The Idea of an Essay, Volume 4

30 The Idea of an Essay: Volume 4 were inconclusive however, so the doctors continued to pin the pain on the c-diff. After finals, we returned from Cedarville to Rebekah in a regular hospital unit, still awaiting test results, on a restricted diet. Shortly thereafter, they discovered that Rebekah had a bowel obstruction and after an exploratory surgery, determined that a part of her small intestine had constricted and died and would need to be removed. After the surgery, she seemed healthy for two days, but began having sharp intestinal pain again. Another exploratory surgery revealed what had just been healthy intestines had also died, and needed to be removed. Between surgeries, Rebekah’s blood pressure sharply dropped and she had to be resuscitated. To watch her more closely, she was moved to the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit. In order to combat this unstable state, she was put on a sleeping medication that was supposed to sedate her for 24 hours. Shortly after surgery, our family began to wander around, and I stopped and asked if it’d be good to pray. To our amazement, we saw Rebekah’s face trying to move. The muscles were mostly suppressed, but she was trying to nod her head yes, so our family took the moment to pray. God had pushed me, and was testing me, but I knew he was still in control. Both of these surgeries were relatively simple operations, and promised a quick recovery. After her intestinal surgeries however, Rebekah healed much slower than expected and was transferred to the Surgical Trauma Intensive Care Unit. After three exhausting days of poor recovery there, we received the chilling call, that she had stopped breathing and rushed to the hospital. * * * * * As we stand outside the hospital room waiting, our dad shows up, still in scrubs from his own surgery, and we receive the gritty detailed medical report of our sister’s condition. She had an unexplained neurological event, probably a seizure, which led the medical team to further investigation. She’s still suffering from seizure like brain activity, so the physicians put her into an induced coma. Her bowel is continuing to die, and now her liver is failing. It’s firm, indicating the enzymes that clean up the bloodstream aren’t filtering enough, and when the computer tries rendering a chart of her enzyme levels, the jagged lines go above what the computer can