Tiber River Cafe--A Prayer of Thanksgiving to St. John Paul II

Hello, and welcome to the Tiber River Café.  My name is Dean Humphreys.  The following account (part one of two) happened to Lisa and I about a week ago.  It is all true, nothing is exaggerated, these are the events as they happened.  The power of intercessory prayer, thank you St. John Paul II. 

 

"Well, the chest x-ray and EKG both look normal . . . but . . .  the cat scan of your brain shows a 1 cm mass in the left temporal area .  . .” 

I was getting dressed for work on Thursday morning and put on the new shirt I received as a Father’s Day present just a few days before.  I remember thinking how wonderful it is to have my family.  Our son, Peter, had just finished his junior year of high school, and before we know it he will be off to college and our lives will change, but all moving in the right direction.  For over the past 20 years we have been a happy and healthy family.  No real issues or concerns, we have always been blessed.  I have a good job and we have no financial concerns, no health concerns other than an occasional case of strep throat.  Things are going pretty well for our little family.  So I kissed my wife, Lisa, on the forehead as I have every morning as she slept and I headed off to work.  About an hour or so later my wife called me on my cell phone.  She was very calm but her words were slurring a little bit.  She told me that she fell in the kitchen, she thinks she passed out but was able to grab the phone before she stumbled to the floor so I was pretty sure she did not lose consciousness, but now she cannot stand up.  I have worked as a registered nurse/nurse practitioner for many years in the emergency department, ICU, and cardiology, and my mind started racing as to what is happening and I tried desperately to stay calm. 

We were in the ER at St. Joseph’s Hospital just about a week ago, on Lisa’s 47^th birthday, after Lisa had a blurriness in the bottom part of her left eye.  She was evaluated by the ER physician, but no testing was done as all her symptoms resolved by the time we had arrived in the ER.  Lisa was diagnosed with an ocular migraine and discharged about an hour later.  We followed up with an ophthalmologist later that afternoon and she received a clean bill of health.  And now she told me she was able to crawl, but that she couldn’t stand up.  I was praying to Jesus to be with us at this time.  I realized the diagnosis of an ocular migraine may not have been correct.  Our 17 year old son was upstairs in his bedroom still asleep.  He’s a volunteer firefighter, but calling to him for help was not working.  Peter is a very sound sleeper, he sleeps with his door closed and he likes to sleep with a fan blowing, so his help was not an option.  Lisa calmly said she needed to call 911. 

Over the years Lisa has had episodes of dizziness which would pass within a few minutes, which were likely due to her lack of proper hydration.  But this episode wasn’t passing.  I agreed and told her to hang up the phone with me and then call 911.  It was still early in the morning and I knew our neighbors likely hadn’t left for work yet, so I immediately called our neighbor, Laura, and calmly told her that there was a situation in my home and that I needed her help, that Lisa had fallen and she couldn’t stand up.  Instantly Laura said she was going there and hung up the phone.  Lisa crawled to the front door and unlocked it.  Laura also called her brother-in-law, Steve, who also lives a few houses away to help.  He is the fire chief at our local volunteer fire station.  As this was going on I tried desperately to stay calm in my office.  I prayed to Mary to be with her children, to keep up safe.  I was 20-30 minutes away from my wife who needed my now. 

I walked to the reception desk and said that I had an emergency family situation with my wife and that I needed to leave now.  My day had just begun, I had already seen my first patient, and I had a full patient load scheduled for the rest of the day.  Our receptionist for the morning, Jerry, told me to go, that he would make all the necessary phone calls to my supervisors and he would start calling patients to reschedule their appointments.  I then walked back to my office, trying to stay calm and rational.  I told the other nurse practitioner, Andy, what was going on and that I needed to leave.  My voice started to crack at this point and I started to cry.  My cell phone rang and it was Laura.  She told me that Lisa was about the same, that Steve was there and that the paramedics were getting the stretcher out of the ambulance.  She told me she would call me right back when she got more information and which hospital they would be going to. 

It was so scary, there was an ambulance at my home getting ready to take my wife to the hospital.  I remember looking at my hands and realizing they were shaking and I couldn’t control the tremble, and then I noticed my new shirt that I was wearing, the shirt Lisa had given to me just a few days before.  I started turning off my computer and packed my backpack realizing that I may not be back to my office for a while.  Laura called back, told me that Lisa was on the stretcher, and that she was being taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital and that I should meet them there.  Andy offered to drive me there as I was having a difficult time controlling my crying, but I felt I was able to drive safely but appreciated the offer.  I left through a side door of the hospital to avoid contact with others and headed to the parking garage.  I kept reminding myself to stay calm, to concentrate on driving to the hospital, to drive under the speed limit. 

And I kept praying to God to help us, I prayed over and over again the Divine Mercy prayer as I drove to the ER.  As I was driving the 5 minutes to St. Joseph’s Hospital my cell phone rang again.  It was Laura who told me that the ambulance was about to the leave the house, that Lisa was talking, that her vital signs were stable, and they were not going to be going lights and sirens which she said was a good sign.  My voice started to waver as Steve got on the phone and told me that her blood pressure was normal, her heart rate and rhythm were also normal, and her blood glucose was normal which he said were all good signs.  I was barely able to say thank you and I hung up the phone.  I started to cry as I continued to drive to the ER because this was not good news, I wanted Lisa’s blood pressure to be low, I wanted Lisa’s heart rate to be too fast or too slow, I wanted so desperately that Lisa’s blood glucose to be low because these were all fixable things.  I knew that she really hadn’t eaten too much in the past 2 days, simply no appetite so it would make sense that these numbers would not be normal and that would explain what was going on.  It would be corrected in the ER and we would be home by lunch, perhaps dinner at the latest.  When a person has these symptoms it can usually be attributed to either the heart or the brain. 

As I kept driving through rush hour traffic the heart aspect was becoming less of a possible cause and the brain was becoming the possible culprit.  I again thought of the ocular migraine.  She was moving all her extremities, but she had been slurring her words, my mind kept racing as I pulled into the ER parking lot.  I took a deep breath, looked at the ambulances that were present and our local ambulance service was not there, and so I headed into the ER.  I went through security and was told that the ambulance was still in route.  Laura called a few minutes later saying that the ambulance had just left our house as Lisa wanted to say goodbye to our son Peter.  I felt so bad for Peter, to come downstairs and to see his mother on a stretcher, IV line, heart monitor and getting loaded into an ambulance must have been very scary for him.  As I was talking with Laura I could barely speak more than 2 words without my voice completely wavering because I knew that our world was coming apart.  I kept praying, asking over and over for God’s mercy. 

Several minutes later the nurse came to the waiting room and said that the ambulance had just pulled in and he escorted me to that area.  My heart dropped as I saw my wife of over 20 years, the love of my life, my best friend lying on a stretcher.  I tried to give a smile and an encouraging look as I walked towards her, knowing that she was looking for my reactions as to what was happening.  I knew she would be looking to me for reassurance and that she was going to be okay and that all this would pass.  I needed to maintain my composure even though inside I was falling apart.  The paramedics had written down her vital signs on the pillow case, all normal numbers.  The EKG monitor showed a normal rate and rhythm.  Lisa was moving her hands and feet, and talking normally again.  Perhaps it was a momentary event and we would be going home later that day after all.   Lisa was taken to a large room divided by curtains into 4 smaller patient areas.  I watched as she scooted herself from the ambulance stretcher to the ER stretcher, her coordination was completely intact, talking normally and showing a little nervous humor with the staff.  The room was a whirlwind of activity for the next several minutes as several nurses assumed care of Lisa, asking a million questions, attaching her to the monitors and obtaining a fresh set of vital signs and physical examination.  They did not know that I was a registered nurse, a cardiology nurse practitioner, with 20 years’ experience, that I had worked in this ER many years ago, and that I understood in minute detail what was going on.  I watched intently the neuro exam, all normal.  I scanned the monitors, all normal. 

Finally the room started to clear and I was finally able to move closer to my wife and hold her hands.  She was shaking and she was scared, very scared.  Lisa looked right into my eyes and asked very softly if she was going to be okay.  I looked into her hazel eyes and said yes, that I wasn’t going to let anything hurt her, and that she was going to be okay.  I told her over and over again that I loved her and that she is my best friend.  I was succeeding in putting on a supportive role, maintaining calm, maintaining a mostly normal voice simply because I was keeping the conversation to a minimum as my voice would start to quiver after about 3 or 4 words.  I was maintaining a sense of outward calm by redirecting my mind to happier thoughts, of watching our TV show at 7:00, of our new deck project that was going to be starting this weekend, and walking together at the lake. 

For the past year or so Lisa and I would put aside whatever we were doing at 7 o’clock and snuggle on the couch and watch a TV show for an hour, usually Law and Order, or some funny sitcom.  It is a way to just be together, to put aside everything else, to keep our marriage healthy.  We look forward to our 7:00 time together, the routine is very comforting.  How I desperately wanted us to be at our home, on the couch, watching our show.  I wanted all this to go away.  I turned my thoughts to our walk at the lake.  I tried to imagine the water, the birds singing, and I wanted to hear Lisa’s laughter and know that everything would be okay. 

Within about 2 minutes of Lisa’s arrival the ER doctor came into the room.  A young man, athletic looking; he introduced himself by his first name, which I thought was both professional and calming under the circumstances.  The doctor also asked a multitude of detailed questions and performed a neuro exam.  We reviewed Lisa’s past medical and surgical histories, which was really none existent as she was extremely healthy, the ocular migraine about a week ago, and a scare with melanoma about 10 years ago.  It was early stage and required minor excision with no further treatments or therapies.  Lisa continues to follow with her dermatologist every 6 months with no concerns since.  But I could see in the young doctor’s eyes a hint of concern when we mentioned the melanoma—then my panic alarms started going off—melanoma can metastasize to the brain.  The doctor reviewed the testing that he was ordering: EKG, blood tests, chest x-ray, and CT of Lisa’s head.  Within a minute or so her blood was taken and the EKG was completed, and the tech from radiology was outside the curtain to take Lisa down the hallway.  She returned about 20 minutes later and we simply held hands.