Peace

When I finally sat up in bed at 4 am on 9 August, my babes realised that something was wrong.  When I told her that it was painful to breathe and even more when I cough, she decided there and then that I need to go to the hospital.  Not go see a doctor, but go to the hospital. However, we didn’t go into a panic.  We had our morning coffee and partook of communion.  We prayed over whatever was going on in my body, and left it there.  I put my tracksuit on and got ready to go to the hospital. As we left, we told Nate that we were going to the hospital.  He looked at us in a daze. Everything happened so calmly.  You would normally expect that when someone says that we’re going to the hospital, there is some form of panic or someone is half “crawling to the car”.

There was such a peace over us.  There was no thought of what the diagnoses might be.  We did not know where I’d end up spending the night, that evening. Whatever was to happen our trust was in God.

That evening I spent the night in ICU. I was still very unclear as to what these people had seen in the scans.  Remember that this was my first time ever to be admitted to a hospital, especially spending the night.  So I didn’t think too much of the cables being attached to about nine parts of my chest and stomach.  I didn’t think too much of the blood pressure band permanently around my arm. I didn’t realise what I looked like to those looking at me, but I was at peace.

That night I was awoken three times by the monitor next to my bed when an alarm went off.  My heart rate had gone down to 37BPM. During deep sleep, an average of 40-50BPM is considered normal. If your heart rate drops into the 30s, you might not get enough oxygen to your brain, making fainting, lightheadedness, and shortness of breath possible. At that point, the 37BPM meant nothing to me.  In fact, at the time the noise was disturbing my sleep. Hahaha.  The next morning the doctor expressed concern about the low heart rate.  She gave instructions for me to be put on oxygen.  When Liesl arrived, we once again had communion and prayed.

I am grateful for the people surrounding my babes.  Even though the 37BPM didn’t mean that much to me at the time, or maybe that was just God keeping me at peace, it meant a great deal to her.  She went out of the room and just offloaded on our sister Sandy and close friend Jo.  When she came back into the room she had her smile on her face. This is when she decided to create a WhatsApp group to get some of our friends to start praying.  I would never have expected the kind of support that we received.  People, literally from across the world started praying. In the meantime, I was at peace.  I believe in the power of prayer.

I remember 21 years ago, in the month of 911.  I was on a tour for SA Tourism.  I was traveling from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth.  I was traveling alone, after I had to take one of the team members to the airport, to fly back to Johannesburg. As I approached Humansdorp, in the Eastern Cape, I fell asleep behind the wheel. The bakkie (pickup) that I was driving flipped and I rolled 5 times.  In the meantime back home, it was normal for my youngest son Nathan to sleep in my spot in bed.  He was 4 years old at the time.  Suddenly he woke up and told Liesl “mom, we need to pray for dad!” Not knowing what was happening, she agreed and they prayed for me.  This was the exact time that my vehicle flipped. Five minutes later I called Liesl to let her know that I had had an accident.  After I had called home and the tour director, I passed out.

I was taken to the nearby hospital in Humansdorp.  The doctor that examined me told me that there is nothing that they could do for me there, being a small hospital, as it appears that I have a skull fracture. I was then transported by ambulance to King George Hospital in Port Elizabeth.  While in the ambulance I called a few friends and summoned prayers. On arrival at the hospital, I was taken directly to the CT scan facility.  They did a scan of my head, where I had the injury. Later when the scan results came out, all was in order with my skull and they discharged me straightaway.  I was out of the hospital before my babes had even arrived in Port Elizabeth (PE).

Back to the present, because of the slow heart rate, I had the cardiologist come see me.  I did a bunch of tests and then explained to me. “The left side of your heart is operating perfectly”, he said. “however, the right side of your heart is responsible for your lungs, and because you have these clots in your lungs that are inhibiting blood flow, this side of your heart is taking strain.” This was the first time ever that I was given a diagnosis of my heart not functioning “normally”. Although this was again a shock, I stayed in peace.

We continue to trust in God.  We continue to take communion and hold on to His promises, and what the communion elements mean in our lives.