Thankful

Yesterday I had the opportunity to spend some time with a friend of mine. My friend has been having some difficult times and has been fighting health issues to go along with it. She has been having some tests done here and there and one of the tests came back suspicious. She really is very independent and didn't want anyone to worry, so she didn't tell anyone. We snuck out of town to visit a specialist to get some biopsy done. It was a little scary and we were praying alot.
We were admitted rather quickly, but then we had to wait nearly two hours for her procedure to start. We visited, talked some serious stuff and some not so serious stuff. When you are relatively young (she's just a little older than me) and you face what could possibly be a "death sentence" you tend to talk about some serious and not so serious things. So we did, we laughed, and we cried some. She made fun of all the items in my purse, although I had everything she needed :~). They finally took her away, they told me it would be about an hour. I wondered about this facility, brand new by the way, trying to locate a diet Pepsi. That is all I wanted. It was quite the trek to find, but an enjoyable trek. There is this grand lobby that looks like a Swiss Chalet (not that I have ever seen a Swiss Chalet, but what I imagine it to be) a fireplace in the center, chair and lounging spots around the fire, a grand staircase that has two sides, a grand piano with a sweet little lady playing some soft music. WOW! I just really wanted to find a diet Pepsi. So some nice little volunteer directed me to where she thought "maybe, just maybe" there would be a vending machine, "if we even have those". But, the direction she sent me, up the grand staircase, passed the piano, through these double doors entered into the "cafeteria", which is a far too generic name for the fine establishment. But, I found Diet Pepsi. I made my way back to the waiting area. I read for a little bit, then thought about heading to the ladies room. I went back to my chair, read again and thought to myself, it has been over an hour, maybe I should see if she is done and I just missed the volunteer looking for me. So I ventured over to this reader board that told me her procedure was done and she was ready for family. I made my way to the volunteer and asked for her, "oh yes, I called for you!" I must have been in the bathroom. I went back to the room and sat quietly in the darkened room next to my sleeping friend. I touched her cheek to let her know I was there, she mumbled something to me, unintelligible. Then every few minutes she would arouse and say something, usually something pretty funny and then doze back off. After a while I asked the nurse if the doctor would be back to talk with us, oh yes of course he will. So she dozed.....and she dozed....and she dozed....for nearly an hour and a half. I sat and spoke with her when she would awaken. Finally, the nurse said, "let's get you up and get you something to drink!" After she was up and to the bathroom and had something to drink, the nurse paged the doctor. He came and explained the procedure to us and that he had opted not to do everything he had anticipated because he found the problem. He found a stricture that shouldn't have been where it was and that was what the problem was! Hallelujah! Praising Jesus for answered prayers. He explained himself so thoroughly and then answered my friends questions. We were ready to celebrate. After her discharge we headed to a big name store because we thought we could get a watch battery, cause hers had quit working that morning (which she thought was a bad omen, It wasn't :~). She was slightly wobbly and big name store said, we don't have battery for you because your watch isn't from here. So we wobbled out. Food was our next desire. We headed for PF Chang's! I hadn't eaten there, only heard about it, so we were on our way. We had a great meal, she started waking up a little more, she ate pretty slowly!! Anyway, we visited and laughed and I relived my conversations with her that I had had at her bedside while she was "dozing", because she didn't remember a one! We giggled and felt true joy that our prayers for her healing had been heard and answered. We had a great ride home and felt truly blessed that we could spend the day together and get good NEWS! Thank you Jesus for good friends. Ones that we can share anything with!