A Facebook post of random happenings during this crazy week

I'm sitting here waiting while Pat is in the operating room getting switched from one Ecmo to the lung only Ecmo support (which is good thing). I thought I'd just share some random stuff that has filled the days lately:

-Kindred spirits are everywhere. Yesterday I spent the better part of 10 hours with Felicity, Pat's nurse for the day. She & I discovered quickly we were the same age with much in common. Pat was shivering so the assistant turned up the Ecmo adjustment that heats the blood. After a while she told us that it said, "the blood is getting too hot, it wants me to turn it down." I said, "Then you mean he is hot-blooded?" Felicity & I looked at each other and burst into Foreigner's "I'm hot-blooded, check it and see. I got a fever of a 103. C'mon baby, can you do more than dance..." You can't buy that kind of instant mind-meld with someone. Look around you - kindred spirits are everywhere.

-Felicity was having neck pain. I wound up teaching a group of nurses and other specialists yoga asanas to loosen things up. It ws fun seeing people across the way showing other people what to do. Surgical cardiac ICU is a very stressful place, lots of tense muscles on these wonderful, beautiful people.

-I ran into a woman here who I substitute for & we have always just hit it off. Sadly, she was here for a problem she has been sharing with me as the reason I needed to come in for her. We were able to pray together for her surgery & all that might follow. Please remember her, Mrs. McP with young kids & a husband who need her to be okay.

-I was able to talk to my neighbor about Jesus & we both cried. He is going through a very difficult & terrifying time. Please lift him up. He needs divine intervention.

-My daughter, Jenna, has helped me with some semblance of normalcy by walking the dogs with me twice late, late late. It was such a blessing to walk & talk as if the world were still turning as usual.
-My daughters are all under extreme stress with this and God has been blessing them with helpers. As Mr. Rogers said, in times of tragedy, there are still helpers.

-My dogs; Sasha is a collie, that said she has her own mind & her own agenda. She has a system where she guards the upstairs, stationing herself either on our bed or on the top of the stairs. Charlie is required to guard the downstairs & to come tell her if she needs to come down (this is an elaborate display, involving up & down the stairs at least twice, a series of barks that say what is going on). WELL, Sasha has begun to force Charlie to do the upstairs (easier) job while she guards the downstairs. He is not thrilled with the change but she is calling the shots. I watched her command him, it's just amazing the level of communication.

-A crazy snobby woman in an Audi SUV nearly broad-sided me in the parking garage. When i honked & stopped in horror, she didn't even acknowledge me - while my heart was beating wildly she...maneuvered herself to continue cutting me off. Lest I seem too holy, I followed her, scaring the tar out of her, all the way past perfectly good parking spaces to the upper deck where I parked far so she'd think it safe...then went to her & yelled at her through her window and took very dramatic pictures of her license plate. There are people with little children in this parking garage, there are people all stressed, all scared, coming to see family, to go to cancer doctors, etc, no one needs the hassle, frustration and nightmare of a parking garage accident especially when they are already under stress. DRIVE SLOWLY and be courteous in parking garages!!! (And everywhere, please).

-Pat always liked to watching mushy movies with me and he always got all sappy and said that he & I were like the Notebook - as well as Wesley & Buttercup in the Princess Bride. Over & over I think of Wesley being "mostly dead" but true love brings him through. 

-What does it matter if you gain the whole world and lose your own soul? There is nothing so important here that cannot be taken away from you - there are no people, possessions, dreams that cannot be forever changed in the blink of an eye. But there is assurance and there is hope. There is a hiding place, a shelter from the storm, there is a Mighty King who doesn't just want to be your Savior, He wants to be your Lord.