Thursday, September 8, 2011

The ordeal

"As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the LORD, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving."
(Colossians 2:6-7)

Three days ago my son was injured while at football practice.  He caught a pass, eluded one defender, then got hit by the safety.  Once hit, his body spun in the air, and he landed on his back.  He wasn't in any pain... UNTIL he tried to get up.  Then he said he felt pain unlike anything he'd ever felt before.  He couldn't sit up.  So he had to be carried off the field by stretcher, and taken via ambulance to Pali Momi Hospital's Emergency Room.  Xrays were inconclusive  Bloodwork was negative.  It took a CT scan to identify a hairline fracture on the outside tip of his L2 vertebrae.

The prognosis is very good.  6-8 weeks to get the bone to start the re-fusing together process.  Then he can get back onto the swing of athletics, as his body allows.  In a few more months, it should be good as new.  In the meantime, the hard part is to deal with the pain.

Ezra was transferred to Kapiolani Hospital where on day two, his job was to just rest.  He followed orders well yesterday!  Today (Day 3) the order is to start getting up and moving - through the pain.  We'll see how it goes.  It's an important next step in his overall healing process.

A few weeks ago, after a sermon on GENEROSITY, I began to keep a "Gratitude Journal."  It's a simple process: every day write down 5 things that I'm thankful for.  There's a lot that I've been thankful for during this ordeal with Ezra... that his injury wasn't much worse (resulting in structural damage of his spine or impacting his central nervous system), for the doctors/nurses/aids who have been lovingly caring for him, the power of pain medication, the friends who have visited, called & posted encouragement online, good brownies, a warm blanket (this hospital room is cold!), WiFi in the hospital, etc.  The list could go on and on.

My prayer (besides Ezra's full & complete healing) is that through this all, Ezra will also come to rely more on God... AND be able to abound in thanksgiving - no matter what!

Thank you for praying for him, too.

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