Miracles Happen

Over the last few weeks, my Grandpa (my Dad's Dad, who lives in Arizona) has been in the hospital. Because we don't live nearby, what little information filtered down to us in Utah was scattered and incomplete. I didn't hear the complete story until we visited family in AZ for Thanksgiving. I'd like to share what happened.

On a Sunday night, two weeks ago today, my Grandpa started getting sick. At first it didn't seem like anything severe- he was vomiting fairly violently, but otherwise doing alright. The next morning (or maybe sometime in the night... I'm a little foggy on the chronology), though, my Granny found him face down on the floor, unable to move. Granny tried to get him up, but even though she's not feeble, even in her seventies, she didn't have the strength to move him. A call to a neighbor and five minutes later, she had the help she needed to get him up. They were at the hospital shortly thereafter.

I don't understand all of the medical details of what was wrong with Grandpa, but basically, as it turns out, he had gallstones (stones in his gallbladder, similar to kidney stones) and had for some time. His bile duct was also blocked. If you're familiar with gallbladder attacks, they can be quite serious, but are also quite treatable if treated quickly. My mom had a similar problem years ago, and needed surgery to correct it, but was never near death. Apparently, though, if it isn't treated quickly, it can quickly become deadly. Grandpa's main problem was the blocked bile duct, a problem that led him into septic shock (basically an infection that spreads into the bloodstream, which carries it throughout the entire body). Septic shock is an incredibly dangerous condition, one very few survive. In fact, only about half of patients who go into septic shock survive, even with treatment. Our family here in Utah didn't realize how bad it was, but Grandpa went into surgery to clear the infection sometime midweek. For a while, they didn't know if he was going to make it, and if he did, if he'd ever be the same. After this first surgery, it seemed that he had survived the sepsis. The really exciting (and by exciting, I mean terrifying) thing about his surgery, thought, was that to perform the surgery, he had to be taken off of his blood pressure meds (which thinned his blood) so that the blood would be thick enough to clot properly after surgery. As anyone with high blood pressure knows, this is INCREDIBLY risky. Patients with high blood pressure are considerably more likely to develop clots, which, when they travel to the brain, cause strokes.

At the same time, though, his gallbladder was worsening, and it was affecting the rest of his organs. His heart and lungs were failing. His liver and kidneys were shutting down. If the gallbladder wasn't removed quickly, he wouldn't survive. On the other hand, he had just come out of surgery, barely alive. The doctors weren't certain he could survive another surgery so soon after, without giving the body time to heal. They tried to allow more time before they removed his gallbladder (something his cardiologist insisted on, claiming that his heart couldn't survive another surgery), but it soon became clear that there was no choice. Grandpa's best chance was to remove the gallbladder immediately. They performed the surgery, though not without complications. If you're familiar with this type of surgery, you now that most of the time, a tiny incision is made in the abdomen, and the gallbladder is cut into miniscule pieces with a laser, and then sucked out with a vacuum. It is the safest, most precise way to remove the gallbladder. Unfortunately, the size of Grandpa's gallstones and the magnitude of the infection they'd caused required the surgeon to remove the gallbladder whole- which required a a much larger incision and was much more dangerous. Miraculously, he came through the surgery alright.

I wish this was the end of the story, but it isn't. Even though he had made it through both surgeries alive (barely), he needed to be kept on a ventilator, as his lungs were not yet functioning enough for him to breath on his own. They kept him sedated. Unfortunately, some members of my family have a strange reaction to sedatives- particularly Ambien. Instead of calming the nerves and mind, as it is designed to do, it causes them to become agitated, angry, and unreasonable. This was my grandpa's reaction to one of the sedatives he was administered. How this went unnoticed in the ICU, I'm not sure, but apparently it caused him to pull the oxygen tubes out in the middle of the night. They stopped him before he removed the ventilator tube from his throat. The next morning, though, he was unresponsive. The doctors thought he had had a stroke in the night- which had been a major risk anyway when they took him off of his blood pressure meds. As it turns out, Grandpa had what was called a transient ischemic attack (TIA), often referred to as a mini-stroke, due to the lack of oxygen to his brain- which lack of oxygen probably came from the removal of the oxygen tubes the night before. The doctors had no way of knowing how damaged his brain was. My cousins who tried to visit him were told that he might not remember who they were. It was an emotionally turbulent time.

As it turned out, he was breathing on his own again within a few days, and the ventilator could be removed. On Sunday night he was transferred to a Rehab center, where they hadn't bothered to get his medications. Granny wouldn't stand for this, and had him transferred to a new facility in the morning- ignoring the protests of both facility directors. There simply wasn't room for him at the facility she was transferring to. My Granny makes me laugh- she basically told them to make room, because she was on her way.

Why am I sharing this story with you? Because it's evidence to me that miracles happen. I've believed in miracles since my brother's seizures years ago, but this was truly a miracle. Had the Lord seen it fit to take my Grandpa from this earth, there was ample opportunity to do so. Grandpa shouldn't have survived- and yet he did, thanks to the prayers and the fasting from those who loved him. My Grandpa has work yet to do on this earth, or else he wouldn't be here. The Lord saw it fit, in His infinite wisdom, to leave him here with us for a time. I don't know why- and I don't need to know why- but there is no doubt in my mind. My Grandpa is alive today because miracles happen.

Grandpa isn't out of the woods yet. As it turns out, he has a clogged artery that could kill him. It will need to be cleared, but he isn't strong enough for another surgery. We should be more worried than we are, logically. But if we've learned anything- if I've learned anything- from this, it's that Heavenly Father knows what He's doing. If He sees fit for my Grandpa to pass away, it will happen. But until that point, I'll keep trusting that he has a work yet to do here.

The trick with faith in miracles is that miracles don't always happen. I love Daniel 3: 17-18, where Shadrach, Meschach, and Abed-nego are talking to the king, about to throw them into a furnace seven times hotter than any that has ever been built before. The king asks "who is God to save you from me now?" In response, they say this:
17. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
18. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy Gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

In other words, "Our God can save us, if He, in His infinite wisdom, sees fit to save us. But if He doesn't, for reasons we can't comprehend, then we will die serving Him- Him and not your false idol. If He doesn't, then we will die doing what is right." Of course, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego are saved from the fiery furnace, but it is their faith that is astonishing. They have faith not that God will save them, which they have no way of knowing, but that God can save them. They know of His power, and their faith in it is enough.

God won't always save us from our fiery furnaces- not because He can't, not because He doesn't love us, but for His own reasons- but our faith should not lie in the miracle itself, but in the Power that can bring to pass miracles. Our faith in His Power will be enough.