Health Care

We are having an unhealthy year!  Daniel broke his arm (a compound open fracture) in November, so had surgery on Thanksgiving Day and follow-up visits in January, February and March.  Pete discovered a blind spot in his eye and an examination revealed retinal bleeding.  In January he received the first shot in his eye; a drug has almost stopped the bleeding and the doctor thinks it will heal completely.  It may or may not stay healed.  You can imagine the cost of a visit to a retina specialist; Pete has been there 3 or 4 times now.  Sarah had an appendectomy on Palm Sunday.  I have been to the chiropractor 5-10 times recently for a "frozen shoulder" or possibly just inflammation - the treatment is the same.  Now I've started physical therapy.

This will cost us our $5500 deductible for last year and this year; it will cost our insurance company a lot more.  But think of the results - a healed arm, a healed eye, a removed appendix with very little "down time," and (Lord willing) a healed shoulder.  A hundred years ago Daniel would probably have a crooked arm; Pete would have a blind spot and maybe lose his sight completely in that eye; Sarah could have died when her appendix ruptured; and I would have a painful shoulder for who-knows-how-long.

We complain a lot about the high and rising cost of health care.  But consider what we get!  If we choose to do all this stuff to make our lives longer, healthier or pain-free, shouldn't we expect to pay for it?  Remember the tragic story of the woman who had spent her life savings on doctors trying to heal her hemorrhaging?  Turned out not to be a tragic story, because Jesus healed her for free.  But the pathos of the initial introduction is not because she spent her life savings but because it didn't work.  If she had spent her life savings and gotten well, it would have been worth it to her.

I don't know when we'll (as a nation) run out of money to spend on health care.  I don't know if it's right for us to have treatments for retinal bleeding and frozen shoulders when children across the globe die for lack of a simple antibiotic.  But I do know that I'm not going to complain about the money aspect of health care, because it's worth every penny.

Successful Surgery

Dr. Lister feels confident that everything was put back the way it should be in Daniel's forearm. He did find bone in the skin, so it was good that they did the surgery on Thursday instead of waiting. Daniel's on an antibiotic now for a couple of weeks. He's been very lethargic since Sunday evening, and I thought it was a side effect of the drug, but now he's getting better and coughing a little, so it was probably a virus that he caught in Sioux Falls. He came with us but didn't participate in the wonderful Compline service that the Stadem clan led at St. John Lutheran (the Stadem grandparents' church).

We were also concerned because he couldn't bend his thumb or feel part of it, but that is improving as well and the orthopedist said it's normal. So altogether a successful post-op appointment and a good report.

I was very impressed with the emergency room people Wednesday night - their calm cheerfulness and patience. And I was even more impressed with the gracious responses of the surgery crew on Thanksgiving Day - you would think they had nowhere else to go, but most of them were on their way to family gatherings after Daniel's surgery. They were kind, cheerful and competent. Although Daniel had the reaction to anesthesia we've come to expect from certain members of our family - it took over eight hours for him to feel well enough to come home - it was altogether a good experience. Hats off to Rice Hospital!

Giving Thanks (in all circumstances), part 2

We had just returned home from a lovely church service, pie and fellowship aftewards, and an excellent health report from a family friend, when Pete's phone rang and Joel announced, "Daniel broke his arm!" Apparently he'd been swinging from the ceiling at First Covenant Church and went too far, almost horizontal, so when he dropped and put his arm out to break his fall, it did and it broke. We agreed to meet them at the emergency room and when we got there Rocky, the youth group leader, and several friends who had been at the church were there. We went through into the room where Daniel lay, his arm taped to a board and looking odd. He was in a lot of pain - kept gritting his teeth and swallowing hard. The nurses had just finished taking X-rays and were putting pain medications into him through an I-V.

Over the next two hours we waited, the pain lessened as the meds started to work, Dr. Hussein (the ER doctor) informed us that both bones had broken into pieces, requiring surgery, and that Dr. Lister was willing to do it on Friday morning. Pete felt uneasy and asked why wait? Dr. H. explained that everyone should enjoy their holiday. He went on, "Of course, if it had been an open fracture, where the bone went through the skin, it would have to be done right away." I said, "It's bleeding." After he checked it further, he determined that it was an open fracture (had gone through the skin), so we couldn't wait until Friday but needed to have surgery as soon as possible to reduce the risk of a bone infection .

Dr. Hussein proceeded to "reduce" Daniel's arm - straighten it out by shaking his hand and pulling the bones into place as best he could. Oh, that hurt - Daniel was very brave, and only grunted. They had given him a much stronger medication in advance of this. The team wrapped the arm in various bandages, then put a temporary cast in place and held the arm bent and across Daniel's chest while it hardened.

Now the doctor mentioned that because of the complexity of this surgery, we might want to consider an orthopedic traumatologist instead of the orthopedic surgeon. After talking with Dr. Mark and with Dr. Lister himself, Pete came in and we decided that if St. Cloud had a traumatologist, we would go there, because that type of specialist would have more experience with this particular problem, though it sounded like Dr. Lister would be perfectly competent. Obviously, going to St. Cloud would be a much bigger hassle, and who knows for how long or how many follow-up appointments and therapy and such? We prayed that if Dr. Lister could do the job, it wouldn't work out to go to St. Cloud. Eventually, we found out that there are no traumatologists there, so we decided to stay here.

I'm currently in the surgery waiting area while Daniel undergoes the hours-long procedure. Pastor Mary's sermon last night was about the ten lepers, and how, although God was at work in all of their lives, only one saw it and gave thanks. She challenged us to look at our lives in terms of how the Lord is working. Here are the ways I see Him having worked in this event:

1. This is the best day of the whole year to sit in the hospital. We have no commitments; the family gathering isn't until Saturday; a guest we had invited for today wasn't able to make it; I had already planned to cancel school because Michelle & David are home.

2. Dr. Hussein said what he did about the open fracture, and I thought to say what I did about the bleeding; otherwise, it's possible we'd have dealt with a bone infection.

3. We didn't go to St. Cloud, and I believe God guided that decision.

4. We prayed with the kids before leaving home, and have called people to pray.

5. Daniel landed on his arm and broke it, not on his back and broke it.

I pray that Daniel will be able to see what the Lord is doing in his life during these next weeks of recovery, and to give thanks even in these circumstances.