Needing More Than Buck Up Buckaroo

http://theedithr.wordpress.com/2008/03/11/sometimes-you-need-more-than-buck-up-buckaroo/

http://theedithr.wordpress.com/2008/03/11/sometimes-you-need-more-than-buck-up-buckaroo/

Some of us have been in these shoes before.

I read this post and the week when my dad was diagnosed

with a rare form of cancer came ‘galloping’ back to me. The

outcome for my dad turns out to be: a positive prognosis.

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But, initially, when my dad said the word,’cancer’, my whole

world came crashing down. The news of cancer precipitated:

the most incredibly frightening, clearly hopeless, definitely

saddening, possibly intrusive, nearly destructive, sort of

panicky, potentially numbing, obviously challenging feeling

I that I have ever had.

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It was an emotional roller coaster ride, I’d have to admit.

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I didn’t want to talk about it.

I did want to talk about it.

I knew God would heal him.

I was afraid that God had forgotten about him.

I knew that I would get through this.

I was afraid that I would LOSE my faith.

I proclaimed that God would give us strength.

I felt so weak and scared.

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Through it all, I decided that I had to be strong, if not

for myself, but for my children. They loved their ‘Grandpa’.

But, I could NOT give up the role of being a GOOD MOM

just because there was a medical crisis. I had many good

reasons to BUCK UP and to continue nurturing my children.

I had to be strong- for my dad and for my children.

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I love my ‘Dad’ so very much. But, I decided that I had

to SURRENDER to the reality of the situation. I was NOT

in control of the future, the diagnosis, the prognosis, or the

treatment. I finally decided to LOVE MY DAD and leave the

work of SAVING MY DAD to the doctors and nurses.

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When I was in the intensive care unit during my dad’s

recovery, I was talking to a very well-educated nurse.

Her husband was my dad’s surgeon. In the excerpts below,

is how she responded to my ‘chatter’:

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I told her that I was glad that my dad was in good hands.

I told her that I KNOW that her husband, the surgeon,

prayed before each surgery. Sometimes, I have heard, he

even prays WITH his patients and their families before

surgery, I said.

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Here is her response to “Your husband is a good surgeon, and

I also know that he is a man of faith.”

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The Surgeon’s Wife: Thanks for the compliment, Sandy. I’m

going to make sure you get a ‘raise’! Yes, my husband is a good

surgeon, but there is a limit to what he can do.

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She continues to speak:

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Sandy, my husband teaches a special class in addition to

practicing surgery. He tells his students that ‘when a person

comes in to the hospital in need of surgery’, perhaps, in a

critical situation, he tells them this:

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When I am giving them puffs of oxygen with (work in

progress) the ————————; it is not me that is

breathing life in to my patients. It is God breathing life in to

my patients. (the word is on the tip of my tongue……)

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Defining her husband’s role as a successful surgeon, I

think that she was telling me that: the surgeon does the

earthly work, the surgery, and perhaps that God performs

the miracles. He breathes life in to us.

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Amen!

Sandy S. Zoo