VIRAL

After the Code Blue was called, hospital staff paddled Joe’s heart back into rhythm. I received a phone call from one of his doctors: “Your husband coded. You need to come to the hospital.” My husband Joe and I were diagnosed with H1N1 flu and pneumonia and admitted to the hospital in 2014. He suffered a cascade of catastrophic consequences including peritonitis, diverticulitis, sepsis, burst colon, Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). He was in the ICU for 33 days, comatose. He was placed on a ventilator, because his lungs shut down due to ARDS . He was administered a paralytic so that his lungs would allow the ventilator to breathe for him. (We humans are involuntary breathers, unlike cetaceans - whales, dolphins and porpoises- who must choose to breathe). Due to lack of oxygen, persistent high fever and H1N1 that mutated to H2N2, Joe suffered organ failure, total body fluid overload and cardiac arrest. His abdomen was sliced open from sternum to groin during exploratory surgery; a portion of his burst colon was removed. The poisonous excrement from the colon permeated his abdomen and traveled to his lungs. He was septic, unable to breathe, and viral from H1N1 flu. Three people died from just H1N1 in that hospital in the month of February. With all that we endured, it might be understandable if I became jaded, angry, resentful or bitter, but I didn’t (for very long). I am a faithful person, but not one whose beliefs polarize, exclude or marginalize people, rather, I am one who believes that love, prayer, forgiveness and hope are the answers to every question, solutions to every problem and healing salve for every hurt. Throughout this ordeal, I asked family, friends and others through social media, email and crowdfunding to pray for Joe. I knelt in prayer daily and asked God what His will was for me--what did He want me to do? How did He want me to handle this? What did He want me to say? I asked that He would be on my heart, in my eyes, in my words when I spoke, and when I wrote.