Bio Accident and Runaway Heart

It started with the car accident on January 5th. We never made it to Keith’s cousin’s funeral. The driver that hit us and flew away, totaled our car. We ended up spending the next several hours in ER. No broken bones but very bruised and sore. My left leg looked like it had been dragged five miles on gravel road.

We went home to heal. Only my leg didn’t heal. It got infected. Thankfully, my neighbor Rachel is a nurse who chose to keep my situation under surveillance. She had me go in to see a doctor. It was infected all right. A shot and I returned home with meds. Only they didn’t do the job. My friend Rachel next took me to the CHI health clinic for two shots and a different medication. This one worked. I began to heal.

Only some situations developed and I pulled muscles. That hurt. Rachel kept monitoring, but I could see she was concerned. I had my yearly wellness check and labs coming up. She suggested I request an EKG. When our doctor came through the door, one glance at her face and I knew we weren’t going home. I spent the next three days in the hospital for a heart that was trying to gallop away.

My veins are not fun to tap, yet the heart doctor wanted not one, but two IVs. Took one, two, three different experts before that happened. We kept my other arm as a pin cushion for all the blood they drew. Lots of medical personnel in and out of my room. My friends and my sister-in-law visited. Our kids called and Keith kept them apprised of what was happening. I wasn’t dying so asked our kids not to come.

Was given new meds to try and make my heart behave and finally got to go home. Rachel continued to keep an eye out for me, especially since my legs have started to swell a bit. That first three-day hospital stay, turned into almost a week in the hospital the next time because of breathing problems. Finally, home with meds the doctors hoped would get my heart in rhythm again. They didn’t do the job so I went in for a procedure to shock my heart into rhythm. So far so good.

I told Keith, “It all started with the car accident.”

He corrected me, “This was revealed because of the accident.” He is right. I might never have known about my heart without all that went before and had Rachel not been keeping an eye out for me. That is a blessing.

Don’t know what my heart may do. But this I know. I am not alone. I am surrounded by family and friends. I also know God who created my heart will not desert me. Whatever happens, I know He’s got this, and I am safe within His loving arms.

© 2022 Carolyn R Scheidies

Column published 3/20/2023

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Blog Bio Patience, conflict and learning to let go

I’ve always struggled with patience. I want to wade in and get done what needs doing. When there was conflict, I didn’t want to wait. I wanted to discuss and talk about the issue until it was solved. I really didn’t mind conflict with a purpose.

I didn’t understand until many years into our marriage that not everyone viewed dealing with issues the same way. Instead of hitting a subject while hot, many, like my husband, preferred to go off to a quiet place and think things through first. Only then was he ready to work through the situation. That used to frustrate me. I didn’t like to wait.

I knew patience was a problem. I knew God encourages patience. It is a virtue. I worked at developing more patience—with kids pushing my last button, with situations out my control, with my body that often frustrated my efforts to accomplish one task or another.

Yes, with my writing I could write, rewrite and keep rewriting until the passage shined. Even then, by the time I turned a book manuscript into my editor, I was heartily sick of it.

When I fell and scrambled my brains, when I had to reach into the darkness of my mind for words and concepts, I had to work hard at regaining what I’d lost. When I tried to explain, I’d get stressed when my mind refused to reveal what I wanted. (I knew the information was in my head, I simply couldn’t readily access it.) My impatience actually increased with my serious fall.

I recovered so very much. I could think more or less clearly, I could read, even write again. In time, I was thankful to be able to breathe without a trach, eat and swallow without a feeding tube. But there are changes. I no longer like confrontation.

I avoid some detective, lawyer, and mystery shows I used to enjoy. I still search for words at times, but I have learned to stop and allow the word or phrase to form in my mind. (My husband has gotten pretty good at figuring out what I want to say.)

In many ways, like my speech, I have learned patience. In other ways, I am more impatient. I have a hard time sitting through a two-hour movie. While I used to force myself through any book I started to read, now I am easily bored. I won’t stay with a movie or book once that boredom sets in.

There is nothing wrong with striving for patience. God made me and He knows doing so is not easy for me—especially now. I may be in a new phase of life and there have been changes, but none of that is a surprise to God.

I’ve learned that while my patience is limited, God’s is not. I can let go and let God be God. After all, I have also come to realize God knows my situation and loves and accepts me just the way I am. All I need do, is wait on Him. That’s something we all can do.

(c) 2022 Carolyn R Scheidies

Scheidies' Kearney Hub Column published 7/8/2022

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