Precious Waiting

As I was sitting around the hospital yesterday while Jake was getting his new kidney, I had a lot of time to think and walk around and talk to people I have never met before. I really enjoy meeting new people, they are so much better that the old ones. (joke) I also learned a lot about the procedure for transplants and the time lines for when things happen. What I learned was that nothing happens fast until you go to your truck that is parked on the other side of the world, then things move quickly, until you get back to the room and they slow down again. Yep, we were told that we had an hour or so before they would come and get Jake, so I took that as I had plenty of time to go to my truck and get a few things for when the surgery began. As soon as I got there, about 15 minutes after I was told we had at least an hour, I was called to let me know that they were taking Jake and waiting on me to pray with the family. Good thing that I have superpowers and can navigate hospitals in record time.
Once they took him to the surgery floor, we were sitting around for about an hour or so and I was told that Jake would be another half hour waiting for the surgery to actually start. I had already been there for several hours, and was getting hungry and irritated with all the delays. I don’t like hospitals to begin with. They are always full of sick people. But having to wait and wait was like being at the DMV. I maintained my composure and did not let anyone know that I was irritated, after all, this was a moment that many have been praying about for a couple of years.
I went to get a late lunch and got the chicken fingers plate. I should have gotten the Philly cheese steak that everyone else was getting. Chickens do not have fingers. If they did you probably wouldn’t eat them. I have been told that most chickens have arsenic in them, and I think that these had a bit too much. But I was hungry and ate them anyway, but made sure that I complained about them to anyone who would listen.
After I ate the arsenic laced chicken fingers, I went back to the surgery waiting room. They Braves were playing and the game was on the flat screen, but it was connected directly to a dish and a storm started and caused the game to go off and all I could see was the “lost signal” message. I told another fellow who was in the room with me that it should be illegal to make someone wait as long as we had been waiting AND to allow the Braves game to be interrupted. So we waited and waited and around 7pm I got hungry again. The surgery was going to be a couple more hours, at least, so I decided to go get something to eat. I managed to stay away from the arsenic laced chicken fingers and opted for the fresh out of the oven, all meat pizza. It was good. But what happened on the way down made me decide that I would not complain again while I was waiting on Jake’s surgery to be completed.
As I got on the elevator that took forever to get to my floor, I was standing next to a man who wanted to share my ride down. I was telling him how long I had been there and how irritated I was at how they made you wait for everything, including the elevator. He just smiled and agreed. I asked him why he was in the children’s hospital and he told me that his son, who had overcome cancer, was there being treated for radiation sickness. He said that he had been there for 7 weeks now and although he was confident that his son’s cancer was gone, they weren’t sure if he was going to pull through the damage that the radiation did. I asked him if I could pray for his son, whose name is Tom. He said that he was only 14. So we prayed. I have prayed for him often since then. I keep thinking about how long this guy has been at the hospital and how I bet that he is thankful for every single delay and every single event as long as it means Tom is still alive.
I finished waiting on Jake to come out of surgery. I sat around and talked with a few more people and told them about Tom. It took another couple of hours before Jake was out and even another couple of hours before the family could get back to see him. Jake is doing fine and has still got a long ways to go in his recovery.
I did not complain anymore last night about how long I had been there, instead I tried to thank God for allowing me to wait around long enough to meet Tom’s dad and learn how precious waiting can be.