"It is good to give thanks unto the Lord. . ."

Many people  have turned to Psalm 91 in times of distress, but it was Psalm 92 that my Bible fell open to yesterday.  "It is good to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High:  to show forth thy loving-kindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness upon every night."
The Lord has given us many direct answers to prayer this week.  Having sat in a children's hospital, passing children in the hall as they dragged around their chemo IV, or listening to the distressful cries each night of an 8-month-old baby across the hall who has spent every single day of his life in that hospital . . . we don't take our answers to prayer for granted.  It is good to give thanks.
We started the week with a mystery:  Jonathan developed a headache Saturday that continued into Sunday.  By Sunday afternoon, his left eye was sagging, and he could only open it half-way.  I gave him some Excedrin Migraine, assuming he was developing a migraine and wanting to head it off before it got more severe.  During the night, Jonathan could feel the swelling and pressure increasing behind his eye.  By Monday morning, the left eye was completely swollen shut.  By the time I got him in to the local clinic, that eye had ballooned so that the eye lid was completely stretched, and the swelling was creeping down half of his face. I thought it surely must be a reaction to the heavy dose of aspirin in the Excedrin, and I went to the clinic hoping they could administer an antihistamine to offset the reaction.  As it turned out, an X-ray showed that Jonathan had a very serious sinus infection in his left sinus cavity.  The physicians at the clinic gave a shot of Benadryl and prescribed antibiotic and ice packs.
The Benadryl did work a little, but as I went online and started throwing these symptoms into my search engine, the word "abscess" started showing up.  Of all the dozens of sites that I skimmed, one of them stood out:  It was the story of a 19-year-old boy in Texas who also woke up one day with his left eye swollen shut.  The doctors discovered he had a silent and aggressive sinus infection that was beginning to penetrate the brain.  It was the eerie similarity to Jonathan's case--waking up with the left eye swollen shut--that had enabled this story to show up in my random search.  Although the images of that boy were far more advanced and severe than Jonathan's, there was enough in common to frighten me.  I called my sister-in-law, who is a nurse.  She immediately called a doctor in their church, who relayed information back to us right away.  He instructed us to get Jonathan in to an Ear, Nose, Throat (ENT) specialist within a day, "sooner, rather than later."  We would need a referral for this, but our clinic nurses were not optimistic that they could get a referral for us that quickly.  Although they tried calling several ENT's, they kept running in to snags.
By Tuesday, Jonathan's symptoms were slightly improved.  But as the evening progressed, his swelling and the pain was returning.  Our clinic nurse suggested going to an ER the next day, if we really wanted to see an ENT.  But we hated to make Jonathan go through a whole night of that pain, and we were both uneasy that the antibiotic had not made more of a turn-around by then.  We headed down to Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in St. Louis.
The Lord was working--even though it was hard to see at the time.  As it turned out, the ER at Cardinal Glennon chose to do a CT scan, which allowed the radiologists to see clearly that Jonathan not only had the extensive sinus infection, but also that he had two abscesses:  One in his sinus, and one that had lodged behind his left eye.  The infection had breached the thin bone next to the eye and was dangerously close to the optic nerve, which gave it a direct route to the brain.  An ophthalmologist was called in, and she did a thorough eye exam in the ER from 2 - 4 AM (Wed.).  She told us that the condition was dangerous, but that Jonathan still had 20/20 vision in both eyes.  So she made the call to allow the doctors to begin IV antibiotics and wait to do surgery during the daytime.  The next day, we were able to see the ENT we had so desperately wanted a referral for.  He was able to make an informed decision, based on the CT scan as well as the extensive report from the ophthalmologist.  If I had had my way, the meeting with the ENT would have taken place Monday, in an office. Instead, we had a wealth of information in the ER that influenced the ENT correctly to decide to do the surgery.
The surgery was not without its risks, since the doctors were dealing with an active infection very close to the optic nerve and the brain.  They did not want to send the infection farther back into Jonathan's head, but they did not feel they had time to wait on the antibiotic.
I know it was not an accident that God scheduled our son's surgery for a Wednesday night, from 6 - 8 PM, the exact hour when Christians typically meet for their weekly prayer service.  Churches from Florida to Montana were praying for Jonathan.  I know that we owe a great deal of thanks to Christians who prayed that night--many of them people we don't even know, who were just being faithful on a Wednesday night to go to church and pray for a teenage boy they had never met.  I will never take it for granted again when someone says, "I'm praying for you!"  And may the Lord help me never, ever to forget to pray for another in need.
The surgery went extremely well.  The surgeon was able to operate by putting a camera through the nostril and then drilling a small hole in the infected bone (yes, there is more than one reason why they don't want you awake during surgery!).  They then could drain the abscess and infection away from the eye.  Jonathan's recovery has been very good.  Although he still has some double vision and difficulty getting that left eye to respond to quick movement, the doctors believe he will make a complete recovery and that those nerves will heal and begin cooperating with the brain again.  By one doctor's estimate, Jonathan could have been within 3 days of losing that eye, had he gone untreated.
But, thankfully, God has no "if."  He was in control all the time, even when we felt so helpless.  He knew the CT scan results before it was ever taken, and He put us at the right hospital, with the right doctors, at exactly the right time.  We are so thankful for how He worked, and we know that God has a plan for that left eye.  After all, there must be a reason He allowed someone to pray for us.