Wrecked by Thankfulness: Finding Goodness.

image of waves oe taking lightpost with text overlay. Wreched by Thankfulnesss finding goodness on www.captivatingcompass.com

Read parts one, two & three for the whole story about how I was wrecked by thankfulness and how we continued finding goodness.

Finding God’s goodness in the complicated, complex things in life.

So, up to the Children’s Hospital, we went a few weeks later. It was the day before my son’s fourth birthday.

Four years to the day that I looked death in the face (read part 1) and said “Nope! Not yet!”.

At that appointment for my son, we were informed that while my son’s heart did have a murmur, it was not the greatest concern. Upon taking my almost 4-year-old’s blood pressure, they found that his blood pressure was 153/86. Almost immediately we were enveloped in the type of beehive you only see in ICU when things are not going well. Doctors, and nurses taking additional BP readings, and scheduling an immediate ultrasound, which lasted over 1 ½ hours.

Finally, we were told that our son had only one kidney. It was completely misshapen (the doctors from here forward have called it a functioning ‘blob’ of kidney tissue). The kidney had only one artery for blood supply. And, this ‘blob’ of kidney tissue was located just above his hip bone rather than neatly protected under his ribcage.

If that’s not complicated enough…

We were told that he also had signs of early heart disease (an ailment of old people, not 4-year-olds). This was due to the overwork of his heart caused by the single kidney. And if all that wasn’t enough, we were informed that the single artery was 90% closed. Apparently, due to what appeared to be a tight band of tissue around the renal artery leading to the kidney.

As we walked back to the car letting it all sink in, I nearly collapsed. I was in shock that here we were again at the mercy of God’s intervention four years to the day of one of the most dramatic days in our family’s history.

As we went to a multitude of doctor’s appointments over the weeks following, we were informed that the first option of an angioplasty procedure was typically how things were handled with constricted arteries. If this procedure didn’t prove successful, then we needed to consider surgery at the earliest opportunity.

The angioplasty procedure failed. It was evident immediately, and we were told to go home and rest. We needed to begin preparing for surgery in the next few days.

Somewhere in there, Thanksgiving Day 2012 happened. We celebrated, but I’ll be honest. I don’t remember anything about it. My head and my heart were consumed with trying to digest all the medical information. We immediately began praying over the situation with friends, family, homeschool and church communities.

With surgery finally scheduled, we were hopeful we would be putting this chapter behind us in a few weeks and would spend most of the Christmas holiday recovering at home. We figured it was going to be a quiet Christmas, and we were Ok with that. It had been a crazy rollercoaster for autumn. We were ready to bask in the light of the Christmas tree and planned to enjoy a simple, homey Christmas.

We were so thankful my husband would have most of the holiday break off. Even in this crazy period of uncertainty, we recognize God’s peace and comfort in tangible and intangible ways. Our hearts were full of thankfulness that He had directed an ENT doctor to listen to a heartbeat. That simple act of routine obedience to his profession changed the course of my son’s life. If things had gone undetected, my son likely would have been a kid who had a heart attack on the sports field.

Thankful that we are never alone, with God by our side.

Due to the variety of blood pressure medications Ian was on, he had to be admitted to ICU 3 days prior to surgery in order to transition him from oral and transdermal patch medicine to IV versions of the same drugs. It was a delicate weaning process with which we would, unfortunately, become very familiar. Finally, the day of the surgery came. I was already tired from having been in the hospital with Ian for 3 days but was eager to press through and get to the recovery phase and my simple, homey Christmas.

After a 4 hour surgery where the surgeon delicately performed a renal artery bypass, making nearly 50 stitches in an artery about the circumference of a cooked spaghetti noodle, Ian had made it through the surgery and was in recovery. It was anticipated that we would have 24 hours of recovery in ICU and then a few days on the main floor before being released to go home.

Recovery did not go as planned. So many things went wrong that we ultimately ended up in ICU for 26 days and an additional 5 days on the general pediatric unit. We went into the hospital on December 5th and finally got home on January 6. The days and nights were spent waging a spiritual battle for my son’s life.

God’s Abundant Goodness

I’m still nearly speechless when I look back at how God blessed us during the most challenging surgery and recovery we could have imagined. God was faithfully by our side each step of the way. #BUTGOD

So yes, I’m thankful for God’s abundant goodness. In spite of the pain of not getting to Scotland, we understood that we were to be with community and family for a season because God wanted to teach us how to press in as community, help each other, intercede for each other and allow our children to participate in being both the giver of blessings and the recipient of blessings. The same community that helped us four years earlier flew into action again. They loved on us, prayed with us, cried with us and knit our world together when we felt like it was going to fall apart.

Again, God’s goodness, provision, and mercy were apparent to each of us every step of the way. While it was the hardest holiday season we ever endured, it was also the richest and most blessed season in our lives. We were blessed beyond measure. God was faithful and we would give thanks in all things. Every circumstance, every frustration, every unknown situation, every situation that made us ask “Why?”

Our son slowly recovered. The latest form of ‘normal’ included a cornucopia of medicines, doctor visits, and discussions of a kidney transplant. The surgery wasn’t considered a complete success, but it was not a failure either. It was a delicate, stressful time with the doctor as we tried to navigate so many things.

We were alive, together and basking in God’s goodness as we rested. recovered and tried to make sense of the past and what the future would bring.