It's Kidney Stones!!!

S is for Savior


This weekend did not begin the way I imagined it would. On Thursday morning, I was woken up by the most excruciating back pain. Oh man, it was so bad. I just laid in bed, thinking that if I didn't move, it would go away. After about 15 minutes or so, it was still there, only worse, and I began to feel very nauseous and sweaty. "That's it" I thought. "I am going to die right here in my blue flannel pants and Navy Sailing shirt. Lord, couldn't it have at least been a Navy Baseball shirt?" The word appendicitis kept repeating over and over again in my head and I became quite certain that this was happening to me. I managed to shower and then walk downstairs to look up the symptoms of an appendicitis on Webmd (because that is what most people do when they are dying-research medical symptoms, right?). Once I read the symptoms of an appendicitis, I was 100% certain that I was experiencing a "rupture of the appendix". Because I am usually hardcore about pain, my parents didn't really need to be convinced that I had to go to the hospital. My mom and I just got in the car and left. We were only in the car about 15 minutes but, oh, it felt like an eternity. And to the man who made an U-turn on Courthouse Road, stopping traffic, THANK YOU. That was great :)



When we finally walked into the ER, I was relieved to see that the place was completely empty. No sweeter sight has ever graced my eyes. My mom filled out my paper work, mainly because she has great handwriting but also because I wasn't sure I could operate a pen. I was called back to see the doctor and about 15 minutes later I was diagnosed. No, it wasn't an appendicitis. Oh no. It was kidney stones. I think I was a little disappointed that my research yielded incorrect results (that brought me back to college :)) but I was more diasppointed that they were not going to operate and put me out of my misery.



After some bloodwork, I was hooked up to an IV and given a dose of morphine. Don't let the movies fool you. Morphine is not what it is cracked up to be. At least not in a pain-fighting way. In a narcotic way, yes. But for pain, no. By this time, my mom and Jenn had come back to my room and fortunately, my mom talked to the nurse and asked to her to give me some more morphine. Unfortunately, this new dose didn't work either and the pain seemed to get worse. The nurse checked in again and this time gave me a dose of something wonderful and finally, the pain lessoned and eventually went away completely. After a while, I couldn't even remember what the pain felt like exactly. I was discharged, and given prescriptions for some mighty good drugs, around noon and slept the rest of the day away in my own bed.

This might seem like a strange lead in for the letter "S" but I have a point. This weekend was also Elevation Weekend. While I did not lead a discussion group, I was able to sit in for the worship services. As I stood in the FLC and worshipped, along with 300 or so other believers, I began to think about Thursday. My physical body was in such agony. It was, quite honestly, the worst pain I can imagine. Almost indescribable. There were moments, in the middle of the worst of it, I wished to die simply to not be in any more pain. It was such a humbling experience. I could do nothing to remove this pain. As I stood there and listened to the band sing, "Oh, how He loves us" I couldn't help but think that not only is my physical body subject to pain, but my spiritual body was once sentenced to not only pain, but death. Because of the fall of man, I am a sinner and the "wages of sin is death". But I have a God who loves me enough to send Jesus to earth to die in my place. If the pain I experienced in that hospital bed is the worst pain imaginable, picture Jesus on that cross, bearing that pain for every human to walk this earth from its creation to the time He decides to return. "Oh, how He loves us." Pain and death are inevitable in this life. Our bodies will hurt and, one day, our hearts will no longer pump life into our bodies. But we have a Savior who left a throne in heaven to enter earth, to die in our place. Because of this, we will one day experience no pain, no death. What a day that will be.

"Oh, how He loves us".