Series Of Unfortunate Events
Series of Unfortunate Events
This last week felt strangely like a satire book of comically bad, no-good, very unfortunate events.
Kidneys and stones
Monday started with Jamison waking up around 3am with kidney pain. The last time he had pain similar to this was 9 years ago when he got his first kidney stone! By 5am the pain was enough, he knew it was time to head to the ER. I offered to drive him in, but he insisted he drive himself. (Turns out I should have fought harder to take him) His pain was growing so intense that by the time he got to the emergency room parking lot he threw up three times on the way into the building!
After 3 painful hours of waiting in the ER, a CT confirmed he was indeed suffering from a kidney stone and not just a middle-aged white guy in a black hoodie with a French cop mustache—drug seeking. They gave him strong enough medication to finally take the edge off the radiating pain. The stone was small enough to pass on his own without other interventions, so the Doctors prescribed a myriad of drugs to try and help ease the whole process. We were both apprehensive though, the last kidney stone took him NINE, long, days to pass. So, this is how our Monday started, when we were supposed to be driving to Seattle for my maintenance treatment, we had to reschedule for the next day.
Seattle, Rain, & Car Problems
Jamison asked if I wanted anyone to drive to Seattle with me or if a felt comfortable going alone, I told him I could go by myself, and I said confidently, “It’s nice having our Optima that’s reliable and has never had any problems!” and just like Murphy’s law, I spoke it out loud, so this was soon to change! We, or rather Jamison has a weird history of bad luck with cars!! (You should ask him about the time his car went up in flames on the side of the road- and made it into the news lol)
My drive to and from Seattle was maybe the most stressful driving experience I’ve ever had. Rain was pounding down for most of the drive, I’ve never hydroplaned so much in my life. The windshield wipers were on the highest setting for most of the drive. The other cars were slowed down to 45mph, and some were driving with their hazard's lights on! If this wasn’t stressful enough, I passed one car completely upside down on the side of the road, and others down in the ditches, serving as warning I needed to stay sharply focused on my driving. No easy-breezy podcast listening this trip. I needed a break from the stress of staying hyperalert for so many hours, so I pulled off at the Kelso target to breathe and get pain killers for the tension headache I had acquired. Just thirty minutes from home I was excited to be done driving and finish the last leg of the race.
Was that just me or did the car seem to... glug a bit?
Trying to accelerate onto the freeway, it was evident that the car was not running right. I hit 63pmh and the gas pedal went gutless. It slowed down to 56pmh and then the gas pedal reengaged. I called my mechanical brother, talked through what was happening, and he assured me it was “probably fine” to try to keep limping home. I stayed in the slow lane with my hazards on, bouncing between 56-63pmh. Praise God, I made it home, but to this day the Optima now can’t go above 20pmh.
Chest CT & That Smell
Returning home to Jamison and the kids, the day had gone smoothly with the kids and school, but no luck passing the kidney stone. Jamison reminded me that I had a chest CT the next morning at 7:45am at Legacy hospital. Mornings are not particularly my thing, but it’s the only time available for this scan I’ve been trying to get, to double check that my pesky colon cancer is not still hanging out in my lungs.
The next morning as the saga continued, I woke up late and had less than 2 minutes to get out the door. I hopped in the van, because the Optima is broke-ima, only to have the pungent wall of the smell of apple cider vinegar smack me in the face. Two days prior I had gone to Costco and while loading the apple cider vinegar bottles into the van, the bottle collided with the metal leg of the van seat, and I’ve never watched liquid drain from the bottle so fast -right before my eyes. Apparently, our attempts at cleaning up said mess was to no avail.
I turned the key in the ignition in the van, that now smelled like a men's gym bag and an old rotten sock had a baby, to discover I was almost out of gas. “Just wooooow.” I thought.
I barely made it to the hospital for the scan, 10 minutes late, with the aroma of vinegar I’m sure, running between buildings to find the right place, the CT tech had me lickety-split, in and out in under 20! (We still haven’t gotten the results from this scan yet, as always, I covet your prayers for good results) Luckily there was a gas station just across the away from the hospital, I filled up and made it home.
__________________________
The week continued as such, with weird nightmares, a jumping spider that dropped on my hand while I was driving on the freeway, scaring the daylights out of me, while almost causing me to drive into a median. My favorite unnamed brother breaking into our house by climbing through the window to borrow coffee, breaking an old favorite pot of mine that was sitting on the windowsill, directly in the way of his descent into the house through the bathroom, and so on. One silly thing after another!
Unfortunately for my favorite unnamed said brother, the latter event was the proverbial back-breaking straw for my emotions in the very long, no good, awful unfun week.
Aaaalll of this to say - The week ended with a birthday coffee date with my good friend, my nieces costume birthday party, where my dad dressed up as a hippie, wearing women's capri’s (he insists they were men’s, the jury is still out), which basically made the whole week better, and finally our weekly prayer night.
My bestie bro-in-law prayed for me and shared a few verses from Isaiah 41. After a shed tear or two from yours truly, asking God yet again for healing, for release from having to go through radiation in a few weeks, the words from Isaiah really began to sink in.
Isaiah 41:14-16
Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I am the one who helps you, declares the LORD; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I make of you a threshing sledge, new, sharp, and having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you shall make the hills like chaff; you shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the tempest shall scatter them. And you shall rejoice in the LORD; in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.
Looking back, it took a series of unfortunate events to get this stubborn girl to feel worn down enough to cry; to be honest with God. I felt like a worm, and yet I still had this reminder of a redeemer who wants to help.