Note from Tracey, Miracles Happen

 

Dad,

I am so glad you decided to write a blog.  It is so cool to read about some of the things that you have done.  You are truly an amazing individual.  As I read your blog, I though about a part of your life that you don’t remember very well.  Provided below is my version of what happened in November 2001.  I thought you might want to add it to your blog.

On Monday, November 12, 2001, I had to fly to South Carolina to attend training for work.  This was just a couple months after 9/11, so I had no desire to fly.  In fact, I was terrified.  A few hours before my flight, a plane crashed.  There was talk in the news that it could be related to terrorist.  I was so anxious about getting on that plane.  That night I called home and talked to Dad.  I remember him saying, “If I had known that you were going by yourself, I would have gotten a ticket and gone with you.”  My dad is the greatest. 

On Tuesday, November 13^th, I had class all day.  That afternoon, as I sat in class, a woman came to the door and said, “Is there a Tracey Henson here.  You have a phone call.”  My heart sank.  All the way to the phone, various scenarios ran through my head.  When I heard Greg’s voice, I knew it was bad.  He told me that I needed to come home because Dad had a heart attack.  I went to my room and called the travel agency to get an earlier flight.  I was so confused that the woman at the travel agency had to repeat herself over and over.  She couldn’t get me on a flight that evening to Paducah.  The best she could do is put me on a late flight into Nashville. 

As soon as I made my travel arrangements, I called my pastor and asked him to pray.  I had several hours until it was time for my flight, but I packed my bags and headed to the airport anyway.  I called the hospital at every stop.  As I was walking through the airport, an older man asked me if I was all right.  I explained what had happened, and he asked if he could pray with me.  I believe God put him there to comfort me.  I prayed all the way home, “Lord, please be with my daddy.”

My mother-in-law, father-in-law, and the kids picked me up in Nashville.  It was amazing how quickly we made it to Paducah.  We hit every green light just perfect.  God takes care of even the little things.  When I got to the hospital, my sister took me back to ICU to see my dad.  She told me that they had given him only a slight chance to live.  He looked so pitiful hooked up to the ventilator and the other machines.  When I talked to him, he opened his eyes and looked at me.  I was so glad that he knew I was there.  He didn’t open his eyes again until Thanksgiving Day. 

Debbie took the kids to the gift shop to look around.  Katelyn found a little praying lamb (stuffed animal) that she wanted to give to her granddaddy.  Debbie bought the lamb for the grandkids to give to their grandaddy.  We placed the little lamb on Dad’s pillow.  That little lamb stayed with Dad throughout his hospital stay.  The nurses made sure it was either on his pillow or in his hand.  The lamb represented the hundreds (possibly thousands) of prayers that were being prayed for Dad’s healing.

On Thursday (November 15^th), the doctor came in and told us that Dad’s kidneys were shutting down.  We began praying and asked other people to pray that his kidneys would begin working again.  The Lord reached down and touched his kidneys.  A few days later, his doctor reported that his kidneys were improving.  With every piece of good news, they always gave us bad news.  Now that his kidneys were working, his liver was not.  Again, we prayed and watched the Lord reach down and touch his liver.  The doctors reported that his liver was starting to work, but he had developed a problem with his pancreas.  Each time the doctors reported some improvement, we would get so excited, but they kept telling us that Dad was very sick and gave us little hope. We were on an emotional roller coaster. 

The restroom in the ICU waiting room became my prayer closet.  I would go in there and cry out to the Lord to work a miracle in Dad’s body.  One evening, as I was leaving Dad’s room, a woman told me that I needed to understand that it might be the Lord’s will for my daddy to die.  I was so upset.  I went to the scripture in II Kings 20:1-6 where the Lord had sent a message to Hezekiah that he needed to get his house in order because he would die soon.  It was the Lord’s will that Hezekiah would die.  Hezekiah cried out to the Lord and the Lord allowed him to live 15 more years.  I was not ready to lose my dad.  I cried out to the Lord to work a miracle in Dad’s body. 

Many people and pastors prayed for Dad.  Brother Bob Risner anointed him with oil and prayed for healing to take place in his body.  One day as Greg and I walked up to Dad’s room, Dr. Ali was standing beside his bed talking to one of the nurses.  He didn’t see us standing there.  He told the nurse, “We have done all we know to do.  It’s now up to the good Lord to do the rest.”  The nurse told Dr. Ali that one thing he could count on was that there were many people praying for Dad. 

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, things looked hopeless.  The doctors were seeing no improvement.  I remember how scared mom was after we talked to the doctor.  She was so afraid of losing Dad.  We didn’t think he would make it to Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving Day rolled around and he still had not improved.  Several of our friends brought food to the hospital.  Just before we ate, Deb, Mom, and I went back to Dad’s room to spend some time with him.  While we were there, he opened his eyes.  We were so excited.  It was exactly what we needed to give us hope.  On Thanksgiving Day we started seeing some improvement.  When I needed to be alone, I would go out and sit in my vehicle.  I listened to a Christian CD that I had recently bought.  There was one particular song on the CD called “Isn’t He.”  This became my song to the Lord.  I would sing this song to God, thanking Him for what he had done and was going to do in his life. 

On Sunday night, November 25^th, I ran home to see the kids for alittle while.  The kids, Greg, and I had a time of Bible study and prayer.  We read from James 5:13-15 which says,

Is any among you afflicted?  Let him pray.  Is any merry?  Let him sing psalms.  Is any sick among you?  Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord;  and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven. 

After reading this scripture, we prayed together.  The kids asked if we could go to the hospital and pray with Dad.  It was late and they had school the next day, but we jumped in the truck and headed to the hospital.  We snuck the kids back to Dad’s room and had prayer with him.  Another family in the waiting room was really having a difficult time.  Kristin got my Bible and asked that I find the scripture that we had just read at home.  I didn’t know why she wanted it.  She took my Bible and walked over to this other family in the waiting room.  She opened up the Bible and read James 5:13-15 to them.  I was so touched to see this. 

Over the next few days, we saw Dad improve little by little.  I remember the day he sat up for the first time.  He told me that on the day of his heart attack, he had no symptoms of a heart attack.  However, he asked mom to call for an ambulance.  He stated that he believed that a guardian angel had led him to ask for an ambulance.  I listened to him, but in the back of my mind, I thought that he probably had symptoms of a heart attack and just didn’t remember it.  That evening, I went home to sleep in my bed for the first time since his heart attack.  As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out.  At midnight something woke me up.  I felt led to pray for Dad.  I knelt beside the bed and started praying.  I knew something was wrong.  I called the hospital waiting room and asked my sister to go back and check on him.  She called me back about 15 minutes later and said that something had happened to Dad.  He was in a tremendous amount of pain.  A blood clot had broken loose and went to his lung.  It had happened just shortly before I awoke.  A few days before, a man had died of that very same thing.  There is no doubt in my mind that the Lord woke me up at midnight to pray for Dad.  There is also no doubt in my mind that the Lord told Dad that he needed an ambulance on the day of his heart attack.

That following Sunday, I went to church.  I hadn’t been to church since Dad’s heart attack.  One of the ladies that I teach with told me that the kids were learning a new song called, “Isn’t He.”  I couldn’t believe my ears.  I had sung this song to the Lord over and over praising him for the miracles that He was doing in Dad’s life.  I hadn’t told anyone about this song.  This song was between the Lord and me.  I later walked into the room where we have Future Generation; I noticed the memory verse from the following week.  It was James 5:15.  This was the scripture that the kids and I had read the previous week.  This was the icing on the cake. 

Every time I hear the song “Isn’t He” I think of the goodness of our Lord and what he has done for us.  I mentioned earlier the scripture in II Kings where the Lord gave Hezekiah 15 more years.  One Sunday evening, my pastor preached out of Psalms 116.  He said that many believe that Hezekiah wrote this particular Psalm.  The writer of this Psalm asks, “What am I going to do for God in light of what He has done for me?”  When I think of how good God has been to me and what He brought my dad through, I am ashamed of the attitude that I sometimes have.  After what He’s done for us, the least we can do is serve Him.  We serve an AWESOME God.

Tracey is right I was a little dizzy and something told me to call for help.  Not thinking of caller id I called Frieda to come home.  I meant to say come home but first call 911 but she threw the phone and ran without hearing me say call 911.  I passed out in my recliner and was conscious enough to tell the EMT`s I wanted to go to Paducah and they telling me I could not make it that far.

They took me to Fulton where Libby Larkin and the ER crew kept me alive long enough to get to Paducah.  I hear people mention that expensive shot in the heart sometimes, but let me tell you, it is cheap.  I spent the next ten days in a coma and a total of 6 weeks in ICU and one on a floor.  My wife left the hospital ground only one time.

I was told later that on one day I had a Methodist minister, two Baptist ministers, one Assembly of God minister and one Catholic priest see me the same day.  They also said that the Assembly of God preacher, the Catholic priest and possibly a Baptist minister had anointed me with oil.

My nurses were putting my name on church prayer list.  I was on prayer list of several churches in France where seminary students had placed my name on their prayer list thanks to Paul Starr (now Fr. John Luke).  My relatives around the country had done the same.  To have so many intercede on my behalf is overwhelming.

My cousin in Detroit who was on a heart transplant team there rushed down with her parents and she talked to Dr. Johnson.  Later she told me that I could not have received better care anywhere than I got there. 

The funny thing was that I was in a coma when she was there but I remembered seeing her talking  to Dr. Johnson and his nurse when I did come out of the coma.  Now the spot where I saw them talking is not in sight of my room.

Yes, yes, yes prayer works.  We know it for a fact.  I was told later that the heart surgeons pray before surgery.  I believe it.

"Addendum 09/26/14) 

to my blog entry (Note from Tracey.  Miracles happen.)"

In a chat with an old friend last night I mentioned having lost some periods of memory after being in a coma in 2001.  You cannot think about the things that happened to me and my family in 2001 without actually seeing the fingerprints of God all over the place.  When I was home Frieda handed me a big sack of cards and a notebook that she kept a log in recording every visitor and every telephone call for seven weeks of hospitalization.

Fr. Carl Glahn came to visit when I regained consciousness and had to walk from the farthest parking lot to Baptist ICU.  His feet were troubling him and were wrapped up to cushion him but he withstood the pain to see me.  He would have crawled on broken glass if he had to.  One of the first things I noticed was the monumental number of visitors and calls.  I saw that Joan Lacewell must have called every single day that I was in the hospital to check on my progress.  Regrettably the notebook disappeared.  I hope it was put away somewhere and we will find it once again.

My name was placed on all the county churches and most in Fulton county and Carlisle county and some in Graves.  Cousins in Detroit had friends place my name on prayer list in neighborhood churches.  One of my nurses told me she had her church praying for me in Illinois.  One of my friends Jeff Stahr (now Fr. John Luke) was in a seminary in France an

Had my name on their prayer list and the students put it on the prayer list of churches they were sent to to assist in the mass.

I remember seeing my cousin, who was on a heart transplant team in Detroit at the time talking to my surgeon and his nurse.  They were standing at the nurses’ station counter at a point not visible from my bed.  Every time I visit anyone in ICU I look at that spot and my room and I can only guess that while in a coma I had an out of body experience. 

 Read the letter from Tracey, who was out of state, when she got the call that I was not expected to live and to hurry home.  Her experiences alone are miraculous.  If you read it you can see God`s fingerprints all over me, my family, my doctors and my nurses.  Before that I had no idea how many real friends we did have.  I read Tracey`s letter once in a while just to remind me how God truly is in our lives.  We have an awesome God.  Again I just get overwhelmed when I think about all the little and big things that could only have happened with the work of God in our lives.  It gave me a new perspective on quality of life.  Every life has quality if we look for it.