What's Going On: From joy to fear, expected to the unexpected
“I need you here now.”
It’s amazing how the exact same five words, spoken about 24 hours apart, can invoke exact opposite reactions.
I was attending a Rotary Club meeting Tuesday afternoon when I first heard my wife speak those words to me over the phone. With a Saturday due date for our third child, I had been anxiously anticipating this call.
When she told me she was hurting and it wasn’t the typical labor pains she experienced with our first two children, I quickly dismissed the comment attributing it simply to all pregnancies being slightly different.
When we got the hospital, the doctor ran a battery of tests, all of which revealed everything was fine.
Contractions soon followed and at 11:53 that night, our third child, Evelyn Grace, was born. At just 7.5 pounds, Evelyn was perfect in every way. And after our first two children weighed 10 and 9.5 pounds, Kim was excited to actually give birth to a baby instead of a toddler.
After spending the night with my wife in the hospital, I went home Wednesday morning to take a shower and get a bite to eat.
That’s when I heard those five words again: “I need you here now.”
Instead of joy, anticipation and relief, those five words instantly filled me with fear, anxiety and even terror.
I learned the pain that besieged Kim Tuesday had returned Wednesday. Something was wrong and a CT scan confirmed it. She would need surgery immediately to have her appendix removed.
The surgeon explained he would try to remove the inflamed organ laproscopically but wasn’t certain that would be possible as he suspected it might have ruptured.
While I realized and did my best to assure my wife an appendectomy was as close to a routine surgical procedure as possible, I was scared. Surgery is still surgery and there are always potential risks, even with the healthiest of people.
I had been blessed with three beautiful, healthy children and with the birth of each one, I felt undeserving. Suddenly, I was worried the other shoe was about to drop and I was going to receive what I did deserve: heartache, pain and loss.
The time had come to pay the piper.
Fortunately though, God continued to bless my family and despite a slight perforation in the appendix, Kim pulled through the surgery just fine.
She’s been sore ever since and had to spend a couple extra days in the hospital but is now home recovering and enjoying the newest addition to our family.
And what an addition she is. The only thing that can make a man’s heart melt faster than a baby is a baby girl.
While there were a few tense moments this week, one thing that never wavered was my confidence in the quality of care my wife received at Montgomery County Memorial Hospital. Whether it was Dr. Johnson who has delivered two of our three children, the surgeon Dr. Grass, the anesthesiologist, or the many nurses, I never once wondered if we should have gone to Omaha instead.
I would never presume to make a decision as important as a physician and hospital for someone else’s medical care, but for me and family, I wouldn’t have wanted to go through last week’s trials and tribulations anywhere other than here in Red Oak.
With that said, I can safely say my wife is especially looking forward to not visiting the hospital for a very, very long time. I joked with her that the hospital was running a special: get two procedures done at full price, get the third half-off.
She didn’t think that was very funny. For her sake, I hope humor isn’t the best medicine, as she may be out of luck.
In the meantime, we are welcoming Evelyn into our family and familiarizing her with her siblings as Kim and I adjust our parenting skills from man-to-man to a zone defense.
And best of all, if I hear “I need you here now,” I can rest assured it probably only has something to do with rowdy children.
Gregory Orear is the General Manager/Editor of the Red Oak Express and Glenwood Opinion-Tribune. He can be contacted at publisher@redoakexpress.com.