Home sweet home!!
It was great to be back home after spending 5 weeks at the hospital. I was still recovering from the side-effects of the strong medication given to me at the hospital. I started losing lots of hair at the hospital and within 2 weeks of coming home, I only had a few patches of hair and had to shave my head completely.
I also developed steroid acne all over my face / upper body and rashes from Penicillin allergy added to my misery. In spite of all this, we felt the peace of God in our hearts and were happy in the Lord. It was a new beginning and we praised God for transforming our lives.
The Lord’s my Shepherd I’ll not want;
He makes me down to lie
In pastures green; He leadeth me
The quiet waters by.
Flare-up
By mid-May, I recovered well and went back to work. However, when my doctor tapered the steroid dosage, I started bleeding again. A Colonoscopy revealed a severe flare-up and I was back on a high dosage of steroids. My doctor told me to take complete bed rest and put me on a liquid diet. Even that didn’t help and my condition became unbearable when I had 25+ bathroom trips every day. The pain was unbearable, I hardly slept during the nights due to frequent bathroom trips and became very weak. Amidst all this pain and suffering, there was peace in our hearts as we believed that the Lord would definitely bring me out of this situation.
2nd Hospitalization
My doctor tried his best to avoid hospitalization to prevent me from taking more IV steroids. But when I started vomiting and lost 30 pounds (12 kgs) in a few weeks, he didn’t have any other choice other than hospitalizing me and put me on TPN again. I was put on bowel rest for around 40 days and was sent home on TPN (nothing else to eat or drink).
My wife was trained by the home care nurse to change the TPN bag every day and administer IV steroids thru the PICC line. My wife would sit near me and read all healing related passages from the Bible. We would claim each promise and pray for my healing. Fasting prayers were organized in our church and people were praying round the clock. Our prayers were answered and by God’s grace, the colonoscopy results showed a remarkable improvement.
Saved from the jaws of death
After seeing good progress in the colonoscopy results, I started going out with the TPN bag with my doctor’s consent. The Christmas season had started and we were practicing for Christmas Carols. On 3rd Dec 2006, I suddenly started running a high temperature. Within 30 minutes, the fever went up to 103F and my home care nurse advised me to go to the hospital. It was a long drive and I reached the hospital around 3 pm.
I was surprised to hear when the doctor told me that my heart rate was very high (more than 160) and I was admitted to Trauma Care. I still didn’t feel anything serious and just thought it was a precautionary measure. The doctors put an IV on my left arm and connected me to a heart monitor. I felt dizzy and had to lie down on my bed.
Around 3.30 pm, my fever went up again and I started having chills (shivering). The heart monitor started beeping rapidly and the nurses who were monitoring me from the nursing station came running as my heart rate had reached 193. My body was shaking uncontrollably and 3 nurses (My wife also joined) had to literally pin me down to the hospital bed to avoid damages to the IV and PICC line that I had on both hands. One nurse was holding my right arm near the PICC line, one was holding my legs and the other had a hard time holding my hips as it was hitting the hospital bed so hard (It was so painful that I felt my hip bone was going to break).
My wife was holding my left wrist so that the IV doesn’t damage the veins when shaking. I could feel my heart beating very fast as if I was running on a treadmill. I started having chest pain and told my wife to pray for me. She put a cross on my chest and said “The blood of Jesus Christ brings victory” with tears rolling from her eyes. That was the last scene I remembered as the doctor administered some IV medication. Thank God the IV was already in place as it wouldn’t have been possible to put a new IV when my body was shaking severely.
I woke up half an hour later around 4 pm and the doctor told me that I had acute sepsis and my life was saved as I was in the hospital at the right time. He explained to me that the PICC line got infected, the infection had mixed in the bloodstream and I was a few minutes away from a cardiac arrest. My home care nurse had told me to go to the hospital only at 4 pm and it was purely God’s mercy that I came to the hospital much earlier. I later learned that the death rate due to Sepsis is very high.
Yea, though I walk in death’s dark vale,
Yet will I fear no ill;
For Thou art with me, and Thy rod
And staff me comfort still.
After this experience, I realized that the Lord gave me a new life with a purpose. Having realized that my disease could lead to life-threatening complications, I started taking my disease a lot more seriously. At the same time, my trust in the Lord increased multiple folds and the feeling that He watches over me lasts until this day.
My Birthday
I was shifted to the ICU at another hospital and a Central line was put in my neck to monitor the fluid levels in my body and by God’s mercy, all my vital parameters soon became normal. The next day I was shifted from the ICU to a semi-private room just in time to celebrate my birthday. It was my first birthday after our wedding and we cut the cake at the hospital. It was a nice way to end a scary episode!! Praise God!!
Goodness and mercy all my life
Shall surely follow me,
And in God’s house forevermore
My dwelling-place shall be
One of the visiting doctors at the hospital was mad at me for not opting for surgery and told me that I’m killing myself by taking a high dosage of steroids and warned that my bones will start breaking soon. When I came home and opened the Bible, the Lord’s message for me was stronger than what I had gone through at the hospital. I was stunned when I read this verse:
“He protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken”
That’s when I decided to write this blog and have been writing down every verse that comforted me since then. By God’s grace, I was able to attend Christmas Carols a few days later. This was our Church group photo taken after the Carols:
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