How Can I Keep From Singing?: elbows, surgeries & flatlines

14april2008

this date marks what could have been mark's last day.

but Praise the Lord he spared him!

a few months ago mark was injured @ work by a hose that flipped up & hit him in the elbow, causing his nerve to slip out of place. it was painful & irritating at first, then eased up after a few days. but to avoid furthur injury they wanted him to go in and get it fixed surgically.

so he was scheduled for a minor outpatient surgery [[local anesthetic]] on the 14th. since we didn't find out until two days before what time it would take place, i couldn't get off work. but no big deal, i got off @ 9am anyway. he would just drive to the hospital, they numb his arm, cut him up & put him back together agin, just like humpty. no big deal. then i would come get him & we would bring his car home later. well...not exactly what happened.

i was about to head out the back door & i got a call from the hospital.

"mrs. dickinson? i believe we have your husband here at the hospital."
"oh, yeah. is he all fixed up already?? i was just about to come pick him up."
"well actually the surgery had to be cancelled today."
"oh, okay. uhh, so he is free to come home then?"
[[annoying, i hate when medical procedures get bumped]]
"well he is sitting up & talking to us now, but they couldn't finish the surgery because your husband's heart stopped beating. "

which was about the time mine started going double time! what in the world?? his heart stopped? for pete's sake, all they were doing was putting his elbow back together right!

apparently about the time they gave him the local, he told the nurses he was about to faint [[a typical response when he has blood taken or other medical procedures done]]. when he finally came to he woke up to frantic action & lots of concerned faces moving around him. the first thing he asked was if they were watching american idol or something, because there was so much noise all around. still sitting there with the oxygen mask on, the nurse showed him the paper that records the heart monitor, and there was a

nice

flat

LINE!

for 21 seconds, mark was gone!

apparently they injected him with some sort of adrenaline [[i'm guessing something similar to an epi pen, used for allergic reactions]] but i am not completely sure. whatever it was, it worked! i knew he was fine because right when we walked outside there was a helicopter & mark proceeded to tell me how the blades worked & why they angled certain ways when the chopper set down. :D

what a good reminder that in the blink of an eye, everything can change, and ONLY God is in control. and for whatever reason, God spared mark that day. i am so thankful, because i cannot imagine life without my mark!

all i can say is: live like the next five minutes are your last five minutes!

the surgeon said that most likely mark had what they call a vagal [[sp?]] response to the anesthetic. it is pretty rare but he said he's seen it happen to one or two of his patients before. they didn't want to continue the surgery then because they were afraid they would have to resusitate him, and they wanted to rule out the possibility that there is some unknown heart defect that hasn't shown up til now. even right now mark is at the cardiologist finishing up a variety of tests just to double check, but they already have told us things look pretty normal & boring.