The flood - 10/29/12

I have been flooded with well wishes recently! But first things first: my surgery will be at Riverside Community Hospital on 5 November 2012. I'm still not sure if it's Dr. Hou, Dr. Lara, or Dr. Nurick that will actually be cutting on me, but it's somebody from their office. The surgery will be done laproscopically, which means I'll have a few small incisions on my stomach for them to insert their little cameras and instruments inside of me instead of one big cut. I won't be staying overnight, but I will be recovering in bed for a week or two, most likely. The ward has offered lots of help to keep me comfortable and to help Elder "A" continue working while I'm lying in bed all day long. I'm sure we would go completely crazy if both of us had to stay in the apartment watching the bugs crawl around and the paint peel off the walls.

Now our friend that we just baptized used to be a RN and is now working on becoming a nurse anesthetist, so she has been filling me in on every gruesome detail of what's going to happen to me. For a laproscopic surgery, my stomach will be inflated with air in order for them to have a space to work their little robotic arms in. That sometimes results in a diffuse pain in the shoulders after they deflate me and I wake up, so I shouldn't mistake that feeling for a heart attack. My throat will be sore from being intubated. That's just common to any general anesthesia, because they have to make sure I keep breathing. The whole point of general anesthesia is to get me as close to dead as possible and then bring me back to normal. My heart rate and blood pressure need to be low, my breathing will be much slower, and the drugs are designed to keep me from remembering anything, even if I happen to wake up in the middle of it.

Oh, and they'll be putting a mesh inside of me to patch up the inside of my abdominal wall. Sometimes people strain hard enough to pop through those things, so there is a small chance of the hernia recurring. There's an even smaller chance that they could nick something vital on accident and I would go from having two functional testes to only one. But that's not a super big deal, because as long as I've got one I can still have kids and function as normal.

Sorry if that's a little gruesome, but I find these things fascinating. In any case, I'm sure everything will work out exactly the way God planned for them to work out. I'm still stoked that I get to stay here in the mission and not have to interrupt my service with a long flight to South Carolina and the distractions that would come along with that sort of recovery. But y'know, it all comes down to your faith in the end. I have faith that despite my fears, God's love and the power of Jesus' infinite and eternal sacrifice will be enough for my misgivings and weaknesses.

I think the highest compliment that I've received recently came in a letter from a friend at home who heard about my medical misadventures. She said: "I know that you know the power of the Atonement because you have strengthened my testimony with yours many times. Rely on it now. And as always  you are in my prayers." I look up to this person as a returned missionary and a spiritual strength, so hearing that from her made me feel very special indeed.

The letters finally came, and it was so glorious to see a stack of letters after two weeks of no mail. Now I have over a dozen people that I need to write letters to, but I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to do so in the not-too-distant future. I don't know what I'll read. Maybe I will start the Old Testament. I'm probably going to finish the Book of Mormon before the surgery, and I've already read Jesus the Christ, Our Search For Happiness, Our Heritage, and True to the Faith since being on the mission.

Well everybody, keep on sending me your prayers and good vibes. I'm going to keep on relying on the Lord's promises and smiling and testifying while I have the strength to stand. Don't forget to look for the rainbows in life. God has promised us that he will never destroy everything when he sends the rain.

Elder Hansen