By the numbers

It's been 43 days since I posted.  It has been 36 days since life changed in a slightly big way. It all began with a toe.  It is still not over.  So what happened?  Well, it began with my husband and a visit to the podiatrist and ended with 1 surgery, 4 procedures, 4 pins, 2 stents, 1 balloon, 1 PICC line after 12 days in the hospital.  Hospital time is not like real time, it passes much more slowly but I seemed to age much more quickly.  It was like we were always hurrying to wait.
Leaving a hospital is an exercise in extreme patience.  But we left and brought home about half a ream of paper worth of instructions and drug interaction information and prescriptions and wound care and people to call and doctor appointments to make.  It took me days to read it all; thankfully I didn't make any mistakes that caused a problem.  If you read that previous sentence carefully it tells you I made mistakes.  However, the toe is still attached, and all his other numbers are good, so I cut myself some slack.
Now he is healing.  Lucky man gets to spend 2 hours a day in a hyperbaric chamber breathing pure oxygen. His comment after the first treatment, "It's not the spa treatment I was led to believe it would be."  I guess maybe not so lucky. He's done 8 so far, 12 more to go (as of now).  I do think the wrinkles on his face are less pronounced since he's been going in there.  Oh wait, it's for his toe!  Doctor says that's healing quite well.  So the wrinkles are a bonus.   He also has an IV antibiotic almost all day, every day. And I get to change the dressing on his toe every other day.
It has not been easy but as the course of events unfolded in the hospital we realized how God was watching out for John and making sure he had excellent doctors.  When you go from no M.D. to 6 it can be overwhelming yet each one was exactly what he needed.
We are learning patience, being reminded constantly about the power of prayer, and grateful for that big toe's problems.  If not for that toe...well, let's not go there.
Life is different now.  Some things will go back to what they were once John's toe is healed.  He'll go back to work, I'll move back to my side of our bed.  Other things will not, like the foods we eat and the lack of snoring; I really, really hope the snoring stays away.
The other day was one month from the start of this journey.  It has been difficult, frightening, and stressful.  It has been full of grace, joy, and blessings.  It has been life!  And praise God, it's not over.