Sunday, February 15, 2009

A Low Cut 2/12/09

A Low Cut 
2/12/09

We came from Novosibirsk to Sacramento in search of several miracles (we are big on miracles these days) that would get my hernia fixed and us back to Novosibirsk by the 23rd in time for our Visa Renewal trip. We had a schedule, created by Sister Cindy of course, and everything needed to fall in place or the plan would not work. It was: Arrive the 8th, doctors' orders by the 9th, surgery by the 10th, recuperation and release by the 19th, on a plane by the 20th, home by the 23rd, and off to Kazakhstan by the 24th. We also made a list of things to do in between the medical stops to fill up our days.

We stopped in Orem to see Trisha & the girls (Chris was out of town at a school) from the 7th to the 8th and arrived in Sacramento on the night of the 8th of February not quite sure what day it was. We settled into Brian & Andrea's second floor extra bedroom for the nights and would travel to Sacramento's medical community during the next day.

A public thanks to Brian and Andrea; THANKS. They went to enormous trouble to have us and we couldn't NOT stay there. They moved everything out of the extra bedroom downstairs and into the garage. Then they gave us their king-size bed and slept on an air mattress while we were there. Quite a sacrifice. Thank you for your love and care.

Monday we saw my primary care doc (miracle #1) and got confirmation, again, that, "Yes, you do have a hernia Mr. Simmons and it's pretty big". He then announced that the surgery department was not available until Friday to which Sister Cindy made her own announcement, "That will not do", and we began the quest for the next miracle.

The PCP gave her the phone number for the outpatient surgery department "in case there were any cancellations" and Cindy began doing her "thing". After being told that there was no hope of seeing a surgeon before Friday, and Cindy saying "That will not do", the scheduling nurse found an appointment on Tuesday at 10 AM; miracle #2.

We filled Monday with pre-op blood work, more of my regular medications, a stop at The Travel Store, my sister Diane's, Elliot's Health Foods, Walmart, Lunch with the Lunds, the Bel Air market for supplies, Dr. Hull's (dentist) but he was closed, and home to Brian & Andrea's to see Hannah and get dinner & Family Night.

Tuesday was the surgeon, Dr. Fandrich, a massage at Taffey's, Taco Bell on the way back; Wells Fargo; the post office for more flat-rate boxes; evaluating the pond leak at our house with Peter Frangel, Jeff Mills, and Bishop Ibey who will make the repairs; dinner and the evening at Diane's; and home to sleep.

Dr. Fandrich was miracle #3, he spoke English, and #4 he was in his mid 50's, and #5 he made his schedule work for us. First off, we shared English as a native tongue and that 's only about 50% with Kaiser. We find it hard to have confidence in someone that you cannot understand or whom you are not sure understands you. Second, this was not his first surgery and in fact he was going to do the procedure just exactly as our surgeon friend Peter Carruth suggested. Finally, he was able to schedule us on Thursday morning, just in time to meet out 20th deadline.

To expand on the first miracle, his ancestors were German immigrants to Ukraine during the reign of Catherine the Great and much of his family spoke Russian. We immediately connected on that level. He is a strong Adventist and had been on a medical mission so we connected on a spiritual level. When he explained that this was elective surgery and could take several weeks to schedule, Cindy went into her "That will not do" mode and we prayed hard to help his scheduler find room for us. Heavenly father came through on all three levels and we were all set.

What a trip.

1 comment:

bobtelford said...

Sister Simmons, I tried to send you an email but it wouldn'g go through. Our email address is btelford1943@yahoo.com Yes we have skype.