God's Timing...Always Perfect!

I have always known God's timing is perfect. This phrase fits a number of different ways. When you don't get the answer you want or are looking for, you reassure yourself knowing that "God's timing" is best. When you get the best surprise of your lifetime, you celebrate the gift seeing firsthand how God's unexpected blessings were part of His plan all along. Finally, when you have scary events unfold, but in the end everything works out because of medical intervention and God's grace, you breathe a sigh of relief seeing how God orchestrated things to line up perfectly. The latter is what we experienced yesterday.

From my previous post, you know that I had my port surgery scheduled at 1:30pm yesterday. I will fully admit, the night before, I didn't get a lot of sleep. I was a little leery of turning the wrong way, moving suddenly or doing anything to dislodge a clot. However, at the same time, I had an incredible peace that God was in control and He would be my protector. I finally got to sleep around 3:00am, and didn't wake up until my alarm went off.

At around 9:00am we left for Scottsdale. It's a two hour drive, but it went pretty fast. It's always nice to spend that time with my husband talking. Neither of us have work to do or any electronic devices :), so we have great conversations. It's so refreshing. We got to the hospital around 11:30am, and I started the check in procedure.

It wasn't uneventful (nothing ever is with me, lol). I did react to the saline they gave me. That always makes me laugh. Who in the world is allergic to IV saline? Meeee! :) So, I had a bright cherry red blotchy rash which always makes the nurses a bit nervous. I am pretty used to it, so I tend to play it down. However, it is kind of humorous to see them jump a little. Another little fun episode was my blood sugar dropped. I have problems with hypoglycemia if I don't eat. I hadn't eaten anything since 7:00am that morning, so right before surgery I could tell it was pretty low. I am glad I said something because when they tested it, it was LOW. Since I am allergic to juice, it was a little challenging to get it up. They ended up making an exception and letting me eat a little something since everything they could give me to raise it would make me react.

At 1:30pm, I met my surgeon. It was Physician Assistant Jessica who put my port in. This was such a God thing. She is so on top of everything. In fact, she was the one that caught that we had the wrong lidocaine. I need the one without preservatives, and although the nurse was reassuring me that it was free of the "buffer" (still don't know what that means), I questioned it. Jessica immediately knew what I was talking about and ordered the correct version from the pharmacy. She also told me that the reason why I was reacting to the saline was the preservative in it. I had no idea there were preservatives in saline. I guess it has benzyl alcohol. We'll add that to my list of preservative allergies! So, they had to order a special saline in vials that was preservative free. Never a dull moment I tell ya! It was such a miracle I got Jessica at the last minute. She is amazing. She is very good and confident, but also works with people very well. Well, she works with me really well. She told everyone to let me know what they were going to do to me at every step and to make sure to clear anything with me first before they touched me with it so that they wouldn't give me something I would react to. Such a blessing! Definitely evidence of God's perfect timing.

I asked Jessica to test my port after it was out to see how many clots were in it. She flushed it and there were 4 to 5 huge clots that came out. I heard her gasp as they shot across the table. We are SO thankful that God protected my body and that none of those dislodged before we got the port out.

I am in awe of God's wings of protection. I can look back at the past week, and see His hand in everything. I started working out a little last week, but over the weekend and on Monday, I just had no energy. I think this was the Lord as it could have caused a clot to come loose. As a Christian, I know that I limit God. I know He is all powerful and my protector, but I think that I take too much of the credit sometimes. It's times like these, that I am humbled. I see just how precious His children are to Him. I am so thankful to know that I have a heavenly Father watching out for me. I often try to run ahead of God and try to control things too much, but ultimately, I don't have control. All control belongs to Him. He knows what is best. My life is in His hands, and I wouldn't want it to be anywhere else!

My professors have been awesome. They have worked with me with all of my health issues. When this came up, they were both willing to give me more time. I think they feel bad for all that I have to face all the time. It's just such a relief to know I have their support. They want to see me succeed and are willing to do whatever it takes to get me there.

If you could please be praying for a couple of things. First, please pray for Brian. He is taking the 3rd section of the CPA exam tomorrow (Friday). Obviously, the events of the last two days have cut drastically into his review time, not to mention he is exhausted. Please pray that Brian would have clarity of mind, and that he would pass this next section. Please also be praying for continued healing from my surgery. I am pretty sore, and pretty reactive from all that I have been exposed to. So, please be praying that my body would heal as I have an extremely busy three weeks coming up.

Thank you for all of your prayers, support and encouragement. It's what helps us make it through! Love to you all! :)