A PIECE OF MY HEART....slaughter house

A huge THANK YOU to all of you who have prayed for me and for my recent surgery!

The cards, the emails, the phone calls, but most importantly the prayers have not gone unnoticed and my family and I appreciate all of it so much! I know you are all wondering how things are going, so I have decided to use today's blog post to update you.

First of all, I need to clarify something to some of my "home folk" that may be reading this. "I did NOT have back surgery!" I do not know how this rumor got started but I wanted to clarify that my surgery was NOT back surgery. I have experienced awful back pain for the past year and half, so some may have assumed it was back surgery. But it wasn't.

Several months ago, due to my back pain, I found myself at the doctors explaining some other issues that I was experiencing. An ultrasound and a biopsy showed that I had some sort of a mass. Because of some other irregularities, my dr. wanted to rule out uterine cancer.

We tried one treatment for a few months, but a second ultrasound revealed that the mass had grown now 3x in size. The only choice was to remove the mass.

Because of some other irregularities that my dr. was concerned with, she not only wanted to remove the tumor but she wanted to do a scope and look at what else may be going on.

Friday morning I arrived at the surgery center at 6 am. The waiting room began to fill up quickly with patients and their "designated driver".

At 7 am, they called my name. My husband (who was my designated driver) did not like it because he had to stay in the waiting room. So we kissed and departed from the waiting area.

After the nurse took all my precious belongings, bagged them up and gave me this lovely gown to wear, she escorted me to the "holding" room where bed after bed was lined up. Several of them already filled with warm bodies.

The nurse located my bed. "Stall #4"

I refer to my holding area as a "stall" because literally it reminded me of a business back in Wisconsin where I grew up.

Packerland Packing

Packerland Packing was a meat slaughter house. Where the cows would be delivered and they were lined up and escorted in only to be slaughtered.

The only thing dividing me from the patient in stall #3 or stall # 5 was a thin curtain. There was barely enough room for the nurse to stand and put my IV in my arm.

There is nothing private about this holding area. Before long, I knew that behind curtain #3 - the patient was having difficulty with a prior surgery and they were going to have to go back in and drain it.

ewww... TMI!

Behind curtain #5, I found out that this patient had heart problems, was allergic to most medicines and at the time of asking ...she had a migraine headache.

Before long, my doctor came in and spoke with me a few moments and before I knew it, I heard the cattle call for my stall #.

" O.R is ready for #4"

ohh...stall # 4 - that's me! Yep, sure enough here comes the nurse with my little cute hat I get to wear before the slaughtering occurs.

I wonder what really happens once you get beyond the slaughtering doors?

Because a person doesn't really remember. Well I don't remember anything besides being asked to move onto the bed. After that - everything is a blank. Its all gone from my memory.

• I don't know what the room looked like.
• Who my nurse was.
• Was the attending staff nice?
• Were the nurses skinny, short or have bad breath?
• Were they laughing or telling jokes?

I am so glad that there is a difference between this type of a slaughter house and the one that I mentioned in Wisconsin (Packerland Packing). For me, it was a team of professionals giving all that they had, to give me LIFE, for the heifer back at the packing company - they were there to take life.

Isn't that the awesome thing about God, our heavenly Father...He is the giver of life. Satan, the enemy is the one who comes like a slaughtering - to take our lives.

I am so glad that God created me to be His daughter. And that He has given me life, life more abundantly. That I can live. Not just here on earth, but live with Him forever in a place of splendor.

AREN'T YOU GLAD THAT GOD RESCUES US FROM BEING SLAUGHTERED?

"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." -Jesus Christ (John 10:10)

Even though I am making light of the surgery center, I am very, very grateful to them. They were all very professional and gave me the most wonderful care. The nurse that I had, I believe was an angel from God. She was so soft spoken and kind that I know it helped to ease my nerves. She also shared with me her story of how she had the same exact thing done that I was having done and she came out fine.

The surgery went well. We had some unexpected issues. Instead of one tumor, the doctor removed four. But she is very optimistic that she got all of it and expects a good report from the biopsy. It will be a week or two before we know the final word, but the peace that I have had these past few months can only come from God and there is one thing I am sure of, and that is GOD IS IN CONTROL!

And this has been a piece of my heart today;