My husband was very ill for much of this year. Unfortunately not even the doctors realized just how sick until he reached a crisis point. In September he was admitted into the hospital for congestive heart failure. He had one stent placed on the back side of his heart and began to get better immediately. With all the testing the physicians did, they determined that he would need additional stents in his legs later. Later was Tuesday last. We weren't sure if Noel would be discharged in time for the holiday or not. As it turned out, we were released late yesterday afternoon. It's a very small thing to be thankful for being home from the hospital in time for a major holiday.

In all, Noel was in the Catheter Lab for four hours, and had some rather state of the art stents placed in his right leg, some that FDA hasn't even yet approved for general use (emergency situations only). His doctor was quite pleased with the results, so of course we were too. That in itself is a great thing for which to be thankful, but I have so much more.

For, you see, the waiting room for the Cath Lab is also the waiting room for the Intensive Care Unit for that hospital. My time was spent without much worry, as I had the utmost confidence in Noel's doctor and it wasn't a particularly dangerous procedure. Just, as it turned out in this case, a long and tedious one.

Four hours is a very long time to sit and consider. My heart went out to those families that were there for their loved ones in ICU. I wished many times in those hours that I could somehow comfort those whose faces were lined with worry and stress, with grief and doubt. Words seemed hardly enough.
I went to sleep Tuesday night on the couch in my husband's room thinking about the family whose father and husband was still in surgery for a 5x heart bypass. I learned the next morning that it had gone well. I met another family, too, a wife and a grown daughter with yet another husband/father in ICU. I expressed my sympathies to them that he would still be in ICU, and they at the hospital, for the holiday.

"Don't be sorry," I was told. "We have so much to be thankful for. He's still with us and on the mend."

And they were right. I am thankful this day (and always!) to have my beloved husband with me, and now getting much needed medical care.

My prayer for others is that they are able to spend the holidays with their loved ones nearby and healthful; that those whose dear ones are ill will be blessed to have them well again soon; that those who have lost loved ones will know God's comfort in the days to come; that we will all take a moment's pause to remember to be thankful for all of the special things and loved ones in our lives, too.

So do not begin your day's meal with a prayer that God will *MAKE* you grateful for His bounties. Instead, BE grateful. Do not ask Him to *force* you to gratitude. Take a moment to think, to reflect, and be thankful, all on your own.

Susan

just wanted sned my best to you and Noel and to echo what you said above. I had five days of my newborn daughter in ICU in October (followed by four in Special Care). On entering the ICU in the Coombe Hospital, you walked through Special Care and as you moved further away from the main door, you left recovering babies behind you, progressing through babies who were more and more seriously ill. To enter ICU itself you had to ring a bell and wait in the corridor to see if you could visit. There was a waiting room just beyond the bell where parents had to disinfect their hands and could sit until a visit was possible.

In this tiny room there are many poems, pictures and letters from grateful families. Often there are two photos, one of the child/children when they were first born, and then another of a happy, healthy older child. They are messages of hope and testimonies of love. They are incredibly moving, though it took a long time before I could read one without bursting into tears.

We too met and befriended parents in the hospital with children who were not so fortunate as our own, who would be spending many many more weeks visiting. We met people who travelled great distances to visit every day - a mum who was travelling forty miles by bus every day to sit with her daughter, a couple who did not know if both their premature twins would survive.

The dedication of medical staff has often been written about, but the overall impression I came away with was their kindness. I cannot be grateful enough to the men and women in there, and by extension to all hospital workers. I'm not American, I don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but I am thankful everyday for the people who cared for my little girl and who go on caring for so many.

It was a time I will never forget, extremes of emotions that will always stay with me. But when I think about it I will always think about the ICU waiting room and those framed pictures designed to give thanks and to convey hope to all those who will endure the same trauma.

And as I look at her now, still wide-awake and refusing to let her father and I get a wink of sleep, I'm very grateful.

So glad to hear your wee one is prospering! Noel continues to do well also. We are indeed fortunate, and remain humbly grateful. Now if I can only get myself into the Christmas spirit...

Guess I got my present early this year; my computer bit the dust and, failing to find a way to repair it at a reasonable cost, we decided to replace it. That's about ALL I'm going to get this year, too! *g*

At least I can get back to my writing now, without feeling that I'm stuck in the Middle Ages.

Susan