I met God this summer

A patient walks into an Pre-OP room and soon after being prepped for surgery, the surgeon walks in. He makes his mark on the patient and comforts him/her. The patient has severe arthritis and cannot walk because of the pain in his/her knees. The surgeon is given the task of allowing the patient to walk again. To most people, a knee replacement doesn't seem like something that could be declared a miracle. I beg to differ. After spending over 135 hours shadowing an Orthopedic Surgeon and his PA, I believe in miracles and I believe even more in God.

I met numerous patients this summer.

  My favorite one I saw throughout my entire two month stay in the Rome Orthopedic Clinic. She was in her early nineties and wanted a knee replacement. She said she needed a knee replacement. When asked why, she smiled. Her sister, still living, was 101 years old. The patient wanted to outlive her sister and needed to keep walking. In order to keep walking, she needed a new knee.

When asked what would happen if she wasn't able to outlive her sister, she smiled again. Her reply brought tears to both the surgeon and I. She was going to live forever because God had given her everlasting life. However, if God one day decided to take that away from her and call her into heaven, she wanted to do God a favor. 

(Here's the part where you're going to need tissues).

Since God has always walked beside her throughout her life, she didn't want to have God push her around in a wheel chair in heaven. She wanted to return the favor and walk next to God if she was called into heaven.

She did get her knee replacement. And she's still got her everlasting life.

She wasn't the only patient I remember. I met countless people who came to the clinic to seek relief and be able to walk again. 

I heard stories that both touched me in a way that inspired me, and stories that brought me to tears. I saw how some people in abusive relationships live in fear with the concept that they have nothing or no one to turn to. When meeting the surgeon in the ER, fear filled her eyes. Afraid of surgery, she asks the surgeon one simple question... Can you pray for me so I'll be alright?

I'm pretty sure all the nurses heard that question and multiple heads tilted downward in silent prayer. 

The surgeon told her God is a good man.

The patient smiled, her mind slowly letting go of fears. "I know he is. He's the best man I know. He's the reason you're my surgeon."

I always believed in God, but I had my doubts about how he performed miracles. I read about "miracles" online, in newspapers, and heard of them on the news. Then I spent a summer in an OR (operating room) and I will honestly say I met God this summer.