A great ending!

“A loss of eight days”

    If a story doesn’t have a happy ending, you’re going to pretty well have to force me to sit through it. That makes me a sheltered person who misses out on a lot of great sad stories.

    That being said, have I got a good story for you! A true one, too. It all started the afternoon of March 21. It’s not completely over as of this writing, but all of the scary parts are behind us.

    The story involves our best friend Virginia Pliler. Virginia had been suffering from a nagging earache for a couple of weeks. The prescribed antibiotics turned out to be snack food for the infection. Antibiotics are tricky little devils. You can never be too certain what they’re gonna do. Kind of like Robin Williams on a talk show. Any talk show.

    Virginia’s infection eventually entered her non-infected ear. After that, it got serious. On Thursday evening Virginia’s mind left the building. By the time the ambulance arrived, Freeman was explaining to her why a broom is shaggy on one end.

    Several hours and two hospitals later, Virginia was in a coma at Memorial Hermann in Houston. The diagnosis was bacterial meningitis. The head doctor told Freeman that it was the worst case anyone could have. “Your wife is one sick girl, Mr. Pliler.” That’s what she told Freeman. What she didn’t say, but later confessed was that she didn’t believe Virginia was going to make it. 

Kay and I instantly notified our family and friends to make sure that God was continually hearing Virginia’s name mentioned. -- “Yes, this is God. Yes, I know she’s sick. I know EVERYTHING. You realize that, don’t you? But, yes, your prayer means a lot. – Hello? Yes, this is your Heavenly Father. It’s about Virginia, isn’t it?” -- That’s pretty much a caricature of how I hoped the volley of prayers would transpire.

The next ten or so days got weird. The doctors at one point noticed an improvement and agreed that Virginia was likely to make it, but they were fairly sure she would end up with some permanent and severe brain damage. And, she might also end up blind or deaf.

The main doctor said that during the swelling inside Virginia’s skull, a piece of her brain was pushed into her inner ear. In other words, her brain was trying to come out her ears. I’ve seen enough Scrubs, Grey’s Anatomy and House episodes to know that that can’t be good.

Virginia was in a coma for a total of eight days. She is currently conscious and suffering no bad side effects.

When she was lucid enough to talk and to recognize me, I asked if she had a chance to see the bright light. She didn’t. Did she have an “Eight Days in Heaven” experience? She didn’t? How about eight days in purgatory?  Nothing. Well, then what did she remember about her time in a coma?

She said, “Mark, I don’t remember anything. I completely lost eight days. One minute everything goes blank, the next thing I know I’m in a hospital bed listening to your ridiculous questions.” -- She was back.

As soon as I thought she could handle the news, I told her that I had forgotten everything she told me about how she wanted her funeral. Truth is I didn’t forget anything, ‘cause I wasn’t paying attention during the instructions. Oddly enough she took the news well. Told me to do better next time. 

As of this writing, Virginia is still at Memorial Hermann trying to win back some energy and trying to lose a blood clot that formed in her leg due to too much bedtime. At one point she was hooked up to a couple dozen I Vs. Now she’s down to two.

That’s what I call a happy ending. Some would call it happenstance. I don’t believe that to be the case, but I have no evidence that would satisfy an agnostic or believer in fate. Nor do I have an answer for those who have prayed and prayed for loved ones, but whose stories did not end well at all.

I’m reminded of a quote from a “Daily Walk” from one of Dr. Mark Denison of First Baptist in Conroe submitted to The Courier. Denison quoted missionary Helen Roseveare as having asked a question from God’s perspective: --“Can you trust Me with this experience, even if I never tell you why?”

The quote appears nonsensical to many. As do all things of the spirit, when reasoned through the minds of those in a world of earth and air. But, to those who have chosen to believe, it is the evidence of things unseen.

I would like to close with this passage that also helps me trust in what I can’t see. It’s from I Corinthians 13:12 – “For we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully, as I have been fully known.” 
   
Thank God for happy endings.

end