Heart

I doubt I will ever think of my heart in the same way again since last Tuesday!

I now am the proud, happy owner of a mechanical device in my body called a defibrillator, and the little piece of equipment (who I've named Thumper) is here to stand guard over my heart and it's quirky, speeding ventricular tachycardia. Thumper is a pocket watch sized computerized, peace of mind packed bit of goodness and I am yet again blessed beyond measure. 

The implantation of Thumper went exactly as expected.  There were no surprises, and no abnormalities, and I was in the hospital exactly as long as they said I would be.  I will have a scar on my chest that looks to be about 2 1/2 -3 inches long, and it doesn't bother me in the least.  In fact, seeing that scar, and knowing what lies just beneath it gives me comfort that I can't begin to explain.  

As I was getting ready to leave University hospital Wednesday afternoon, I sat downstairs on a couch while dad went to get the car from the valet, and mom went to fill my prescriptions at the hospital pharmacy.  A lady came walking around with a coffee cart, offering hot coffee to those who were waiting for family members, or people who were just kind of wandering around watching it snow outside.  As she got closer to me I noticed a young man heading towards her to get a cup of java! He was pulling around a IV pole with 5 or 6 different bags of "stuff" being intravenously pumped into his body.  He was so glad to get that coffee that I jokingly said "Hey.. you should see if they can just pour coffee in one of those bags!"  Thankfully the young man saw the humor in my comment and he laughed and struck up a conversation.  

I never did learn his name, and he didn't learn mine.. but our conversation was as comfortable as if we'd been friends for our entire lives.  I learned that he was on a waiting list to get on the waiting list for a lung transplant.  Can you imagine?? A list to get on a list??  I told him "Dude, that sucks. I'm so sorry" and he said "Oh don't be... I'm at peace with whatever happens"  and looking at him, I knew that it was true.  He talked about how blessed he was to have his family's support, something that I could relate to without question.  He asked me about me, and what I was there for.. and we talked about Sarcoidosis a little bit, and we also learned that we were both at University hospital for procedures, but that our main hospital was National Jewish.  And then he said.. "Hey! We have something else in common.. our disease names rhyme!"  And we laughed so hard at that... he has cystic fibrosis.. I have sarcoidosis.. and I doubt any of you are laughing right now, but to us it was so goofy and so funny and when dad got there with the car at the same time mom got there with the prescriptions, I felt that I had been given twenty minutes of time with an angel from heaven. 

God did that. He gave me Thumper.. to take care of my heart physically, and he gave me time with that angel to take care of my heart spiritually.  He gave me heart, for my heart... just when he knew I would need it to get by.  I will never forget that angel, and that conversation.. I don't know that I will ever see him again, but he was a gift that I am so grateful to have unwrapped.  Do you get sick and tired of hearing about how blessed I am?  Because I never get sick of telling you all.. I am BLESSED so hugely that there just aren't enough words in all of the thesauruses and dictionaries in the world to make sense of it. 

I am one loved girl!