Random, But Not

So today Eric and I were preparing to hook up his IV at home for Vitamin C (and various other minerals that will make his immune system happy!) when a random guy walks up to our door.  Glancing through the front window, I didn't recognize him, and since we have had so many people coming in/out of our house lately I asked Eric, "Do you know that guy?"  

"Yes," he said and paused, "I do.  He used to be a client of mine in Lake Stevens."  Weird.

So Eric steps outside to talk to him, and it turns out he is a solicitor for TruGreen.  Coincidentally, (ha ha! it's never a coincidence with God) he is selling TruGreen services, in his old barber's neighborhood, 60 miles from where he lives, and he knows of Eric's cancer from the barbers in Lake Stevens, and guess what?  Mark has had cancer twice, Stage 4, and survived.  I will try to be brief with details because I wasn't there for the nitty gritty.  But the gist of it is he had Stage 4 bladder cancer, the doctors gave him 3 months to live, told him they needed to completely remove his bladder.  He said no.  They treated him with some experimental chemo or something and his cancer was put into remission.  This guy is about Eric's age, has young boys who are totally into sports.  So he's a robust, healthy-looking guy.  He goes to the doctor for something later and they discover his has lymphoma all over his body.  They give him chemo and radiation.  But the radiation somehow destroys his hip.  He goes to have surgery to replace the hip, and they give him some kind of medication which causes him to go into anaphylactic shock.  He "dies" on the table.  They revive him.  He skips the surgery.  Finds ANOTHER doc, sets up the surgery, someone erroneously gives him another medication he is apparently allergic to.  He "dies" again, is not breathing for at least 3 minutes, they revive him.  He skips that surgery.  Finds ANOTHER doc, who replaces his hip without sutures and he's back to work after only 4 weeks.  And to tie it all together, he worships at the same church led by former pastor of ours from Lake Stevens.  Are you tracking with me?  Random, but not.

So it's like God is popping in to say, "Hello.  I am with you.  Emmanuel."

Later, we successfully hooked up the IV and he's drinking up his vitamins before chemo tomorrow.  IF you want to know....I was nervous, he was nervous, we thought we screwed it up, but finally got it working.  IF you have ever had to hook your husband up to an IV, I say, kudos to you.  My grandmother was a nurse.  My mother was a nurse.  But I am NOT a nurse.  Fortunately, Eric stopped by the cancer center today and had them put the needle into the port.  I only had to prep the IV bag, flush the port with saline and hook up the IV.  Still.  Adrenaline was flowing.