Once a year in India there’s a huge holiday called Diwali. It lasts about 3 weeks and is celebrated by every Hindu. Even if the family is very poor they will choose to buy lights to decorate rather than food. So, on the first day of this holiday my stomach wasen’t feeling so good. After a day of willing it to feel better it was only getting worse, and it seemed like my appendix was the cause. So, while all of the craziness of Diwali was happening my leader, a teammate and I got a taxi to the hospital and visited the ER. After a lighthearted ER visit (yes, we were actually having a good time) the doctor wanted to admit me to observe my symtoms. Not all of the classic symtoms of appendicitus were there, so they wanted to make sure that was the actual problem before jumping the gun…which I greatly appreciate. So, the next few days consisted of sitting, reading, and talking with Beks, my leader. Nothing had changed and I wasen’t allowed to eat or drink. By the third day, after two ultrasounds, two blood tests, a fair amount of anti-biotics and A LOT of problems with my IV they decided to do surgery. Having surgery away from your family, no matter what, is a little scary. It’s also a little scary when it’s in India and you can’t easily communicate with your nurses. However, this was a time for me to hold God’s hand, He was all I had laying there in the operating room…and He took good care of me. The next 3 days in the hospital were far from comfortable. I continued to have major issues with my IV, my viens are really small, so they ended up having to move it 3 times. And we also had an issue regulating the pain med.s, so on the second day I ended up having no pain med.s from 2 AM until 8 PM the next evening. That was another time I really had to focus on God and pray through it. After finally being able to go back to my home here, I still had to have a lot of help. This was hard for me. I wanted to be able to do things my self, I felt bad for asking others to help me and I was so tired of being sick when I had things to do! However, I soon realized that it’s ok to let people help you, they care about you, they want you to feel better, let them help you. Lesson learned. I’m only a human being and God had it in His plan for me to get my appendix out in India, so I need to learn what I can from it.
Throughout this whole crazy experience I’ve learned a lot of lessons. To be patient (one that God constantly has to remind me of), that you can bless people by letting them help you, to take advantage of the times God gives you to hold on to Him and no one else, and to realise we’re all human. In the end, I’m thankful for these lessons and I’m also thankful for the the people I’ve been able to draw closer to during this time. When I think of most of the situations I was in, all I can do is laugh.
Chalking this up to be a great story to tell my Grandkids.
