Crashing Into My 70th Birthday

The first thing I remember hours after my brother-in-law Rob carried me down the stairs on the way to the hospital, was hearing the word “intubation.” Although I was saying “no,” the decision not to intubate had already been made. Thankfully, a specialist had previously rejected this ventilation method. I speculate that my sister Deborah’s disclosure of my dwarfism type contributed to understanding that intubation came with the risk of cutting off my airway.

Fervent prayers were offered on my behalf and God graciously answered when an ER team of eight stabilized me. I was assigned an isolation (negative pressure) unit in the ICU. Among other treatments, a BiPAP machine pushed air into my lungs to improve the blood oxygen level.

Fully alert on the morning of my 70^th birthday, I was cut off from typical communication lines. The wall clock was hidden behind the nonfunctioning TV screen and I had no phone, computer, or Bible. All I could do was sit quietly like a well-loved fish in a bowl looking out through the glass at the workstation of my one-on-one nurse.

I contemplated my first bout with COVID and the unraveling of birthday plans:

• Cancelled family dinner.
• Scrubbed trip to New Zealand.
• COVID restrictions on interaction with people.

Despite extreme disappointment, I knew God doesn’t make mistakes! He made this clear when He walked beside me every step of the way:

• Caring ICU visits from Deborah and my brother Greg fully garbed in personal protective equipment.
• Covering medical expenses with my travel insurance policy.
• Enjoying slices of an indulgent, chocolate birthday cake.
• Limiting my hospitalization to two nights and three days.
• Using credit from my cancelled flight to New Zealand for my matron of honor to visit me in Sydney instead of me visiting her in Christchurch.
• Celebrating the birthday of my friend from kindergarten days.
• Saving one week to savor Sydney sights.

Within days of returning home to Florida, a head injury from a fall required another ER visit. Hospital Chaplain Bob prayed with me and played a hymn favorite, “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” on his harmonica. My confidence in God’s faithfulness was twice confirmed. First by the lyrics—

“Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!”—

and second by the source of the lyrics in Lamentations 3:22-23. (Providentially these verses were in my August 27 Sunday School lesson.)

God’s protection and timing are perfect!

For more of my writings, go to https://angelamuirvanetten.com where you can subscribe to my weekly blog and find retail links to my dwarfism memoir trilogy.