“Impressive” was the word the parade of doctors and medical professionals, who came to see the spectacle, kept using to describe Jesse‘s streaking in the hospital over the weekend.

No, this was not the kind of streaking that might occur if a heavily sedated patient revolted against his hospital gown and tried to escape the premises. This was the kind of red streaking up the hand and arm that signaled a serious infection was attacking his body – the kind of streaking that caused an urgent care visit to become an ER visit, and an ER visit to become an overnight hospital stay.

It certainly wasn’t the way we planned to spend the weekend. But J’s self “surgery” Friday evening to remove what he believed to be a leftover piece of splinter from an infected knot on his finger, rapidly turned into a race to prevent sepsis by Saturday afternoon. According to the ER, he got help just in time.

The overnight hospital stay, so they could give J multiple rounds of IV antibiotics and make sure the infection was responding, was less than comfortable. Between the numerous nurse checks in the night, the conversations I could hear through the walls, the recliner I tried for way too long to get comfortable in, and J’s snoring, I think I only managed 3 hours of sleep. But to me, that snoring was one of the most beautiful sounds I’d ever heard. It meant J was alive and that the antibiotics were doing their job, since he was symptom free enough to sleep.

We still aren’t sure what caused a splinter to become a near life-threatening event. J hadn’t been careless. Several of the medical staff who helped us confessed to having done the same kind of self-surgery J had done to remove a splinter a hundred times. As one friend said, “it sounds suspiciously like an attack.”

As I thought about the doctors using the word “Impressive” to describe the situation, I was reminded of a phrase one of our teachers often uses in response to the enemy’s attacks ~

“I’m not impressed.”

She and her husband use this phrase to minimize focus on what the enemy is trying to do in a given situation and to shift their focus to how much GREATER God is in His ability to destroy the works of the enemy and enable us to overcome.

So we are choosing not to be impressed by how the enemy was able to so quickly turn such a simple thing into something so serious, but instead to be impressed by all God did, and all the people He used, to enable J to get the help he needed to #overcome – #JustInTime.

Thank you to all of you dear ones who prayed and are continuing to pray us through.
Here are a few pics – gotta LOVE those happy hospital socks!