I sent a group text to my kids and asked if anyone was free to take him to the doctor that day, and after a couple of minutes, felt strongly that it couldn't wait and he needed to go to the emergency room, not just call the doctor.
2 months prior he had had a total hip replacement on his right hip, and 3 weeks earlier had had his left hip replaced, and 1 week after that tried unsuccessfully to pass an 8 mm kidney stone in his only functioning kidney. He had emergency kidney surgery that day to try to get the stone out and the doctor was only able to get half of it without further damage to his ureter and kidney. So he placed a stent next to the remaining half in hopes of helping dilate the ureter and allow it all to heal to remove it two weeks later.
The Friday before he had said he felt cold all the time, and complained of being cold every day, then on Saturday said food tasted funny and he had no appetite, Sunday I thought he had a little fever but gave him Tylenol and it went away and didn't come back. Monday was a different story.
I got him dressed and we went to the ER where they started taking blood for labs and setting up IVs and quickly discovered he had a severe infection and was septic. 30 minutes after we go there he crashed. His BP dropped to less than 70/50, he was grey, sweaty, heart rate in the 140s. The labs showed significantly elevated troponin levels 2.6 which is a heart enzyme that shows heart muscle damage (essentially a heart attack from lack of enough blood pressure to perfuse the heart), liver panels off, and he was in full renal failure (zero urine output verified by ultrasound). He was in septic shock which has a mortality rate of between 53%-63%.
He was sent quickly to St Mark's hospital ICU in critical condition on massive antibiotics, meds to increase his blood pressure, and heart paddles next to his bed at all times.
We began to pray..hard. We asked everyone to pray. I fully expected him to die that day.
God had another plan.
A few hours later, he began to stabilize. He was holding his blood pressure at a more normal, 90/60 levels on his own. Then, they did another ultrasound and slowly he began to produce urine, his heart rate normalized, and they began to try to find the source of the infection.
At first they were certain it was his kidney. They did a CT scan from his chest to mid-thigh and found 2 abscesses in his hip and his kidney full of stones and severely enlarged, indicating infection. One by one they began to treat these things and one by one, all the things they were sure were the source, just simply weren't there anymore. Every doctor caring for him, 6 or 7 of them, kept expressing confusion, and trying to comfort me telling me that they would find out what happened and why. They kept trying. They did test after test after test, and everything kept coming back normal. 100% kidney function. Normal BP. Normal liver panels. Normal normal normal....except that they knew something very serious had happened to him and he had been very sick. But now...just not. Except for weakness and still lots of pain from the catheter they made him have to keep a close eye on his kidney output. He also had pain from his hip surgery and the stent and stone from before.
He got hungry. They got him out of ICU and into a regular room. He got to eat. They did a needle aspiration of the abscess to be sure and there was no infection in it now.
They did an EKG. Lots of signs of heart damage. :( So the cardiologist ordered a heart catheterization to check for blockages. Pete at one point weighed nearly 400 pounds. His dad had his first heart attack at age 38. I was expecting stents at a minimum and the doc had prepared me for the likelihood of bypass surgery. I got really nervous when the heart cath only took 20 minutes. I assumed it meant bypass either that day or the next.
Nope. It took 20 minutes because his coronary vessels are 100% perfect. Like ...um...100%. Once those plaques are formed in your arteries, they don't go away on their own and the odds of Pete having none, are virtually zero. The doctor was shocked. #ButGod
The next day he went in to have the stent and remaining stone removed, and I spoke to that doctor about what we need to do to protect his remaining kidney since it was full of stones. The doctor pulled up the current images, and POOF! Even though the radiologist report SAID there were multiple stones, the doctor couldn't find even one. Not even one. He removed the stent and remaining piece from before, and now Pete's kidney is completely clear, and healthy.
They finally sent him home. I assured them that it was okay that there was a mystery. Not one of his doctors can explain what happened.
Pete is weak. He is very tired. He has lost a lot of weight. But there is no way to deny that we have seen a documented miracle healing here. We have all the test results from beginning to end.
God healed him from death to life.
We are left trying to understand some things. Today is the 10th anniversary of Rachael's accident. Why did God choose to heal Pete but not Rachael? Why did God heal *most* of Pete but leave him with only one working kidney and some heart damage left over? Why heal him this time but not last time? I think some questions will not be answered until we meet Him face to face, and I am okay with that. I do know that we have seen a miracle, and I am grateful to still have my sweetheart here with us.
I also know that God has a plan for this story. I don't have to know what that plan is. He does, and that is enough.
