Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”

• Mark 5:28

Yesterday, we left as the sun was rising.  My wife had “revision” surgery scheduled.  It was to be a cleaning of her graft, removing the clots that blocked blood flow, so that they could use IV needles to do the dialysis and take the catheters out of her chest.

That was supposed to happen one year ago today when she got her fistula that later failed.

She was prepped and had seen all the doctors and signed all the papers by early morning.  Then we waited … and waited … and waited.

Finally, a nurse came in about lunchtime and handed me three apology cards.  One was a gift card for money off a fountain drink in their cafeteria, another for money off a meal in the cafeteria, (the meal ended up costing 22 cents.) and the third a gift card for the local grocery store.

It wasn’t that the hospital was admitting a mistake.  The surgery case before my wife’s had run into complications.  A one-hour procedure became a three-hour procedure and then the surgical staff chose to have lunch before doing my wife’s surgery, three hours late.

So, there is an unknown person that needs a lot of prayers right now that had complications during what should have been a simple surgery.

But my wife came through with no problem until we got home.  She said they were rushing to get her out since they were running so late, and the day shift people had already left.  My wife had worked surgery most of her working life and she sensed the shift in the normal procedure.  These people were on call and being paid overtime pay.  If my wife were not there, they would be home, watching television.  After getting home, her bandage was covered in blood when she took her clothes off.  I redressed the wound, but we could not figure out where the blood was coming from.  The wound was no longer bleeding.

By this time, the sun had already gone down in the west.  My wife had no interest in going back to the hospital.  A very long day…

It was as if she reached out for Jesus’ garment and trusted Him to keep her safe through the night.  We may not know for some time if the “revision” did any good.

That is in God’s hands.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.