My Day in the Hospital

It was late at night, February 27, 2000, and I was to have surgery the next day. It had been scheduled for a few months. I was very nervous and despite praying several times, I had no peace of mind. My mind kept going over the possibilities or the problems. I tried to get some rest, but it was impossible. At around 11:30 P.M., I went to sleep in my mother’s bed since I couldn’t fall asleep. She tried to assure me and read lots of Bible verses and some encouraging words from the Testimonies for the Church. Eventually 1 got to sleep. The next morning we woke up at 5:30 A.M. and left for the hospital at 6:00. I was very nervous. When we got there we went to the admissions desk and they told us to just wait in the cafeteria. We waited there for around 45 minutes, and then we were led off to the ward. They assigned all of us to our rooms at that point. During the next few hours they came asking numerous questions and taking my temperature and blood pressure. A few minutes before my surgery, I again read the Bible, and I felt a lot better. At 10:00 A.M., they came and wheeled me in my bed to go to the Surgery Theater. I was in this special room, just before going into the Surgery Theater, Amazingly this time, just before the surgery, I felt extremely happy and peaceful, the most unanxious I had felt about the surgery, for the whole time. In a couple of minutes they wheeled me in to the theater.

They were quite nice in the theater. And then, before I knew it they were putting me asleep. It took about five seconds and I was out. Next thing I knew I was slowly, groggily waking up in the recovery room. As I was waking up, there was a lot less pain than I expected. It still hurt a little though. I asked the nurse if the surgery was actually done. And she said, “Yes, your four teeth are out.” Then 1 told her it hurt and that 1 needed a painkiller. She said, “Of course it hurts, you just had an operation.1′ Then I asked again for a painkiller. She said, “No, not until the bleeding in my mouth had stopped”. In a few minutes I was wheeled back to my room. For the next four hours, I lay in bed snoozing and having some gauze in my mouth. Every few minutes the nurses came and checked my vital signs. After about three hours, I was feeling amazingly better. I thanked the Lord for making it so easy for me. At 5:00 P.M. I ate my meal and changed back into my own clothes and I was finally out of the hospital. When I came out I felt great. On the way home I was very talkative. That night I slept very well. By the next day, I was pretty well better. Now it is four days later and I haven’t had to take any pain killers at home yet. I talked to my aunt (who is a nurse) the day after my surgery, and she was amazed that I was not in any pain. She had recently had a wisdom tooth pulled and she was in pain for two weeks. I will always thank the Lord for giving me peace of mind about it just at the right time when I needed it the most, and for taking most of the pain away.

This is just a little example of what we will experience in the time of the end. We may be called to suffer for the truth, but we do not need to be anxious about it before hand because when the time comes, the Lord will be with us to give us peace of mind, just when we need it the most.

NOTE: For those of you who do not know the nature of Richard’s surgery, I will briefly explain. He had two large baby teeth pulled from his lower jaw, teeth that were missing their corresponding permanent teeth; these were extracted. On his upper jaw, were two permanent teeth, which were growing so crookedly (as seen on the x-ray) that they would have erupted through the roof of his mouth. The surgeon had to peel back the roof of his mouth, extract those teeth, and sew up the roof of his mouth again. He had the stitches in his mouth for 10 days afterwards. Other than having difficulty eating for a few days, Richard was blessed with a pain free recovery.