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I had a different experience at the VA today...

If you have been following my blog for awhile, you know that I have been talkin a lot (you don't have to agree with me so quickly) about what God has brought me through. Normally I spend the time on my blog talking about what an awesome God we serve and how shocked all the Drs seem to be when I walk into their office. God really is good, but today I had a different experience. Today as I left the VA, I did  not focus on what God brought me through; I focused on the fact that I almost died in the hospital. You know, it does something when you know how close you were to death. I may not have survived the surgery. When you hear someone say that, it means a little; but when the Dr. who performed the surgery prepares your wife for the reality that you may not survive the surgery, it means even more.

Today, I thought about the place my wife came every day for nearly a month; I thought about me lying there, not able to talk, with a ventilator breathing for me. Today, it finally dawned on me how close I came to death; I was on the precipice of death. That really almost happened to me. I attned funerals; I have performed 40+ funerals; I visit people in the hospital on almost a weekly basis; that was me in a hospital bed, and that was my wife and children in the waiting room just waiting for some word from me. I cannot imagine what whent through her mind when she heard the nurses say that I was asking for her. I cannot explain what I am feeling, but it is extreme appreciation for the Drs, for the nurses, for the hospitals, for everyone that came to visit me, for my associate Pastor that took care of things so that I would not worry, for my mom and dad and brothers that drove 600+ miles to be with me, for my family that waited patiently for me in the waiting room, but  most of all (earthly) I am thankful for my wife. For days on end she did not go home to the comfortable room, she sat by my side, in a waiting room, slept in my room, waiting for just a positive word from the Dr. about my condition. I am really grateful and I want everyone to know how grateful I am to everyone. My recovery is not about me alone, I am recovered for and because of the many visitors I had in the hospital.

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