So Hal and I had a rather eventful night.  I got home from the Pelicans’ game around 9:00 last night to a very pitiful husband.  He’s been complaining of fevers and just generally feeling crappy for most of the day, so I was hoping he’d be feeling better.  In the span of about two hours, Hal was throwing up and his fever had spiked to 100.7 degrees and he was complaining about pain in his right side.  Of course, that sent alarm bells screaming in my head!

I called the on-call doctor at Doctor’s Care (since we still don’t have a primary care doctor here) and he advised us to go to the Emergency Room.  So at about 11:30 we made it to the ER and while waiting to be seen, experienced a wide array of humanity.  Lots of highly intoxicated people, several injuries, one attempted suicide, one with a head wound, two with heart failure, and us.  (I overheard these cases after we’d gone back to have Hal looked at).  The doctor and nurses that were on Hal’s case were extremely nice and funny and compassionate…not something you find much in the ER.  After running a CT scan to check Hal’s kindneys and appendix, the waiting began again.

Long story short, Hal’s appendix was fine, and the doc diagnosed a kidney stone which he passed at some point last night (just based on all the symptoms).  So, after several hours we were released with a prescription of Vicodin should Hal need it, lots of water and rest, and keeping an eye on fevers and all that jazz.  But driving home at 2:30  a.m., all I could think about where the lives we came in contact with while we were there.  Broken people, broken lives, screwed up lifestyles, screwed up bodies, compassion, pain, doctors who demonstrated their understanding of the differences between men and women and what men are missing, nurses who got pleasure from putting tape on Hal’s hairy arms to keep the IV in place, all wrapped into 3 hours.  I found myself praying for those people behind the curtains surrounding us.  Praying that the Lord would touch their lives and renew their bodies and spirits. Would you think of them and pray as well?

And keep praying for Hal.  This is his 9th kidney stone (4th round of ER trips), and it’s brutal on his body.  He’s so tired.  And I, too, am exhausted from the worry and being up far later than I have been since graduating college.