Giving God the Glory!

Some of you know that my Dad has been very ill. I know you've been praying for him and I thank you for that. I just have to tell you of the latest blessing from God.

Dad went into the hospital in October with a gall bladder infection. While in the hospital, he had an allergic reaction to the meds and ended up with open sores from the neck down. He's a diabetic so healing is extremely slow. When he was here on the Feb 20 weekend, the sores on his feet were still not completely healed so you can imagine what his suffering has been like for the past few months.

To get back to the gall bladder. It was extremely infected but they didn't feel that Dad was strong enough to do the surgery. Dad is a diabetic and overweight. He is on meds for high blood pressure, cholesterol and gout along with a number of other things. He smoked most of his life until God took it from him about 7 years ago. As a result of all of this along with an unhealthy diet, Dad is extremely sick. He has a weak heart and extremely weak lungs. He was examined by numerous doctors in Ft McMurray. They fly doctors in from Edmonton for a few days at a time and then switch them out because they can't find any that will practice up there on a permanent basis. They have a hard time getting family doctors up there and those that are there, are so busy that they can't take time to do hospital visits... hence the Edmonton doctors. So... as many doctors as he had seen in October, he ended up with the same number of diagnosises. Every doctor had their own opinion and the only thing they agreed on was that he was unhealthy... too unhealthy to do surgery to remove the infected gall bladder.

There was one doctor that was willing to do the surgery (Dr. Zuk) but they couldn't find an anesthesiast that was willing to put him under. His heart and lungs were just too unstable. They almost guaranteed that they would lose him if they put him under. Dr. Zuk said his hands were tied as the medical board would not allow him to do the surgery.

Dad went to Edmonton University Hospital for a consultation and was scheduled to meet with their top surgeon, heart specialist and anesthesiast in April. He was to have an ultrasound and they were all going to get together in one room to discuss what they could do. No one was willing to take the chance on operating. They discussed that maybe they would do the surgery with an epidural so that he could be awake and breathing on his own during the whole deal. That was quickly ruled out as an epidural would contract his muscles and they needed him relaxed in order to perform the removal of the gall bladder. They believed that if and when he had the surgery, he should be in Edmonton at the University Hospital as the after care would be better and he would be in safer hands. He would be in ICU for days afterwards and would have breathing tubes etc due to the lung damage from years of smoking. One of the doctors stated that if he was the one getting the operation, he would want it done in Edmonton and he was happy that Dad was doing the same thing. Things are so bad in Ft. McMurray that they run a skeleton staff on weekends. Things didn't look good at all.

But we have a Master Physician that is more skilled than anyone else! Dad had been feeling "off" last week. When he left the hospital in October he was told that if he had another gall bladder attack, he was to come back into the hospital right away. He wasn't feeling like it was an attack but he just wasn't feeling good. Mom finally convinced him to allow her to take him to the hospital on Wednesday. They admitted him immediately and decided that they had no choice but to remove the gall bladder. No going to Edmonton, no consultations with the best of the best, no waiting any longer! Going against everything every expert, surgeon (except Dr. Zuk), nurse, anesthesiast, heart specialist, lung specialist, therapist etc etc, they scheduled his surgery for Saturday morning. (In a hospital that no one recommended and that runs on skeleton staff on weekends!) Dr. Zuk was going to be the one doing the surgery.

On Saturday, I talked to Mom and she said they had taken him into surgery just after 9 a.m. I talked to her about noon and she had heard nothing. She promised to call when she knew anything. I called her again about 2:30 and he was out of surgery but had not been transferred to ICU yet. Finally, about 5 p.m., she called to say that he was out of surgery, in ICU with a breathing tube and they were working on putting in an IV line as his blood pressure was up. He was heavily sedated and could not respond. Mom sat with for a bit and decided she would go home as she had forgotten to take her meds and was hungry as the cafeteria was closed on weekends.

On her way out of the hospital, she met Dr. Zuk who had performed the surgery. She stopped to talk to him and he explained what had happened. He has performed numerous gall bladder surgeries laporoscopically (with lazers and minor incisions)including mine about 16 years ago. When he started Dad's operation in this manner, he was unable to do so due to the amount of infection. He had to open Dad's body and take out the infected gall bladder. He was astonished at the amount of "mess" he found. He said that some of the infection had hardened and he almost had to "chisel it out of him". He asked Mom how much pain Dad had been in and when Mom said, "None, just some discomfort", Dr. Zuk just shook his head. He couldn't believe that Dad wasn't doubled over in pain all the time. He said that everything with the surgery had went well, considering. All we had to do now was worry about helping Dad recover.

In October, the diagnosis was that Dad would be in ICU for at least a week and on breathing tubes etc. That was if they were able to do the surgery through laporoscopy. Now things looked a little different. We just prayed and left it in God's hands. Mom called me yesterday morning before going to church and told me that Dad was coming out of the sedation and was able to respond to the nurses with a nod or shake of his head. I talked to Mom again just before leaving for church last evening. She had been in to see him and he was awake and writing notes to her and my brother. He's unable to speak because of the breathing tubes. His nurses are all amazed at his speedy recovery.

The bad news? There is none! The good news? They expect to remove his breathing tube today (Monday, two days after surgery) and move him out of ICU to a regular room!!!!! God is SO GOOD!!!

So again, thank you for your prayers. Please continue to hold Mom & Dad up before God. I will be going up to see Dad as soon as the roads are safer. If anyone wants to send a card etc, let me know and I'll get you the details.

God Bless and THANK YOU JESUS!!!!!!!!!!