Ebenezer

Ron picked up the hospital bracelet and wondered whether to keep it or burn it! And I said, "Keep it. It can be an Ebenezer."

Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying "Thus far the Lord has helped us." I Samuel 7:12

On October 19, Ron went to work in the morning, to a follow-up with the surgeon in the afternoon, and to the hospital in the evening. He would spend sixteen days there as our lives took a detour that we didn't foresee. Isn't it a mercy that we don't see what is ahead? 

You may remember that Ron had surgery on September 25, a simple surgery to remove a bone spur that was interfering with the healing of a diabetic ulcer. Initially, he felt great, but as the days went on, the foot became red and swollen, he was plagued with low grade fevers, and he just felt a little "off." After several weeks of different oral antibiotics, the infection was spreading and an x-ray indicated that there may be some infection in the bone.

At the hospital, he was treated immediately with a spectrum of IV antibiotics while more extensive testing was done to determine whether the bone was involved. An abscess was discovered that was not at the surgical site. A second surgery was performed to clean the wound and to obtain bone specimens for cultures.

At the end of that first week, we anticipated a relatively "quiet" weekend there while we awaited test results on Monday. On Friday night, we kind of planned some things to do to pass the time. By Saturday morning, all of that had changed as everything took a downward turn.

The next days brought one thing after another. Ron had fevers, over and over again. He had chills. He was plagued by nausea. He began to have hip pain, and pain in his leg muscles.

Then he had kidney failure. That hit us out of the blue. He had come into the hospital with 100% kidney function and it had dropped to 23%.

Then one morning, he broke out in hives. And that was the good news...because now they knew that he was having a drug reaction. His medications were changed immediately, and my sweetheart could begin to regain the ground that he had lost.

The hives were gone by the next day; the fevers were lower and then gone. But some of the symptoms of the drug reaction were slow to subside. Nausea lingered and he went days without being able to eat.

Kidney numbers slowly began to improve.

He had a third surgery on his foot. The wound was cleaned again, specimens were taken from deeper in the bone for cultures, and the surgeon inserted some antibiotic beads. These beads will slowly dissolve and be released directly into the infected area.

Because infection had reached the bone, Ron would need to continue receiving IV antibiotics for several weeks. So that treatments could continue at home, a PICC line was inserted through his arm. Everything was lining up so that he could be discharged on Monday, November 2, Kati's birthday.

On Saturday morning, he noticed that his right hand was swollen. He was on IV fluids to help the kidneys; maybe the swelling was a build-up of fluid? The doctor ordered an ultrasound for Monday morning to rule out the possibility of a blood clot around the PICC line. The ultrasound, however, revealed several blood clots. The original PICC line was removed and another "tunneled" line was placed. He was started on a 3-6 month course of blood thinners.

Now he was ready for discharge, but it was too late to set up for home health to come the next day. So I went down to the gift shop and bought Kati a birthday balloon, the girls brought Chick-fil-A for dinner, and we celebrated Kati's twenty-second birthday there in Ron's hospital room.

On Day 16, after his evening round of antibiotics, Ron was discharged! Praise the Lord!

Ebenezer: "Stone of Help"

It was a long and hard journey with twists and turns and bumps in the road. Sometimes those "bumps" appeared as mountains! And sometimes it seemed like the road had no end. But this we know: "Thus far, the Lord has helped us."

We are still depending on His help, for the journey continues.

I promised to share some of what the Lord has taught (and is still teaching) me through this journey. My next few posts will be just that. I'll try not to go so long between postings, but life is busy here on the home front...