Checking In and Checking Out

This past Monday morning, we took Joel and Lily out of school to renew their Mexican passports. These had needed done for some time – they expired during the Covid pandemic! – and our first attempt a week prior was stymied by paperwork minutiae. With additional and corrected documents in hand, Amy and I were ready for another attempt – and though I was feeling oddly under the weather, I planned to slog through it.

Partway into the process, we encountered an typo Amy’s Mexican equivalent to a Social Security card. Officials said it was possible to fix that and finish the passports in one day, so we drove to two different civil registry locations… finally learning that a foreigner’s paperwork would actually be updated at the national immigration registry. However, while passport details slowly unraveled during these stops, my personal discomfort kept increasing. Slight chills and dizziness interacted strangely with intense stomach pain, and – despite my desire to make the most of having taken the kids out of school – it became apparent that I could not keep pushing forward. We set aside our legal objectives and returned home.

Nothing improved, and before long it was clear I needed medical help. It was a tough call since my symptoms felt so confusing, and – though bad – didn’t seem like enough to justify my strong reaction. Still, with no relief in sight, Amy took me to urgent care. The staff performed a pair of assessments, and fairly quickly I found myself in hospital garb with an IV in my left hand. Medication brought my pain levels down to tolerable levels while the doctors used blood tests, palpation, and x-rays with contrast to assess my status. After several hours, we finally learned what Lily had surmised hours previously: I had appendicitis.

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Shortly before midnight, I took an hour long nap while the hospital’s team performed a complication-free arthroscopic surgery. The next morning, I learned that my appendix had not only been heavily inflamed, but also was leaking. I felt much better post-op, and stayed in the hospital through Wednesday morning while a continuing a course of antibiotics and painkillers. I was released to head home at around noon, and have been in recovery at home ever since.

We are incredibly grateful for God’s kindness in this situation – it was of course far from what we had planned for this past week, yet He has upheld us through it all in His mercy and love. Things could have gone south quickly if the discovery of the problem had been delayed, but as things stand I got excellent care and everything stands to be fine from here on out. I have a follow-up appointment Monday, until which I will work on filing with insurance and avoid unnecessary physical strain. A few dietary restrictions and medicine prescriptions should wrap up at that time, and I’ll be well on my way back to normal… still taking care to not over-exert myself too quickly.

It has been a tiring week, to say the least: what with sleep lost in the hospital, pain-induced exhaustion, post-op recovery tiredness, and the sheer emotional whiplash of adjusting to such a big paradigm shift! Please accept my apologies for the tardiness in communicating what was going on; even today I have had sudden bouts of sleepiness it has been hard to fight off. Thank you for praying with us in this as in all things, and for resting with us as always in God’s sufficiency and faithfulness. I appreciate your continued prayer for the ways this affects our family and ministry, and look forward to updating you on those ministries in the weeks to come.