Digging Holes...

  As I said in my last post, Florida was nice, but there is truly no place like home. The trip made me appreciate our home more than ever. The summer was pretty uneventful. Just the normal appointments and blood work. I even found myself push mowing the yard. And driving the tractor for the rest of the 5 acres here. I enjoyed feeling useful again. And I felt great physically. But I still struggled with my medicine demons. I do have to say,  that summer of 2016 I felt like I was making progress. Until October 2016. Because I was a hard person to match, the kidney I got was not a perfect match. There is a virus ( CMV) that most people are immune to. But not me. It’s something most people have had sometime in their lives,  but for some reason I avoided it. So, because my kidney donor had it previously and I had not, I was very susceptible to getting it.  It can be life threatening for a transplant recipient like me if not caught in time. By October I had almost forgotten about this risk. But one day I woke up and absolutely could not move. I had a severe headache and I immediately knew something was wrong. I called my transplant coordinator to see if she could put an order to test for CMV so I could go get bloodwork. She said, no. You come immediately up to Cleveland. We want to check and most likely put you in the hospital. So I went up to Cleveland and sure enough I had this virus. They immediately put me in the hospital and gave me an IV with the necessary medicines. I was in there for 5 days and was so thankful we caught it early enough. While I was in there I had a roommate that my heart just broke for. She had been in and out of the hospital for many many things. She had a transplant years ago. But then while in the hospital for an appendectomy about 3 years prior to this October, she developed sepsis. She would just moan and groan. She was in so much pain. Her husband said she had been in the hospital more than not in the last 3 years. I think it was a turning point for me in some ways, as I laid in my bed and listened to her in so much pain. I think when you go through something major like a transplant, it is easy to think you are the only one going through this. But in those 5 days I realized I certainly had nothing to complain about. Other than my side effects,  I was really in good health. And once I could recover from this virus, I would be going home in hopes of not returning for a long long time. I felt so sad for my roommate as I thought about her going home, knowing she would probably be back in the hospital very soon again. It gave me an entirely new perspective on my situation. I no longer felt sorry for myself that I had to go through this. I still struggle every day with my medicines. But, if I start to dig that hole for myself , I remember that lady and say a prayer for her and all of her struggles. God has a way of answering our prayers with very unusual circumstances. I had been praying, why did I have to go through this? Why did I have to take all these medicines for the rest of my life? Just digging myself in a deep deep hole. I believe that’s when God decided I needed to see first hand to realize I’m not the only one with issues, and choosing to help another person in pain will often help alleviate my own pain. It was not fun to be in the hospital so soon again, but it was a lesson well worth learning. I have no idea where my roommate is today, but I pray she found peace in some form. And I’m sure God has His hand over her, just as He has over me. To God be the glory 😊 The picture below is of my 9 yr old grandson. He loves to “mine” our dirt. I was asking if he was digging for gold. I expected yeah, I wanna be rich. But instead he said he was mining to help people. He was mining for coal to keep their houses warm. Not Mining for gold for himself! Now understand I don’t think he is totally unselfish by any means, he’s nine. But I had to think...

Instead of digging a hole so deep for us to climb in, why don’t we dig deep in our hearts to find something that could help someone else? It’s amazing how God can use that very simple act to  not only 

help that other person , but also us. 😊