Laughter - Good Medicine

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11)

Driving home from the hospital one night this week, the Lord clearly spoke these words to me. I knew they were scriptural, but I had no idea where. When I got home, I Googled the words and found the reference. The next day, I shared it with my sister at the hospital and we had an awesome prayer time together, claiming this scripture for Amanda.

The day after that, she sat down with her Bible, opened it up, and began to share with Amanda's boyfriend this very scripture. Then she told how the Lord had given her this word almost a year ago when Amanda had been hit head-on by a truck and had to be removed from the car with the jaws of life. Since then, she's been standing on this scripture for her family. Then she told him how the Lord had spoken the same word to me. I had no knowledge that she and her prayer partner had claimed this word. While we talked, my mother looked up from her book and said, "Isn't that amazing? The Lord gave me that same word today. It was in my devotional guide for this morning."

Could the Lord have spoken any clearer? Then the nurses in the ICU unit told my sister that they are all drawn to my niece. They told her that they're all Christians and have a clear sense that Amanda is going to be there for the long haul, because she's not going to die. God has a clear plan for her future.

I spent the night with my sister at the hospital last night. Very little has changed with Amanda's condition. They are beginning to turn the ventilator down because she's doing so much breathing on her own, and they want to encourage that because it exercises her lungs and makes her body work for itself. She communicated through mouthing the words yesterday that she wanted her mama. The Resident ran to the waiting room and got my sister. "Amanda's asking for you! Come on!"

She also got very agitated yesterday about something and kept trying to tell her father what was on her mind. He couldn't get it. He asked her a limited number of questions to which she shook her head. He got her mother. She couldn't figure it out, either. She told me later,

"All those Lemaze classes and child-rearing courses we've taken, and not a one of them in how to lip-read over a ventilator!"

They finally called the doctor. She asked Amanda if she thought she could write her question. She nodded. They removed the restraints on one arm, gave her a pen and paper, but she wasn't able to form the letters. It was very frustrating to my brother-in-law. She lies there, hour after hour, and when she tried to communicate something specific to him, he couldn't understand her, which broke his heart.

Her fever is up and she has two injury sites that are very red. The plan is to take her back into surgery Monday to remove more dead tissue.

My sister got some tough news yesterday. One of the nurses told her that the doctors expect the nurses to break down what's happening to their loved ones into layman's terms and she didn't think anyone had yet done that for my sister. She said that Amanda will be very, very critical and it will still be life and death for her for another 4 to 6 weeks. We were both shocked. We thought that, once the abdomenal stuff was healed and they started working on pelvic reconstruction that she'd be out of the woods. We were wrong.

On a lighter note, my niece who's in Grad School showed up at the hospital yesterday morning and spent the day. Last night, Don and I took the kids up, just for a few minutes, to see the family. I thought my sister might enjoy a visit from the children and it might get her mind off the situation for a few minutes. We had a grand time. They only stayed about 15 minutes, but my whole family was there. My niece began doing exercises and, before we knew it, other families in the waiting room were jumping up and joining in the agility exercise. We all laughed, loud and hard, and it was just what everyone needed. There are two other families living in this waiting room whose loved ones have been in the Trauma ICU for 2 weeks now. They have precious little fun in their lives, and we all enjoyed laughing.

Nicki has been keeping my children a fair amount for me but they've given her a bit of a hard time. Today, we were all in the kitchen and I was going over the schedule for the week. I reminded her of the day she said she could babysit and checked to make sure it was still alright with her.

"Only if the children will mind," she said.

"Children," I bellowed, deciding I needed to deal with this issue, "why is Nicki saying that she'll only babysit if you will mind. Has someone given her a hard time."

Without missing a beat, Daelyn yelled from the table, "YEP! Dane."

Our whole family cracked up. Of course, Dane had given Nicki the least amount of trouble. But we all had a good, much-needed laugh. And the kids promised to be obedient to Nicki and not harass her.

They're good children, but the stress is wearing on them, as well. I'm trying to spend today at home with them, getting chores done and being "normal", because they need that normalcy. I barked orders about chores this morning, started wash, and visited with them - normal. But it's very difficult to be "normal" when it's killing me to be away from the hospital.

I have to put my children first. I'm their mother. My niece has her mother and my sister has our mother. But my children need me.

So I smile and try to remember how to act like my niece isn't fighting for her life . . .