"in sickness and in health"

I've been given the unexpected opportunity to grasp what the vows: "in sickness and in health" mean these past twenty-four hours. Matthew hadn't been feeling well Sunday night and all day Monday. He got what he thought was a second round of the stomach bug Monday night, but after a full night and day of sickness, Matthew began to feel extremely feverish and was shaking uncontrollably. Thank the Lord his brother Kevin was able to rush him to the ER where they ran several tests and tried to break his fever. After 5 bags (which they tell me is the equivalent of two and a half 2 liters) of fluids, Matthew's fever broke, but due to his accelerated heart rate and potentially harmful test results, Matthew still wasn't hydrated enough or stable enough to leave the hospital. SO.... I learned how to make a short folding chair an ideal pad for short nap intervals. I've seen more boxer shorts and borderline booties than I'd like in one day, but overall my hospital experience hasn't been too bad. The cafeteria food is actually edible!

So..... after the doctor looked at Matthew's liver enzymes and other internal stats, he wanted the GI (gastro intestinal) physician to come to talk with us. He also claimed that with Matthew's borderline blood work and other test results, he wanted us to stay and have more lab work done. 

We were basically told by the nurse to hunker down and accept the most likely possibility of staying at the hospital another night. She said they were going to test for some seriously scary things like hepatitis and crones disease.  She said it could be a long time before the GI doctor came to see us, so there was no telling how long it would be before we got any more info. 

Shortly after that conversation, we just prayed for God's will. We prayed that if it was his will, could the GI doctor please come ASAP and just tell us ALL is clear and we can go home. Amazingly, the GI doctor came in a few minutes later and said it looks like Matthew just had a severe viral infection, and we could go home! The only thing they are still cautious about is those liver enzymes. So Matthew HAS to make a follow up appointment to check that those levels come down. She said they could have spiked from the virus, but they really need to come down. So the good news is Matthew seems to be good and we can go home!  Just pray that all is well with that liver soon too. 

"For better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to death do us part."

~Thankful CubBuster