Praise the Lord, and Give Thanks to him!

WARNING:

I'm about drone on about something very very very important to me, and this is very important that all read this, because it helped me, and It will help you.

What you are about to read is very very long but I'd really be so blessed if you read it.

Thank you, and God's blessings be with you, your families, your friends, and all that you come into contact with!

Wow.

Just to think.

When we're in pain, whether it be after an injury, or an operation, or whether we're suffering an ilness, even though we're possibly in what could be the most severe pain in our lives, one thing that helps is to praise God, and to listen to wonderful music.

Looking back, I find how much my Heavenly Father truly helped me.

The day was October 3rd, 2015 and I was recovering from a tracheostomy that was performed so that I could easily be mechanically ventilated at home.

This rendered me unable to speak because the swelling had to go down in my throat before they could use the special valve that was known as the Passy Muir Valve.

This special valve allows air into the trach, however the valve then closes off, and air goes up through the mouth and the nose.

This valve which was invented in the 1980s by David Muir, a Muscular dystrophy patient, on a ventilator," is perhaps the best speaking technology that allows trach patients to speak.

But during this time, of recovery, my only means of communication was with the use of my Notes App, on my Iphone 5C.
I would write down what I wanted to say, and then I'd show the nurses what I said, or whoever I was directing my statement to.

If I needed to be suctioned I wrote down on the Iphone, "I need to be suctioned."

If a nurse came into my room, I might greet them with a, "Nice to see ya my friend!"

Sometimes whilst i was listening to my wonderful wonderful classical music, They might ask me what piece i was listening to.

I would type the piece'sname and composer down.

For Example, "This Piece is Capriccio, BWV 992, On The DepartureOf His Beloved Brother," by Johann Sebastian Bach, in B Flat, and you are currently listening to the fourth movement out of six movements!"

I didn't write short.

If I needed to say something, I took time to write it down.


My Mother said that I could use short cuts for example, I could say something like, "Pain an 8 give me something for pain," Instead of what I would rather do which was drone the whole thing out something like this, "My pain is an eight out of ten, and I need something to be administered for the pain as soon as possible!"

I am not a guy that takes short cuts a lot.

But you know, I'll be honest with you.

Lying in that bed without any sedatives, I did not get much sleep, and on October the 3rd during the wee hours of the morning, my sleep deprivation was starting to make me feel agitated.

I was starting to hurt and was really nauseated.
I was started to get upset, and I felt like I wanted to cry!

It was around 03:00 in the wee hours.

So, I did what I know would help, which was silently sing praises to God, and  I prayed silently to god.

I prayed to God thanking him for the wonderful music that I had to listen to!

I prayed to God thanking him for the people who were going to work to their hardest to getme that LTV 1150 ventilator at home and that were going to see to it that I did not have to deal with the Trilogy vent!

I remember not just praying for myself.

I said to myself, "What will make me feel better is if I pray for everybody in the hospital.

So, I began my prayer.

I prayed for the patients in the Pulmonary ICu where I was staying.

I prayed for the nurses and Drs. as well as the RTs that were taking care of them.

I prayed for their families and I prayed that they would be given a special peace.

I prayed for the patients in the Cardiothoracic and the Cardiovascular intensive Care Unit.

I prayed for their care givers and their families.

I prayed for their  peace and their healing.

I prayed for the patients in the Neurosurgical and Neuro ICU, and I prayed that they'd have healing and peace.

I  prayed for their staff that were taking care of them.
I prayed especially for the babies in the NICU, and their families, especially their parents.

I remember this part of the prayer being very important to me.

In the NICU, It is just like a roller coaster.

One minuet, a baby can be doing just fine, and the next they can be desatting and their heart rate can begin tanking, or they can develop a horrible intestinal infection that is known as "Necrotizing Enterocolitis."

They can develop so many problems and sometimes the NICu and the PICu can be a place of sadness forthe families and the caregivers.

I prayed that these parents would have peace and that if any baby was having a rough time whether that be a bout of NEC, or an episode of Sepsis, or maybe there was a baby on  full VA ECMO with Pulmonary Hypertension who was not expected to survive the night.

I prayed that God would reverse whatever was going on, and that he would give comforting words to the parents and the whole families, and that God would give Guidance to the Nurses, the RTs, the Drs. and the whole staff on what they should do.

I prayed for the patients in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

I prayed that God would speak to the parents and the families of these Children and that He'd speak to these Children and give them comforting words.

Some of them might not be able to understand what was going on, but you know, the Lord our God can speak to the heart, and he can comfort anybody.

I prayed for the  staff as well.

I especially prayed for the families, including their Mothers and their Fathers.

I've read hundreds of blogs and know how awful these families speak of the dreaded phone call that might come in the wee hours.

A mother and Father might be sleeping the night away after seeing their baby who was doing much better, and all the sudden the phone could ring and it could be the Nicu saying something, around the lines of, "Could you guys get up here As soon as possible?

Ethan's sats are decreasing, and we have him on 100% oxygen with the conventional vent.

We're going to have to switch him to the oscillator again I think, but you do really need to get up here, because he's really not doing good!"

Or something along the lines of "Jason's belly has swollen twice it's size and he's having apneas and bradies, and we're suspecting what we'd all have hoped to avoid.

I think we've got a case of NEC, and it looks like it's going to be a bad case, so if you could, you really do need to get to the hospital!"

There are several variations to this.

I know this  is bad enough, but now these parents are scared half to death, they've just been woken up, and they're about to drive in a motorized vehicle to the hospital in the dark, with their hearts pounding and their thoughts flying at hundreds of miles per second.

It's an experience I've never had, but when I read these stories, I know these kinds of experiences are scary, upsetting, very emotional, and are anything but pleasant.

These experiences are every parents worst nightmare!

I then remember praying for all the patients that were going to undergo operations that day.

Now it was a Saturday, so most operations would be emergencies if they took place on that day.

Some of these could include Operations on an Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm, operations to repair an Aortic Dissection, Operations to remove foreign bodies that somehow got where they weren't suppose to be, operations to perform other cardiac procedures, etc.

I prayed that God would guide the Surgeon's hands, and that he's speak to the families.

I then remember praying for the patients  in the Burn Unit.

The burn unit is a place where the worst of the worst come.

Accidental and Nonaccidental burns both come here.

Anything from a  cooking incident that resulted in boiling water being spilled on somebody, to a massive house fire.

Burns are like No other trauma, and the treatment that takes place once or twice daily for these patients is at times very grueling.

If you read the blog post on the Hubbard tank, you'd remember  how I explained the Tank Room, and what goes on there for the burn debridement.

I prayed however that God would especially be with the patients in the Burn unit and that He'd hold their hand during the tanking procedure, which would be very very grueling.

I prayed that god would give guidance to the burn  Nurses and Burn Physicians, and that he'd speak to the families of these burn patients.

It was at that  time in my prayer that It really hit me.

The Pulmonary ICU that I was in was in an old part of the hospital, and prior to this being the Pulmonary ICU, it was a Burn Unit.

That's why there was a heat lamp still above  me that I made use of essentially the whole time I was in the ICU.

But it hitme that the room that I was lying in could have very well housed some of the sickest burn patients several years before.

This feeling, I'll be quite honest was a rather sickening feeling, because lately in my research on burns, I have learned just how badly burns can actually be.
I remember lying there for several hours that morning during the wee hours, and I just remember passing my time awake by praying, and singing hymns silently.

I couldn'tspeak so I sang to God silently.

I praised God that I at least now had a trach where I could have better access to my airway, and where I could be ventilated easier.

There would be no more of having to put that mask onto my face that went to a BiLevel machine.

Ugh, those masks are bulky and can often be uncomfortable, and especially when you're on the machine 24/7 like I was at that time period.

But you know, I lied there and I thought of everything that I had to be thankful for and I prayed to God thanking him for it.

I remember how it felt sort of earry with my Mother gone and me being the only one in that room except for the nurses that came in every fiveor so minuetws to check on me.

But I spent that time with God, because I knew with him, that I was not alone.

This is what truly helped get me through the next several days where I didn't sleep much.

Morphine seemed to make hours drone on like days, and when I mean droned on, I mean droned on.

One hour seemed like 10.

I shut my eyes but sleep hardly came easily.

I listened to Bach, and so many other composers, and if I was not doing that, I was praying to God and singing to him silently.

It does not matter how much pain that you are in.

You can spend time with god and trust me, He's better than any Morphine, or Fentanyl.

Besides, I'd rather not take narcotics because they slow down the GI Tract, and give you the most depressing and grueling dreams that you can imagine.

Another thing that helped me was to imagine Jesus upon that cross.

You know, there is no pain that anybody will experience that will be anything even halfway near what Jesus Christ went through on that cross.

If he can stand up there on that cross, and he can ask his Father to forgive the ones who are killing him than God can help us get through any sort of pain that we have to go through.

that may be the pain from the Chirare Malformation repair, that I also underwent during my 28 day hospital stay.

That pain was horrendous.

That may be the neck pain after a tracheostomy.

That may in fact be the grueling pain of the debridement process that goes on in the Tank Room, or as it is often called, "The Tank."

That may be recovery from a cardiac operation, where your chest was split open and where you might have even been placed onto a cardiac bypassing machine.

That may be numerous illnesses.

But if you lie there and you give God the Praise for what he's done for you, and you think about the blessings that you do have and not the pain, You will be able to endure so much more.

I know this, because I've done it.

God can hold your hand and he can give you that strength that you need to get through the operation.

To get through the grueling pain, or to get through the nausea and vomiting.

To get through the awful feeling that Morphine gives you.

UGH, I hate narcotics with a passion.

God can give you what you need to get through so much.

All you have to do is to ask him, and to trust in him.

He never has, isn't now, and never will let you down.

So, when I'm lying there silently singing, "There's No Friend Like the Lowly Jesus," or "King Of My Life, I Crown Thee Now," or maybe even "All Creatures Of Our God And King," or maybe "It Is Well With My Soul," that time goes on from droning to flying.

The pain seems to go away.

The feeling of nausea becomes either  Nonexistant, or seems nonexistant.

God can do so many miraculous things, and if you will accept him  into your hearts, you will have the most profound experience.

I know I've droned on and droned on, but I enjoy this kind of droning, so get use to it.

LOL!

Thank you for listening to what I have to say, or reading it  any ways.

God's blessings be with you.

If I could bless one person today, it wouldmake me the happiest person.