My Dad and the Miracle of Modern Medicine

We are dealing with sad news on the home front. This weekend, my dad had some complications with his pace maker that was put in a month ago. Long story short, he will be in the hospital for at least 4 weeks, battling a staph infection all the while being hooked up to a pace maker on the outside of his body. He has undergone a surgery, had IV antibiotics in his system since Saturday morning and so far everything is going as well as to be expected. He is not out of the woods entirely because this is a very resistant strain of bacteria and only one type of antibiotics works to combat it. Thus, the four week stay before another pace maker can be put in place. He has been given a resident who will be his constant companion to monitor his heart and the infection. Thankfully, my dad (and Mom) is a rock and my sister lives in the state and can be of some close-by support. The rest of us, who are out of state can just call and pray. What a mess!

However, whenever I have been witness to or part of a medical situation, I am blown away by the miracle of modern medicine. We are so blessed to live in a time when these problems can be fixed. How many times have one of my kids had a fever and I have thought about how their sickness is going to affect the rest of my week where when my great-grandparent's children had fevers, they were wondering if their child would live? Based on my dad's heart history, he shouldn't be alive yesterday much less today. He has had one life prolonging procedure after another. It really is amazing. Hopefully, in a month when this is all said and done, we can look back on this time and see what we have learned from it. Already, I am just grateful for the man my dad is, the woman my mother is, the doctors and nurses who are caring for him and the miracle of modern medicine.