Thinking Out Loud, Volume CDLXIX

The surgeon used his scalpel to cut through the skin, right down the middle of my five week old granddaughter's chest. He then opened her rib cage in order to gain access to her heart. When the heart beats, it pumps blood through a canal to the lungs where it receives oxygen. From there, the blood flows back to the heart where it is pumped through another canal, right beside the first one, throughout the body. The oxygen is then depleted, and the blood returns to the heart to repeat the same process over and over again. My little granddaughter was born with only one of those canals, which caused the blood that had just gone through the lungs to mix with the blood on the way to the lungs. As a result, the blood flowing through her body had only half the oxygen it needed, and that caused her to go into heart failure. During that seven hour procedure, Dr. Mello took some of Lennon's own tissue and created a partition down the middle of that one canal, so the blood would flow properly to the lungs & then to her body. After that he closed the rib cage, and stapled her skin back together. He then relied on nature to do its part. All he had to do was sew the skin back in place, because each one of us was created with a self-healing mechanism, which caused the skin to grow back together. In just a few weeks, he was able to remove the staples, and the skin stayed in place. At that time, she was five weeks old, but today she is five YEARS old, in good health, with only a barely noticeable scar on her chest. When her dad, my son, was just a little younger than she is now, I was taking him for a ride on a motorcycle, and he fell off, breaking his arm. All the doctor had to do for him was set the bone back in place, put a cast on his arm to hold it in the correct position, and let the bone heal itself. Today he is an adult with no ill effects from his broken arm. I'm able to tell you those two stories with the happy endings because of that self-healing mechanism God placed in our bodies when He created us. The stories I told you had to do with our physical bodies, but the self-healing system also works on our mental health as well. Like many of you, I know the pain of losing a loved one, because I've had to deal with losing both of my parents. That was hard enough to handle, but I just wasn't quite prepared for the grief of losing my younger brother in 2010. Some of you know what it's like to lose a spouse, and too many of you have experienced the loss of your own child. Many of you can also testify about the sense of despair and worthlessness that's felt when a person goes through a divorce. It's at such times when an individual feels like all hope is lost, and happiness will never return. I have to tell you, sitting in that waiting room for seven long hours while Lennon was in surgery, praying and wondering how a tiny infant could survive such an ordeal, stretched us to our limits. Yes, if you look closely, you will see a scar, but don't let that fool you....she is in good health. Whatever you're facing may leave a small scar, but don't forget, we have a built-in system that heals our hurts, both physical and emotional. Yes, I still miss my parents and my brother, but the real pain I sensed at that time has healed, and I'm now able to live a happy life. Here's the best part: Just knowing that we'll get better can speed up the healing process. So many times I've stood at the mirror and said, "This, too, shall pass." When I remind myself of that fact, I get well faster. Preston