Last night at about 5:00, Larry was called by a family from our church. The husband of this couple went to work Friday morning like usual. Throughout the day he began to feel run down & exhausted. That evening he went to the hospital because he felt so awful. He is a very healthy guy so he knew something was wrong. They began running tests & found his white count to be up in the 200,000+ range. They admitted him for more tests, suspecting leukemia. When Larry arrived at the hospital last night around 5-6pm, the oncologist was there, confirming the diagnosis of leukemia (AML). The doctor told them that this was a very aggressive form of leukemia & even advised them to begin praying. Larry stayed with them for a couple hours & came home.
At 10:00, they called him again. The gentleman had been moved to ICU as he had taken a bad turn. He went & stayed with them for an hour or so, praying with them & offering comfort.
At 1:45am, the man died. Just like that (snap!). I find it shocking that Friday morning he didn't even know he was sick. Less than 48 hours later, he was gone.
As Larry left the hospital about 3am, he ran into another family from church who had a family member there on life support. He stayed with them until about 5am, then came home. Since he was up most of the night, he stayed home to sleep this morning while the kids & I went to church.
Halfway through Sunday School, Samuel came & found me. He was holding his left ear telling me that it hurt really bad. He said "I think it's infected again." Unfortunately he just finished an antibiotic for a double ear infection last weekend & on Wednesday when we went to the doctor, his ear was infection-free. I thought it was odd that his ear was hurting now, though, because he had seemed fine before church & on the drive to church. I hugged him, loved on him a little & promised that we'd go to the doctor if he still felt bad later. I sent him back to SS & told him to come find me if he still felt bad when worship service began. Sure enough, just a few minutes into the church service, Samuel came walking in to find me, holding his ear & almost crying "It hurts!!!!". I gathered up our stuff, picked up Sarah from children's church & headed to the urgent care/after hours place. After waiting for about 2 hours, we saw a doctor and....sure enough...his left ear is "blazin' red". :::sigh::: He's on Zithromax now. I'm beginning to wonder if it's not time to call the ENT again & talk about the possibility of him needing tubes again. They worked wonders for him when he had them before. Most kids outgrow the need for tubes when their body grows, but Samuel is still a teeny little guy, so I guess we just haven't reached that point yet.
When I left the church to go to the clinic, I called Larry to tell him what was going on. I woke him up but he was happy to come sit with us for a little while before going to the hospital to visit the 2nd church family who he saw in the wee hours of this morning. We ended up getting back home at about the same time.
We layed down for a short nap but the phone rang. The church alarm was going off. Up Larry went again. He drove to the church & locked the unlocked doors & reset the alarm and drove back home. About the time he walked into the front door, his phone began to ring again. The lady he'd visited this morning & this afternoon passed away. He's back at the hospital now.
You know...sometimes life comes at you a little at a time. Sometimes it seems to hit all at once. The past 24 hours have been like that...a thousand things all at once. And while it's been hectic for us, it is my sweetest joy to see my husband going to the hospital to comfort a family at a time when they need a strong arm to hold them up & a shoulder to cry on. I am so proud of him. This is the reason he followed a call into ministry. I'm so glad he was obediant to that call.
Please join me in praying for the 2 families who have lost a loved one in the past 24 hours. And please pray for Samuel's healing. Luckily, the kids & I are all off work/school tomorrow so we'll have a chance to rest a little.
10 years ago
3 comments:
Oh my goodness! My heart is going out to both of those families, but especially the Leukemia patient. I had no idea something like that could even happen. It hurts to just imagine what that family is going through, not having any clue that that day was the last they would see that man that meant so much to them. About a year and half ago, my mom started to feel really sick. Her lower lungs collapsed, and she had a full body scan. They found lumps all over her liver. She had had breast cancer about five our six years ago and had come out in remission. They found cancer in her liver, and seven days later, exactly a week from the time she had liver cancer, she died very suddenly and unexpectedly. My whole life was upturned in a matter of about two hours. I was living out of town at the time, and by the time I got to the hospital, my mom was already in cardiac arrest. They say the last thing to go is their hearing, and I did tell my mom that she was beautiful and strong, that it was ok if she went. I told her I could be an adult and that she didn't have to be strong for us anymore. It was the hardest thing I have ever done, and it was traumatizing for a long time. I suffered from severe flashbacks. Randomly, I would be doing something that had nothing to do with my mom, and all of a sudden, I would be in the hospital room, broken, wishing I had begged her to stay. Her faith was amazing. One of the last things she said as the paramedics took her out of her house, my sister said, was "My tithes, what about my tithes." She had given them to her friend to mail to the church that week and she needed to know they had been mailed. She was beautiful even in death because she had not given up. Her time had come, no matter how painful that was.
Wow, Liz. That is a rough weekend. I pray for these families. I also pray for added strength and energy to be poured on Larry. His ministry is SO important to these people and families and to God. Life is so precious...one day you don't know you are sick... the next day you are gone. WOW.
Many prayers to those 2 families, how heartbreaking!
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