Blessings...

Yesterday, I was again reminded of 2 things: 

#1 -  "God works in mysterious ways" 

#2 - "Blessings can be disguised"

As human beings, we generally tend to gravitate toward the negative in a given situation. In this particular case, I am making it a point to CHOOSE to find the positive and be thankful for it. 

As many know, my father had some health issues arise last Christmas. He spent quite a bit of time in the hospital in GF, and then went down to Mayo Clinic to get a second opinion. They found he had VAD - Vertebral Artery Dissection, which caused a stroke. You can find more information about VAD here. Long story short, there is a dissection in the artery that goes all the way through the spine and to the brain. Now, it was very comforting to have a diagnosis after many many MRIs, CT scans, and other series of tests. The treatment my father was told to follow was being on blood thinners for a few months. Apparently, arteries are supposed to be able to repair themselves and the blood thinners were a way of making sure he didn't get any more clots. He followed the doctors orders and was faithful with his medication. He got another scan done after 3 months, which was then sent down to Mayo. The doctor didn't see any change, so he wanted him to stay on the coumadin until another appointment in June. Well, this past Sunday, my parents drove down to Rochester for another MRI and appointment to see if there was any change in his VA. Unfortunately, there was no change, but his blood flow looked great, so the doctor was going to take him off of his medication... until they thought he had some blockage in his carotid artery in the front of his neck. My parents were to stay in Rochester another night to get a CT scan done, just to be cautious. Yesterday my mother called with an update. They found nothing in his carotid artery like they thought they may have seen on the MRI (taken the previous day). WHEW! However, they did find something in his lower neck in the same scan. They found it to be a subdural aneurysm. This is not like a "brain aneurysm" that most of us are familiar with. This subdural aneurysm is basically an area in his lower neck where blood "pools", causing the blood flow to be inconsistent. Treatment for this is to stay on coumadin until the end of November. When that time comes, dad will once again have to go down to Mayo and get a test done to see how everything looks. 

Did my parents plan on staying down in Rochester another night? No. When medicine is involved, do things usually go as we want them to, or plan? No. This is where my two thoughts come in...
My parents were not thrilled about staying down in Rochester for another night to get more tests done and play the "waiting game" to see the doctor. Nobody is too fond of hospitals and waiting around to get any sort of information. For all my parents knew, my dad had blockage in a different artery... luckily, that wasn't the case - which brings me to the conclusion that the "artifact" found in the MRI, which was later found inaccurate, was a "blessing in disguise." Had the doctor not ordered a CT scan and had my parents stay down another night, none of us would have known about the aneurysm... therefore, something could have gone terribly wrong later on down the road. God really does work in mysterious ways - and this is a perfect example.
So, in conclusion - my parents are at home and both back to work. Are we done with Mayo clinic and the various tests?? -No, but you know what... as long as my father is able to go on with his everyday life, even if that involves taking some medicine daily, that is definitely something to cherish and thank God for :)