually
just many amazing (but sometimes difficult) moments that lead to us feeling
blessed beyond belief. And last but
certainly not least, after tucking my baby into bed that night, having Droopy
curl up comfortably on his bed, realizing that my throat was practically pain
free and I was talking without any problems, I sat and read the truly heart
wrenching stories of funerals that had taken place that day for the victims in
Connecticut, and all I dwelled on was how lucky I was to have my little girl to
hug and tuck in. So PRAISE GOD for the
people he has placed in my life that are the voices of reason just when you
need them, PRAISE GOD for His divine intervention into this stubborn woman’s
life and PRAISE GOD for being the center of my moments of faith. I pray there are more. May everyone have a blessed Christmas and a
faith filled New Year!
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