An Almost Shocking Experience

Five o'clock A.M.??? and I couldn't go back to sleep. So I got up and made the coffee. This is a good time to go over my sermon on Sunday morning. After my third cup of coffee, my heart began doing something it had never done before. It began beating very irregularly...very fast and quick, then slow. I was sitting there on my front room couch feeling like I had just run a sprint from home plate to third base. When Donna and I came to the conclusion it wasn't going to settle into a normal pulse rate, she drove me to the Emergency Room at Twin Cities Hospital. I've never missed my responsibility of preaching/teaching my sermon on a Sunday morning. I waited, but after calling Dr. Lemm to tell him we may not make today, he urged us to go to the hospital.

It was weird listening to my heart beating so irregularly, as I lay there on the emergency room bed. The doctor and staff were great. When we had a moment, the doctor and I were talking baseball. He had an autograph baseball signed by Mike Schmidt. I told him Mike took my position while playing in the Phillies organization. We both laughed.

The doctor gave me the options I had. Really only one made sense. Although it was the one I didn't want to do. They were going to shock my heart back to a normal pulse rate. I asked if I could go to the restroom first. They said yes. They were getting ready, and I walked into the restroom. I said, "Lord, what's going on here? I'm OK with not preaching my sermon today, but Lord I just don't want to get shocked. Lord, is that possible?" I walked out and as I was walking down the hallway I felt different. I placed my fingers on my wrist and my pulse was beating normally. As I walked into the room I told everyone my heart was in rhythm. They said, "Sure..."
When they hooked me back up to the heart machine it was music to my ears.
They kept me for another ninety minutes. It maintained. That was an almost shocking experience. Thank you Lord. And thank you all at PRBC who were praying for me. I think it was the same time you were praying that my heart went back.
I'm now sitting here on that same couch listening to the rain with a thankful heart. Literally.

P.S. No more leaded coffee.