healing

let me start by saying "thank you" to everyone who took the time to ift me up over the course of the past couple of weeks. it has been a humbling process for me but one that i think i really needed to go through. for years i have been the guy who walks into the pre-op area and encourages the person wearing the fashionable surgery attire to "relax." i don't know how many times i have told someone not to "sweat it" because "doctors do this stuff all the time!" it seems so different when you are the person laying on the table wondering what the news will be when/if you wake up. i needed to be on that side of the process.....

the operation went well. the dr was very relieved to only find infection in my left maxiallry sinus. today at my post-op visit he mentioned 3 different times how glad he was that he didn't have to deliver bad news. i think he was leaning toward a more negative result. i'm glad he was wrong.

the recovery period has been smooth. honestly the pain has been minimal....i would like to think i just have a ridiculously high level of pain tolerance but i'm pretty sure that isn't the case.

all in all this journey has been beneficial for me for a couple of different reasons:

1. as a pastor i need to remember the emotions the patient is dealing with....they are very real

2. as a person i need to remember that there is nothing stopping me from a different test result down the road. each day matters and is truly a gift. the great theologian tim mcgraw got it right in his song "live like you were dying."

everything in life has some takeaways.....don't miss them