Well, Tuesday morning started off just as I had anticipated.  By 8 o’clock I knew what a plucked chicken felt like. They wheeled me into the OR and that’s all I remember till sometime in the afternoon when I heard a voice calling my name and telling me to breath. That seems like strange thing to say to someone with a tube down their throat, but they want to make sure you are able to breathe on your own so they can cut back on the machine that is helping and eventually take out the tube.  That happened early Wednesday morning.  From this point on everything progressed rapidly as that gave me more things to do for myself, got me up walking  gradually removed tubes and needles and finally let me go home Sunday afternoon.  It is now Friday morning and I am sitting here at the computer, just a slight discomfort in my chest, have my appetite back, expecting to be almost back to normal by the weekend. and planning on being in church Sunday morning.

What I didn’t know was that during the four hours I was in surgery, the surgery waiting room was almost overtaken by the “Van Tassel Party”.  Not only was my family there waiting and praying but a number of friends from our church and from our daughter’s church (which is sort of like our second church).

What I did know, and had all along, was that God’s people, from South Florida to Nova Scotia had been and were praying for me and I had complete peace! It was awesome to think of God’s love flowing through people and churches that might not know me or of me, but still lifted their petitions on my behalf.  As I lay in bed the other night putting these thoughts together in my head, as I got to this point I experienced something I can only describe as overwhelming.  It was as if all of God’s love that had been accumulating was all of a sudden being poured over me in waves, wave after wave, and I just lay their weeping for 5 or 10 minutes. I serve an Awesome God.

See how very much our heavenly Father loves us, for he allows us to be called his children, and we really are! But the people who belong to this world don’t know God, so they don’t understand that we are his children. 1 John 3:1

One side note to all this is the “Heart Pillow” they gave me when I Came out of surgery.  One of the things they stress when you come out of surgery is to do deep coughing to keep your lungs clear as pneumonia can be a real problem if you are not careful.  To do this they have you hold a[pillow or blanket to your chest, wrap your arms tightly around yourself and cough.  It hurts,  but the benefits outweigh the pain.  Any way they gave me this decorated heart-shaped pillow for this purpose.  There's a marker attached that everyone that   cares for you or visits can use to sign the pillow. It' really pretty nets!  Here's a picture of it:

My "Heart Pillow" from Trident Medical Center