For those who thought this editor brainless, there is proof otherwise. How
good a brain is still questionable – and what doctors and technicians found
shows little sign of use.
For three weeks, doctors and technicians photographed, x-rayed, echo-grammed,
electro-magneticized and finally drilled through my skull – not just to
find my brain but to find the cause of some funny stuff going on in there.
For those who thought this editor brainless, there is proof otherwise. How
good a brain is still questionable – and what doctors and technicians found
shows little sign of use.
For three weeks, doctors and technicians photographed, x-rayed, echo-grammed,
electro-magneticized and finally drilled through my skull – not just to
find my brain but to find the cause of some funny stuff going on in there.
Turns out they found an abscess fairly deep in the right hand side of the brain
– “About the size of a chicken egg …” Well, I know I have laid
many eggs in my day but never thought I would end up with one in my brain. The
neurologists did assure me such abscesses are rare and that in all their practice
of medicine, they had never seen one this large.
Hey, if you are going to have one …
Someone asked what symptoms gave rise to the thought that something was wrong
in the old coconut. I responded that I became disoriented. That person said,
“How did they know you were any more disoriented than usual?” Good
question. I guess that is one of the reasons doctors do all that training.
Leah and I were on a weeks vacation in our tiny mountain cabin. We both
left with sinus infections but figured the mountain air would help.
One night, we were painting our one room, and I kept telling Leah, “Those
guys are waiting in there for us to finish, so, they can come in and get started.”
The problem was – there was no “in there.” We were in the only
room.
She then asked, “Who is in there?”
I told her, “Either those two guys from DeRidder we ate with last night
or those two guys in the movie we watched.”
Later, I sort of folded down to the floor. Leah looked at me, knowing men are
kings of over dramatizing an illness, and said, “What are you doing down
there?”
I told her, “I just needed to lie down.”
She looked at me through her stopped-up head and fevered eyes and said: Its
a sinus infection. Get up and get over it.”
I got up and resumed painting.
She took me to the mountain village doctor the next morning. The doctor said
she thought the disorientation was caused by my fever. But there was the possibility
that a sinus infection could “get into your brain and do some nasty stuff,”
she added.
She told me if I was not 50 percent better in two days to come back. I did
know how to judge 50 percent better. What if I were 47 percent better and thought
I was 50 percent better? Or maybe 53 percent?
The next day, we left on the 20-hour drive home. The day after arriving home,
I was the supply preacher at Calvary Baptist Church here in Alexandria where
I laid two ostrich eggs. The next Thursday, I went to the doctor, explaining
to him I felt only 47.5 percent better. He promptly placed me in the medical
lock-up known as hospital.
I do not want to make light of all that has happened. God did a wonderful work
of getting me to the right place with the right doctors. But there is humor
in most situations, and I love to look for it; it keeps our minds from focusing
on the total negative. Next week, I will search for a little more humor and,
then, turn the page from this experience.
Please know that your calls, cards, visits, flowers and fruit baskets are great
encouragements. Your prayers have meant more than I could have imagined or that
I can express. Our hearts are filled with thanksgiving and praise for our God
who cares for his children and whose grace is sufficient.