Faith | pictured words

Perrysburg Mercy Health

Thursday July 29, 2025

Keith experienced
classic heart attack symptoms.
Said, “Call 911.”

Very unlike Keith,
and so he didn’t have to
tell me more than once.

A look and some tests
showed no sign of heart attack.
Phew! But what happened?

July 31, 2025

Back in the E.R.
for STAT echo with contrast.
This, our new St. Luke’s?

Medical Test Findings:

He is well nourished.
His reproductive organs?
* Unremarkable.

August 2, 2025

Gallbadder all along?

Back in the E.R.
More tests have resulted in
admission. Thankful.

August 3, 2025

6:46 a.m.

Spoke with Keith’s nighttime
nurse. He slept well. Still no word
on surgery time.

Afternoon

No surgery yet.
First will come more heart tests, then
gallbladder comes out.

August 4, 2025

9:30 a.m.

Nuclear stress test
(a four-hour test) followed by
an echo-something

8:00 p.m.

A 30-minute
gallbladder removal turns
into two hours.

Anterior wall
is the only thing removed.
The remainder is

too attached to the
liver. Apparently they’re
inseparable.

August 5, 2025

11:30 a.m.

After not eating
since 5 p.m. August 3,
Keith is transported

to St. Charle’s to have
surgery 2 in two days –
needs a bile duct stent:

another 30-
minute procedure that took
about two hours. Ugh …

5:00 p.m.

Keith is returned to
his first hospital in far
worse shape than he left.

Suffice it to say,
two surgeries in two days:
zero of ten stars.

After forty-eight
hours of no food or water,
and overheated,

there was ice water
for his throat, behind his neck,
on his head, and chest.

But other than that,
he didn’t want to be touched
not even by me.

He was beyond hot
(take that in every way)
and who could blame him?

August 6, 2025

Now his pancreas
has become enraged. Numbers
have skyrocketed:

Lipase, which should be
between zilch and one sixty
is at three thousand.

Other lab numbers
are also out-of-whack. So,
no discharge today.

Clear liquid diet
is better than nothing, right?
“Nothing” went too long.

August 7, 2025

FINALLY some FOOD!
He had flat, unseasoned eggs
that he loved, loved, loved!

Improving numbers
bring hope again for discharge.
Nope. Safer to stay.

August 8, 2025

Finally discharged!
Though he is still battling pain
and unwell feelings:

He paused at the door
and sighed deeply as he stepped
inside the kitchen,

slowly walked each room,
taking in the sight and scent
and feeling of home –

mentioning details,
like the way the sun glistens
on the wooden floors,

and the beauty of
the hydrangea tree that
graces our window.

We both recognize
how grateful we should be in
the midst of hardship.

We have access to
a clean, modern hospital
filled with good people

who take pride in what
they do – from the surgeons, to
the NPs, RNs,

doctors, LPNs,
those who prepare the food, and
those who bring the trays,

the housekeeping staff,
the various technicians,
and those we don’t see.

The warm smiles and waves.
The patience for their patients.
The words of comfort.

None of these details
went unnoticed, and all were
appreciated.

(c) Marie Elena Good 2025

* Keith laughed hysterically over this aspect of his test results report! HA!

This, not really poetic, is an accounting of this event in the lives of my husband and me. I like to write 5/7/5-syllable poems, statements, observations, or feelings that express my day. This is the collection from what began July 29 with classic heart attack symptoms that ended up being a gallbladder attack.

Just for the record: The long, involved surgeries mentioned were through no fault of the surgeons. Keith’s was just a very complicated case.

I may add more to this as the days of recovery continue. This is my way of recording.

8 Comments

April 2, 2025

In these times (no poem, and no picture)

Dear all:

The first time I was eligible to vote, I registered as a democrat. I proudly/excitedly/confidently voted for Jimmy Carter. In the very next election, I registered republican to vote (shaking in my shoes) for Ronald Reagan. For much of my life, I’ve considered myself a conservative republican. After my party went too far right for me, and the democrats too far left, I haven’t known how to politically label myself. I have always voted my conscious – I have never been a party-line voter. I am, and always will be, a follower of Jesus Christ.

But in this time we are in, I am democrat. Not because I agree with everything they think and do. Not because I have seen them accomplish all they say they are about (because I haven’t, because they haven’t). But because I see them as the only path to restoring our checks and balances in this America I already no longer recognize.

In this time we are in, I am American. I am Ukrainian, Syrian, Lebanese, Haitian, Afghani, Iranian, Iraqi, Sudanese, Somalian, Canadian, Burundian, Mexican, Peruvian, Cuban, Brazilian, Nicaraguan, Venezuelan … you get the picture.

In this time we are in, I am a follower of Jesus Christ. I am Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, Shinto …

In this time we are in, I am female. I am male. I am straight. I am lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer, she, he, they …

In this time we are in, I am a citizen of the United States of America. I am a refugee, a parolee, an asylee. I am legal, illegal, undocumented …

In this time we are in, I am innocent. I am guilty, convicted, chained, and imprisoned.

Why do I say I am all these, when clearly I am not?

When Jesus’s feet were on this earth, He showed love and compassion for all. Yes, He stood for righteousness. He didn’t waiver from purity and holiness, and He encourages us to do the same (though it is impossible for us). He was sinless in His thought life. He was sinless in His behavior. He was all-loving, all-just, wholly compassionate, wholly empathetic, and (please hear this), He was sinless in His compassion and empathy. It is in large part why He came.

As a follower of Jesus, it is my duty and my privilege to honor with dignity and compassion every person ever created. We are all created in the image of God. It is His way. It is what He flawlessly demonstrated, and will do so eternally.

May He help me … help my country … be more like Him.

With all sincerity,
Marie Elena

4 Comments

May 4, 2023

Prayer for my country, on this National Day of Prayer

Photo by Filippo Bergamaschi on Pexels.com

This may be sung to America the Beautiful.

O Father, mold my country’s heart
to seek love’s endless length.
Let all our public servants speak
with honor, truth, and strength.
And gift us with Your favor, Lord,
which we can never earn.
God grant my country
health and peace,
and for You, let her yearn.

O Father, hold my country’s feet
fast to a path of grace.
Let all within her borders seek
to welcome and embrace
our neighbors from around the world,
and see them as Your own
that none should hold
a hungry child,
and none should walk alone.

© Marie Elena Good, 2023

April 30, 2020

FROM HIM, THROUGH HIM, TO HIM (Sonnet to my God)

Photo by Daniel Reche, courtesy of Pixabay

Oh, stillness deep within me, never wane
when chaos saturates the world without.
I know the very God who sees and reigns –
whose still, small voice speaks peace, and quiets doubt.

He gave mankind a gnawing in our soul
that won’t be satisfied without His will.
And only He can quench that thirsty hole;
and only through His food, we get our fill.

At times, my praise rings sonorous and strong,
and springs from nourished soul that feeds on Him.
At times my praise, just weak and weary song,
seeps sluggishly from apathy within.

Oh, Father, fill me up when I am drained,
and may my praise be endless; unrestrained.

2 Comments

April 9, 2020

ONE (Ekphrastic)

ekphrastic_prompt_3

Love, laughter, and fun
under the same moon and sun,
for we are all one.

#seventeenintwenty

April 7, 2020

PLACED IN A TIME SUCH AS THIS

Ohio Department of Health Director, Dr. Amy Acton (thankful for her)

I don’t believe in fluke of fate.
No, we were slated for this time.
But as we climb this curve
we work to flatten as ordered
to slacken this attack,
I am looking forward
to looking back.

8 Comments

March 22, 2020

MY SPIRIT’S SONG (a poem with wrapped refrains)

Image by Colin Behrens, courtesy of Pixabay

I’ve often said it is no toss
‘tween loss of sight or hearing loss.
for music is to me as bread.
It feeds my soul, I’ve often said.

My heart beats to a melody –
a bond abiding breathlessly
as harmonies are coursing through,
in tune with what my heart beats to.

And I believe when angels sing,
our parched earth sips from worship’s spring
to praise a God we can’t conceive.
They catch my ear, and I believe.

It need not be a “worship song”
to lift my eyes and make me long
to sit upon my Father’s knee,
and see my worries need not be.

Should I not hear jazz beat of drum,
or soothing sound from cello’s strum –
Good Father, hearer of my prayer,
please sing to me, should I not hear.

2 Comments

March 15, 2020

RELATIONSHIP

This is an age of unbroken connection.
Our fingertips tap into instant links.
We’ve little tolerance for imperfection,
And as our ego grows, our goodwill shrinks.

And in this age of unbroken connection,
Our face-to-face relationships have waned.
Resulting loss of physical affection
May render us emotionally maimed.

Now suddenly a time of social distance
Is thrust upon us necessarily.
Most look for ways to be of some assistance,
And find these ways, extraordinarily.

I’m thankful in this time of social distance
For God, who binds my drifting heart to His.
Our Father God pursues us with persistence.
Be still, and let Him show you who He is.

Quick note: My last three lines include words and truths from scripture, and from a long-loved hymn, as follows:

“Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” by Robert Robinson includes the phrase of prayer, “Bind my wandering heart to thee.”

The Bible overflows with God’s pursuit of us, including Psalm 139.

Psalm 46:10 tells us, “Be still, and know that I am God.”