Post 39/2023. I’ve unpacked books and a handful of magazines from our travel computer case. They were part of the reading materials intended for a week at a cabin on the north shore of South Manistique Lake in Curtis, Michigan. A cabin right next to lapping waves, swooping gulls, a rowboat, nearby paths, library, pubs, North country village life.

I offer my experience as a word of encouragement to others to seek medical care when interventions are needed, and to thank the medical and nonmedical community for care beyond words. It’s been an incredible week of recovery and learning.

Sudden pain

Days before departure I woke up with lower back pain, reminiscent of kidney stones in the past. A visit to Urgent Care confirmed the probable cause. A follow-up CT scan at the ER at Goshen Hospital showed a large kidney stone (removal of kidney stones has become an outpatient procedure unless there’s an emergency, I later found out). I was sent home with a pain med prescription and told to contact my urologist and regular doctor the next week.

Next morning

Saturday morning the emergency was upon me. Woozy, weak, weary, I was unable to get out of the recliner. A neighbor came and helped Marty get me up. They subsequently called the ambulance. Good thing, too!

Emergency removal of large blocking stone. The surprise was that a sudden, 24-hour infection had taken place behind the stone. I was given loads of antibiotics. Treatment in hospital continued four days and nights. To think of how the hospital team took everything in stride as if I where their only concern, gives me the shivers. As does the response of friends and family near and far. Healing, hope, hallelujah! Home again! Marty has been an angel.

Not shown are Morning Glory muffins, white chicken chili, phone calls, texts, hospital visits, prayers–a flabbergasting range of expressions of support. Thankyou.

New week

I’m back on my feet. Still taking a powerful antibiotic. Saying thank you in every way I can. Resting. Exercising. Reflecting on what happened. Following up with scheduled appointments next week. Marveling at what an experience of being helpless can do for you. Thinking about others I know who this week faced issues more profound than mine. Gratitude whelms up.

A prayer for the world

Written by Christopher Avon Lamb, published in The Complete Book of Christian Prayer (Continuum, New York.1997).

“Lord, forgive us the hatreds and prejudices and malice which pull the rug from under all our so-called love for others and for you. Black and White, Catholic and Protestant, Jew and Arab, Croat, Muslim and Serb–so many peoples feed on hatred for one another, endlessly suppressing the truth of our common humanity.

“Lord, give courage and compassion, a liberation of the spirit, an opening of heart and mind, so that those thought of only as aliens and enemies may become simply people.

“We make our prayer through the Friend of sinners, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Peace

-John