August 9, 2010

My visit yesterday with my cardiologist brought the best news of all! I have been released to start back to work on a part time basis at the end of August and will be able to return to full duty in September!

There is no way Phyllis and I can say how much all of the cards, phone calls, visit and prayers have meant to us and to my recovery. This strong recovery is not just about my body but it is also about the body of people called Good Shepherd and their love and prayers.

I am looking forward to getting back in there and helping Pastor Bill and the wonderful staff of Good Shepherd. These weeks have placed extra burdens on them all but their skills and commitment to us all has gotten all of us through.

I have tried to keep up with all of you by the prayer chain but I know there is much for me to know about what has done on in your lives while I was recovering. I look forward to greeting and seeing you in church in September.

The Doctor has said I could try half days in the last week of August but would rather I not start preaching until September. I have been doing everything my medical team has told me to do because I do not want to every go through a surprise like this again.

When I get back into the office, I will start to send all of us weekly “Shepherd’s Notes” to keep everyone informed about what’s happening in the Good Shepherd communities.

In the meantime – Thanks! Thank you for your love, prayers and support that have seen me through!

Pastor Phil

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August 6, 2010

I want to offer one final lesson from all those great folks at Parkview Rehab. As I watch and listen to the rehab folks, I hear one theme over and over and over – it is not about how much you have done or how far you have gone or even how many watts you have generated. It is simply about how willing you are to try and how determined you are to keep trying!

As a guy I am easily caught up doing more than I did the last time as a way to speed up my recovery BUT I soon learned that the best way to a full recovery is to NOT over exert but to keep trying. The clear truth from rehab is my body would respond better to regular effort that to big strains of exertion.

Perhaps this is something to think about for us in the Good Shepherd communities. It is our regular efforts that God will use to invite, call and transform the next generation of followers of Jesus. It is our commitment to regularly attending worship, to staying connected to our folds and clusters, to being committed to attending Church School that will make the difference in the long run.

I am praying about this for my ministry. It is not so much the big event – the one over the top all out effort that is the greatest force of change but rather it is those of us who say I will be there this Sunday who will have the victory in the end.

Pastor Phil

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August 4, 2010

My experience in Rehab has been just great! Not only are they helping me to a full recovery but they demonstrate to me and everyone who is in their care “the most powerful tool” everyone of possesses that can change everything and everyone around!

It is most simply described as encouragement!

Whether I am doing good or doing not so good, the Parkview Rehab staff is always, ALWAYS there to give me words of encouragement.

Even though I know from time to time I have not earned those words from them, the encouragement they give me helps me keep going and try my best.

I was thinking how that is the way it should be in the church. Our Good Shepherd communities are often a place where encouragement is heard and perhaps that is why God blesses us so.

Lets all remember that God has equipped us with one of the most powerful tools. All we have to do is to remember to use it – encouragement- not merely every day but every way possible!

Pastor Phil

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I am so excited. My surgeon has released me to start rehab. At Parkview the rehab facility is located in the basement of the Heart Institute.

Twice a week I hook my self up to the heart monitors and start to workout. I walk, ride a stationary bike, and pump a peddle machine. All the time I am doing these things, my pulse and blood pressure are being measured to make sure I am not over doing it.

The entire staff at Rehab is just the best and is particularly good at encouragement!

One thing that I have got to learn again is how to warm up and cool down before and after a workout. I may have known how important this was at sometime in my life but I definitely had forgotten.

Taking the time to get my body ready to work out and taking the time after the workout to cool my body down has that one important part – taking the time!

I don’t know why I feel a need to rush into everything I do. Maybe this is one of those important, extra learnings from this event in my life. I started to wonder if every part of my life has an important and proper warm up and cool down time. Perhaps if I took the time, I would get more benefits from what I am trying to accomplish.

What do you think?

Pastor Phil

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I just feel obligated to say a word about all the people, with so many different skills, who all worked together to keep me safe and put me on a path of recovery.

From the great doctors who used their skills to figure out I had a problem and keep me safe until it could be fixed: to the many great staff members of Parkview and the terrific nurses who took care of me and took time to answer my questions and give me encouragement; to the recovery team that took care of me after my open heart surgery; I want to say thank you!

I want to say thank you to all those great people who shaved me, helped me take a bath and get to the restroom.

I want to say thank you to all those technicians who watch the monitors 24 hours a day and report problems to the floor.

I want to say thanks to the hospital kitchen staff that put out 100s of meals and somehow get them delivered correctly and even hot!

Perhaps I am just lucky, or perhaps I am among the select few who receive the benefits of the greatest health care system in the word – BUT I don’t think so. As I listened to the sounds of the hospital’s nurses, staff and physicians working in the rooms around me, I heard nothing but the same encouragement, caring and support that I was receiving.

We have, in Fort Wayne Indiana, the best hospitals, doctors, nurses and medical staff and I am getting well because of them!

Pastor Phil

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I think I have always known the power of the simple act of walking, but I was excited to hear over and over again how important a regular, daily regiment of walking will be to my complete recovery!

I started to walk in the hospital the second day after my surgery. They did not ask me to walk far but they did want me to walk and I was glad I could!

When I got home they said I was to walk 10 minutes per day inside the house for the first week.

In the second week I was able to walk outside for 20 minutes and now I am able for 45 minutes every day. Next week I am hoping to be able to walk about 60 minutes.

I feel good when I am able to walk and walking gives me the confidence that I am going to have a complete recovery.

I did not love everything they asked me to do but tried my best to do whatever they asked. I heard my words come back to me that I have said to so many of you – “Its not more than they say to do or less than they say to do – its doing just what they say to do that will lead to your recovery.” It does, it really does.

Pastor Phil

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I wanted to come home! I was determined to do the things I needed to do to be released.

Anyone who has had major surgery knows the drill – the nurses kept reminding me that I had to do those critical three things if I want to be released. I was doing great on two of them but I really was not eating much and my bowels had taken a vacation so I was struggling with the final accomplishment!

I made myself eat. I thought that what goes in has to come out and finally I was three for three and on my way home!

I kept thinking – Tuesday was open heart surgery and Friday I was coming home! Who would have thought that was possible.

It felt so good to get home. Phyllis had arranged some help to get me settled and I was glad they were there to keep us both safe.

For the next week, wonderful people brought in great meals. The food was tasty and thoughtfully prepared for a person recovering from heart surgery.

I noticed what a burden this lifted from Phyllis. These meals allowed here to focus a little more on me and keep everyone in the family informed as to how I was doing.

No one can explain this powerful truth – home is a healing place! Just to get home was a sign for me that I was going to be OK! I immediately rested better and started to eat more. Maybe the power of our homes is the love that fills them. Maybe that is the power that lies behind our church home – the LOVE that fills it to overflowing.

It is always a good sign of better things – just to get home!

Phil

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I have often given thanks to God for the wonderful ministries of Good Shepherd. None is more powerful than your willingness to send cards and write uplifting messages inside the cards.

I cannot remember my first card but it did not take more than a couple of days for the cards to start coming, first a trickle and then a river of cards. There were funny cards, tender cards, beautiful cards, inspirational cards and every card filled with a note of encouragement and caring!

This “card ministry” which goes on all the time and to many people is an important part of recovery and I know it was for me.

I now have a large pile of cards at home and when I start to get a little down I go back through them. As a read them, I feel a flood of caring support that surrounds me and know that I am lifted up every day in people’s prayers.

If every there was a clear example of allowing God’s love to be experienced in the flesh and in the here and now, the card ministry of Good Shepherd is a daily example.

Thank you for all the wonderful cards, all the notes and all the prayers. You are responsible for my speedy and strong recovery!

Phil

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When I awoke it was all done. I was surrounded by busy staff taking care of me. Everyone kept telling me I looked great and was doing fine.

Phyllis and my family were glad to finally see for themselves that I was OK. I honestly did not remember anyone’s visits immediately after the surgery. I have never done well on pain medicine. It always makes me sick to my stomach, restless and very very warm.

But everyone kept telling me I looked great and was doing fine!

On the way back to Michigan City our son Dennis was on the cell phone talking to a friend and telling them that I looked great for just having heart surgery. Our oldest grandson, Hunter, was with Dennis and as the phone call ended he was tearing up so Dennis asked him what was wrong. Hunter said, “I did not think Grandpa looked good at all!”

Thank God there are no mirrors in recovery just lots of great staff and family telling you that you look great and are doing fine!

Phil

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I did not sleep all that well the night before my surgery! I was not afraid or worried, just wound up thinking about my open heart surgery. We live in a time when information is so important.

The hospital had given me a fourteen or fifteen page document that told about my surgery and each day after the surgery. I promised myself I would be a good patient and do everything on time and the way it was supposed to be done!

My heart surgeon shared with me that over 389,000 open heart surgeries are done each year and that my surgery should be a complete success!

The nurses and staff all wanted to make sure I understood what was going on and what would happen next. I started to understand that having some information allowed me to be a part of what was happening to me. If even in a small way I could participate and help, that made me a part of the process of my recovery.

I was strangely divided in my feelings. On one hand I wanted to be reassuring to Phyllis and our sons and the family and grandkids that I was going to be OK and on the other hand I wondered if I should say something important to them just in case this did not turn out as planned! I am thankful that I stuck with the first plan. I just wanted them to know I loved them and that I knew they loved me and that I was going to have a complete and successful surgery and recovery.

As I had experienced a couple of times before, I felt the love and prayers of Good Shepherd surrounding me and lifting me. I would go to sleep completely surround by the love of my family, the prayers of my church and the skills and training of a wonderful surgery team.

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Thursday evening found me settling into my hospital room. I was working the Doctors to let my go home because I was going to have to wait for several days for some medicine to clear my blood before the open heart surgery could be performed.

I had been in Parkview’s Heart Institute on many occasions but now I was in a bed waiting. I wanted to go home. I wanted to be at Good Shepherd. I wanted to preach my sermon that I had prepared on James.

At first they said I would have to wait at least a week for the medicine to clear my blood.

My grumpiness was interrupted by phone calls from my family and reassuring Phyllis that everything was going to be OK.

I tried reading my newspaper and books. I tried watching movies and baseball. I did finish “The Way of the Shepherd by Dr. Kevin Pentak and a book “Have a New Kid by Friday” by Dr. Kevin Leman.

I was blessed by some very caring visits and some “from the heart” prayers that lifted my spirits and gave me a signal that I was going to have a full recovery.

The best news came when the heart surgeon told me we would do the surgery on Tuesday!

The surgery would be three days ahead of the original plan. My waiting would soon be coming to an end.

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This all began with a “new” funny feeling. My cardiologist had given me several reminders that if I felt anything different I should call.

So when I had this new feeling, I called and was immediately given the Doctor is not available stuff. I guess it was good that I was persistent and finally got to see another cardiologist who could work me in.

The Doctor assured me that my discomfort was NOT anything to do with my heart but just is case he scheduled a treadmill. I took the treadmill on a Friday and waited for results.

I did not hear anything! Good - I thought, perhaps the Doctor was right and it was nothing. Tuesday and Wednesday came and went.

I was in Staff meeting on Thursday when our meeting was interrupted by an urgent message. I was to call my Cardiologist immediately! The Doctor’s nurse asked if I could come to the hospital that afternoon for a heart catheterization!

I told the staff and called Phyllis. My treadmill had discovered a problem.

I listen carefully to the Doctor and the catheterization team as they performed the procedure. I knew by their discussions that I had a problem larger than they could fix with a stint. My Doctor would tell me that the good news was I had not had any heart damage BUT the bad news was I would need open heart surgery and EVEN WORSE; he would not let me go home before they performed the open heart surgery.

All I could think about was that this was no time to be sick!

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