Another Hospital Experience-- Good News

(by Bill Stevenson)

Note: Please take time to read the following because it probably has some surprises for you.

On Friday, March 27, 2009, between 5:45-7:15, I had three one-second like electric shock
feelings in my upper chest area. I didn’t tell my wife. I didn’t think it was another heart attack,
but I though it might be a warning that the stent was not working. I was not dizzy at all for the
whole day. I had no pressure or pain in my chest. Later in the afternoon I had some more of
those very brief one-second very mild shocks. Dolo came back from shopping at about 5 PM.
So I told her that I should have an EKG done on me. She asked which hospital, the one nearby
or the University one. I immediately said the latter. It took us about a half hour to get there, but
on the way I had only one of the one-second shocks. We went to the emergency area and
received good quick response. In less than an hour, an EKG and blood pressure test, 7 tubes of
blood were drawn from me, 2 doctors came to get information from me and my wife, and two x-
rays were taken (in the front heart area and of my left side). The second cardiology doctor told
us that the quick blood test was negative, but she would still like for me to stay at least one night
since I was still having the one second mild discomforts. She said that I would have a monitor
like in the previous hospital I was at, but that I would be able to go to the bathroom with nurse
permission. I did not have to change from my “exercise suit” and put on a hospital gown, but the
older night nurse told me that I would not be able to go the bathroom after being hooked up to
the machine. But the beds were longer and were electrically powered so the patients could raise
and lower them by pressing the 4 buttons. I had a dinner of apple cider and two pieces of bread
with cheese spreads. But I could not get rid of the liquid (which prevented me from sleeping)
until about 1:30 AM. Then a lady came to get another tube of blood from me to check for the
enzyme that indicates heart damage. (Later that morning, the weekend day doctor told me later
that they are able to help all parts of the heart and arteries and veins except for one part-- the
heart muscle.) But still the first night in the University hospital was much better than my
experience in the other hospital: I was able to get about 3-4 hours of sleep because this time I did
not have to keep the left leg stiff and was able to sleep on my right side. (Before Dolo had left to
go home on Friday evening, two of my roommates said to her that after they had the heart
catheter procedure, they were told to walk around after about 6 hours. They and the nurses and
the 3 doctors I saw were shocked about me having to lie still for 39 hours.)

Saturday morning I was allowed to go to the bathroom and was told by the male doctor that all of
the blood tests showed no heart problem or high levels of heart attack causers. He did another
EKG and said it was good. He took another tube of blood to confirm the results of the early
morning enzyme test and told me that he would come back later. At that time he said that the last
test showed no enzyme, so that if I did not get dizzy from walking around for a while and did not
have any chest pain, I would be able to go home instead of waiting until Monday to have an ultra
sound exam done. He could give me no other advice except to have the just mentioned exam
done by my cardiologist (even until my June 2nd appointment). But he was sort of frustrated that
he could not know what else might have caused the one-second shock discomforts. Later he
decided to just have my wife come for me on Sunday morning. During the early afternoon, I
found the doctor again to suggest what the Holy Spirit indicated after I had done some more
praying about the one-second shocks (which I was still receiving occasionally, more than a half
hour apart and sometimes none for an hour or two). I told the doctor about having past problems
with the reflux condition due to high acid level. The first time in 1979 felt like I thought
indicated a heart attack, but my supervisor told me to try honeyger (a little apple cider vinegar

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and honey mixed in water. That stopped the pains immediately. Other times later when I felt
pain in the middle chest area, I used anti-acid tablets. Then later in Germany I got a medicine to
prevent throwing- up feelings when I began eating bread and meat. The doctor said that the
reflux could have caused what I was currently experiencing and put that in the report. I later
asked him if I could have an anti-acid blocker and a nurse got me such a pill. It did not work
right away. But I did not have any more of the shocks since the last one during Saturday dinner.

That night I did not have to be attached to the monitor during the night and my roommates and I
were only tested with the blood pressure rating machine and the thermometer for the ear only
once all night long instead of almost every hour. That was rarely done, but it allowed my 3
roommates to get a good night sleep even though we lost an hour because of the time change.
What a contrast to my last hospital experience (no overhead light and no loud talking etc.). Dolo
came late because of the time change, so I ate breakfast after seeing the doctor. He later gave me
my release paper. But when Dolo came we had a wonderful hour conversation with 2 of my
roommates. One was born and raised where Dolo’s mother was in a part which now is in Poland
and the other man was a true Christian of one of the denominations of one of the churches we
had attended for over a year and who had the same dentist as we do and works at the University
Hospital too. Dolo even told me later that was a sign of providence. And my ward number was
12 and my room number was 2. There was also the biggest hospital window I have seen and
Saturday morning we saw one and a half rainbows. Every one of the staff was nice and most of
them spoke enough English for understanding me. They seemed very experienced and the blood
test area had only a very small reaction bruise for the three holes in m right arm. Also, God
knew the right room for me to be in. The admitting doctor apologetically said that she only had
one bed available in the non surgery unit and it was in a room for 4. And God knew that Dolo
and I would be able to communicate spiritually with the Christian and entice some interest from
the apparent non-believer, so that they would talk about spiritual things from then on for the rest
of their time together. Also, as I had hoped for, I even got honey for my bread instead of jelly,
because I knew that for lunch I would eat some of my roll-up pancakes which had jelly inside
them.

My big mistake and some more reasons I was thankful: After praying a lot to God for healing on
Friday, I stopped doing such once I decided to go the hospital. In other words I just was trusting
medical science representatives to solve the problem rather than God. But after the third doctor
didn’t know what else could have caused the discomforts in my chest, I started earnestly praying
to God again and soon after the reflux memory came to me. I did not know that Dolo had not
told either of the first two doctors about it. I found out later that she mentioned almost all of the
rest of my health problems. So I had to apologize to God for not continuing communicating with
Him after we decided to go to the hospital. And even though I did have the acid blocker pill, I
think that He healed me instead. The third doctor did put in the release letter that I should
probably get a gastroscopy. Dolo said that such is quite easy to survive with the pre-medical-
knock-out procedure method. Medical doctors and other scientists don’t like not having at least
one answer or suggestion in response to a problem, so God had me be at the hospital to give
another suggestion for chest pains for that doctor to share with other patients and other doctors.
And finally I was so glad that I was able to manifest divine peace and divine joy frequently
during my stay at that hospital. Such encouraged almost every one I met. Words are not always
necessary to share God’s wonderfulness. And when we react differently to challenging situations
than most people do, it is noticed.

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Other conclusions and good news: (1) I know where to go if I have any possible heart problems
in Hannover, (2) that I need to keep continually praying to God, and (3) my heart is apparently
completely healed from the heart attack. Dolo and I missed hearing a man from the United
States and having good fellowship with former church friends, but I found out on Sunday that the
sermons were about Christian consecration that we already knew about. The titles indicated that
he was going speak on some negatives about God and so I did not have peace about going out
town to the conference center city. And now I feel much better to do my Internet ministries and
the Holy Spirit even gave me a better way to put my computer documents in a proper order by
using numbers with the two dashes before the titles instead of tildes (“~”) in front of the best.
That idea came during this hospital stay. Now I have to change over 6000 items’ titles, but they
will be in my rating order no matter what software they are in. In Yahoo and Diino and Box.net
software, the best articles were going to the bottom and the 1-- items appeared at the top. I don’t
know why I didn’t solve the problem over a year ago. I just put an explanation in e-mails about
the problem. But I am very happy now. Such can result from humbling experiences. And I was
able to even tell the third doctor how I was especially trying to help USA citizens and that we
both have good occupations for helping others. He had gone to high school in Missouri and did
a 3 month car trip to many places in the USA with some buddies and an old car they bought), but
he had vowed never to visit the USA again because of how he was treated by immigration
security at the airports as if he was a bad person. But now after our brief talks, he might ask the
next peaceful and joyful and thankful American about what is true Christianity. Friendship
evangelism usually requires several witnesses in order to get such a question. I will do daily
prayers for all who I have met in this hospital experience.

Follow-up: Monday morning, we went to our general doctor who was happy about my testimony
and the letter from the third doctor. But she didn’t think I needed a gastroscopy and gave me 15
days of free acid blocker pills. Dolo still has some of the good emergency, immediately active
acid blocker liquid packets which I could use if necessary when at a restaurant or on a trip and
feel like throwing up or feel acidy in my chest area. The EKG one of the doctor’s assistants did
on me was good. The doctor said that if I have to go to a hospital again, to take the EKG print-
out and the doctor’s letter. She also suggested for me to eat a few dry fruits or some cherry juice
daily to keep the potassium level at normal. But I didn’t eat any more dry fruits and I have not
had any pains since.

So as the city-worker-planted spring flowers are blossoming (photos sent upon request), I finally
believe that God healed me of the heart problem, and now I have better ways to deal with the
three kinds of occasional reflux challenges. I may even go to a 4-day spiritual conference
starting two Thursdays from now. Apparently the only problem I will be daily having for the
near future is needing to fight morning sleepiness caused by one of the morning pills. Onward
for whatever God wants!!!