The Waiting Game

So, I've been missing from the web for a bit while we play the waiting game. My mother-in-law was rushed to urgent care awhile back suffering from severe dehydration. Two days later she was in the ER with constant vomiting and severe abdominal pain. It turns out she had a blockage in her small intestine which was the cause of the dehydration. The next day she underwent surgery to clear the blockage and after surgery she was unable to breathe on her own. She has been on a ventilator ever since. She is 83 years old.


I sit here now in the waiting room of the CCCU waiting til after shift change so we can see her again. We wait to hear how her pneumonia is doing. We wait to hear if her blood pressure is regulated. We wait to see if today will be the day she can breathe on her own again. We wait to hear if her white blood count is down, if her blood gases are good, if her fever is under control. Waiting is the toughest part of life. As we wait, we sit with another family who wait for their wife, mother, sister, daughter to heal from an aneurysm, she was rushed into the hospital the same day as my mother-in-law. We all sit and wait. We talk a little, pray a little, try to offer comfort to one another, encouragement to one another. We laugh together, try not to cry in front of each other, sharing our lives in this strange way. Strangers sharing this experience of waiting. We ache with each other, for each other, pray with each other, for each other. We sit in the room together, yet separate, together, yet alone. And we wait. And hope.


Blessings,
Colleen