PSALM 20

May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble; May the name of the God of Jacob defend you;  May He send you help from the Sanctuary and strengthen you out of Zion. May He remember all of your offerings and accept your burnt sacrifices. 
May He grant you according to your heart’s desire, and fulfill all of your purpose.
We will rejoice in your salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners! May the Lord fulfill all your petitions
Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. 
 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. 
They have bowed down and fallen but we have risen and stand upright. 
SAVE, LORD! 
May the king answer us when we call!

The moment Deb realized that Covid-19 had invaded our house, Psalm 20 became the prayer on her lips. From the midnight call for 911 because of my respiratory failure, to making snap decisions over the phone with the ER doctor to go ahead and put me on a ventilator to breathe, the prayer of Psalm 20 went up before the Lord with an agonizing heartcry before expanding and breathing out to thousands of people that prayed with her that the petition that God had laid on her heart would be a promise fulfilled. That He would indeed hear and answer with the assurance of God’s saving work. 

One lone solitary voice stood charge keeping a watch both day and night with that prayer upon her lips and her heart beating with the plea that God would be merciful and spare the life of her beloved friend. 

My life was so lifted up and prayed over with confidence that God would not only hear but answer the Psalm He laid upon her heart. That voice of one grew to a chorus of thousands of voices all over the world. Those combined voices would raise up in adoration and praise thus through thanksgiving a divine healing would touch the life that had been so broken and torn to new life. Yes, I now realize I am a walking miracle known as the miracle child at the hospital!  All because we have a great God who hears and answers the prayers of his children!

The past few weeks have muddled into a blur.  I was conscious of very little going on around me. I do not remember much of my time in ICU because I was put into an induced coma so I would not attempt to pull the large plastic respirator tube out of my throat.

 
There were two lives going into battle at the same time. My brother, Paul, who is ten years older than me was apparently across the hall within the same ICU unit. I had no idea. Both of us were clinging to life, unconscious, with mechanical breathing.

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Paul lost his battle forty eight hours after he started to hemorrhage and they couldn’t find a source or get it stopped. His organs began to shut down and he breathed his last. 

But the Lord had different plans for me. I continued I stabilize and showed improvements in the blood work and x-rays.During the evening visitor hours Deb would tried to communicate with me by signing through the ICU window or writing on a whiteboard.  I couldn’t figure out why she was standing outside the window with a sign. I remember that sign! It was just yesterday that I finally asked her about it and she told me it was because she could not come into the room to be with me! And because she was in the hallway, she had to wear a mask over her mouth. 

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After I was moved out of ICU to the stepdown floor, both she and Rodney were allowed to stay 24 hours in the room with me. She did not have to wear a mask in the room and this definitely helped with communication.

  
I have no memory of the night the Rapid Response Team was called to my room.  Apparently, I also had a GI hemorrhage, like my brother did, to the point where they couldn’t even find a blood pressure and my eyes became fixed and unresponsive. I remember nothing of the fast-paced action that was taking place around me. I can barely comprehend how close to death I was and how God heard the cry of that single heart in that moment of time and He reached down and spared my life once again.

3 days later they discharged me because they could find no reason to keep me! I have been home 2 1/2 weeks and steadily growing stronger in every way. My oxygen is only on 1 liter and the pulse oximeter shows at 99 to 100%. I practice blowing my “ball”, my incentive spirometer, at 800 to 1000 with it continually growing higher with each breath. My last PET Scan on January 19th showed no evidence of the metabolic activity of my stage four lung cancer! I haven’t breathed this well since last March, a whole year ago!! 

The worst thing that I’m dealing with today is extreme  weakness in my legs where I am now at six weeks being bedfast and have not been able to stand on my feet. But I am done being a hospital rag doll, and I can sit and roll and turn all on my own now. And I do truly believe that my legs will be restored and I just need to work harder on the exercises to strengthen them. 

Deb says that one day soon we should walk back into that hospital ICU to thank the doctors and nurses, and to let them see what God has done through them in my life!  She overheard one of my nurses saying, the day that I was being discharged to the regular floor, that I was her first Covid patient to actually successfully get off of the ventilator. I think they need encouragement in ICU!

So, if you are one of those who prayed for me during this time, I thank you!

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“And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him.” 1 John 5:14