The Unscheduled Sick Call

“Grace isn't a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. It's a way to live.” - Jackie Windspear


I glanced at my watch…7:30[in the morning]...I finally sat down after doing some treatments and started feeling better knowing that I was almost done for the day. When the phone rang. One of the units wanted to send an inmate complaining of breathing as they were eating chow [breakfast at that time].

“Send him down here if he’s able to walk,” I requested.

A young male showed up, complaining of sore throat for a few days. It wasn’t an emergency. But to him, the pain he felt whenever he swallowed food was an emergency. He knew that it wasn’t time yet for a regular sick call in the unit. I started interviewing him as the deputy wasn’t around. I was done obtaining the info I needed to know in order for me to better treat him. As soon as the deputy arrived, I let him in and took his vital signs.

“It’s a good thing. You don’t have a fever!” “Now, open your mouth and say ‘ahhh’” as I shone my little flashlight I always carried in my lab coat’s pocket.

“Your throat is just mildly red and the tonsils are mildly swollen. That means, you’re fighting some viral thing. Just try to get some rest and if you’re not nauseous, drink lots of fluids so you can fight this off,” I advised.

I gave him 3 small envelopes, each containing lozenges, medications for cold and another for pain. He smiled at me and felt relieved to know that it was nothing serious.

“Ma’am, thank you.”

“You’re wel…”I hardly finished my answer when he added, “God bless you.” I was surprised. For those words hardly come out of inmates’ mouths. I felt his sincere gratitude. I was glad that he remembered God in all of that. For that was my aim every time I go to work. To do things for God and His love be known through me. For I was once His enemy. And became His friend when I accepted Him into my heart. I deserved His wrath, yet, He loved me and gave me His mercy. He gave me spiritual blessings instead. My sins kept me apart from Him, Holy God, yet His grace saved me. Grace through faith…God’s unmerited favor. His fullness in my life. Grace He sent down from heaven to make a way again. For sinners’ broken relationships with Him to be mended by the blood shed on the cross.

It was His grace that made me become His servant here in the prison. Grace that overflowed and touched another, needing it. It was not only physical healing that he needed. It was the spiritual healing that he needed the most. Like the rest of the inmates who don’t know Jesus. And by His grace, as he tasted some of it, would linger. In that hurting heart of his. And I felt with certainty, that change would come. In His perfect time. At this special season of the year, please remember that it was not the nails that kept Jesus on that cross. It was God’s love. And Jesus’ willingness to surrender to His Father’s will. To save humanity.

“God bless you…” Simple words but when released from someone’s heart with a sincere gratitude and knowing that there was some divine intervention that occurred, meant a lot…Kindness is one of His gifts as we draw nearer Him. Kindness that we impart after we received it. Kindness, covered with love. And God is love. That is how His blessings work. From one life He touched, to another. From mine toward that inmate…He would never know…

He blessed me more than I blessed him…

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. - Ephesians 2:1-10

Nag! Nag! Nag!

“It is better to live in a desert land than with a quarrelsome and fretful woman.” - Proverbs 21:19

“Ladies, please lower your voice or remain silent,” I requested as I was doing the blood sugar checks on the female side.

The din of early morning chats was reverberating way much, being in that tiny waiting area as a throng of about 12-15 diabetic women, of different ages, gathered from 2 different units. The sign: “No Talking!” was brightly posted on one of the walls but always was clearly ignored. I usually never got upset. But when I try to give them the “hush-hush”, it was also for safety as sometimes, some of them would try to distract me from doing a particular accucheck.

They knew me by now that I was one of those careful not to be distracted. In an instant that if they would become successful grabbing my attention, someone could easily steal needles or other things. A dangerous way of accumulating objects that could be improvised to process for a weapon. I never allowed them to do the accuchecks by two’s, despite us, having a lot of machines. I only tried to call them one by one. Lesser distraction, and no chance of mistakes on my part when administering their insulin doses.

The Bible cautioned women not to chat way too much! Or not to NAG! Can you imagine seeing a husband up in an attic, hiding there, than to be with his nagging wife? [Proverbs 25:24 - “It is better to live alone in the corner of an attic than with a contentious wife in a lovely home.”].

Nagging will do us, women, no good. If we can’t be peacemakers at home, how can we be away from making troubles in the community? Nagging does not help in a marriage. It is one of the reasons why marriages break up, too. We can all learn from the godly qualities of the Proverbs 31 woman. But “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”. [Proverbs 1:7]

So, let us be careful before we even speak. But only let those words that help build others up [Ephesians 4:29]…Check out this news from Italy. Nagging was the reason why this man chose to be in prison than to be home:

Crook Prefers Jail To Wife

An Italian crook begged to go back to jail after telling wardens life behind bars was better than living with his wife again.

Prison bosses had freed Luigi Folliero, 45, to serve the second year of his two-year sentence for theft under house arrest.

But after just 2 days at home, he fled back to Ponte San Leonardo jail, near Naples, and pleaded to go back in his old cell because he could not stand being at home with his wife. He told wardens: “She never stops moaning and nagging.”

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my hubby to coop up in the attic!

My Invisible War [Spiritual Sundays]

Sunday...Again? Where did the rest of the week go? But Spiritual Sundays is one of the best places to visit here in this blog world. Lots of encouragement, of reminders for the right way to live using Biblical principles, lots of sharing with talents when it comes to recipes, composing songs or poems. Best of all, lots of love circulates among those who participate. Because of the unity that comes from our good Savior's love. Please visit Spiritual Sundays and thank you sisters Charlotte and Ginger for hosting this cozy place.

“So, why do you do all these things if you are sending my arrestee for prejail check anyway?” queried an upset cop whose arrestee I didn’t want to accept to be booked in the jail yet because of obvious symptoms that he was “tweaking” from a daily dose of methamphetamine use.

His eyes were rolling upwards. Then, he would gaze at a blank space. Sometimes, able to answer my questions. Most of the time, he acted as if he was in his own world. I was taking his blood pressure which registered high, same with the pulse and he was running a low-grade fever. I told our Intake deputies that I wouldn’t admit him not until he was examined first in an ER. That was when the arresting cop heard me and got upset. Upset because of the impending hassle that he needed to take him to an ER and just couldn’t leave his arrestee.

I looked at the cop eye to eye. And with a soft answer, instead of being upset with him [as they knew the protocol of the booking process in the jail, that everyone gets screened first and cleared by nurses], I replied, “Sir, I took his vital signs so at least you could have a little information for whoever would treat this man that his blood pressure and pulse were high and that he was running a low grade fever. Those info’s would help them.”

He didn’t say anything and put the handcuffs back to the man’s wrists and put him in the back of his squad car. An hour or so later, the man was back. Calm but I had a feeling that he would still continue to show some signs of psychotic behavior. He was placed with other drunk bodies in a cell, all of them waiting to get sobered up. Few minutes later, some of them woke up, including this weird-acting man. He started a fight and he got pepper-sprayed on his face.

After being isolated, he started yelling profanities and started banging hard on the glass windows. I was on a break at that time and the deputies got a permission from the charge nurse to put this man on a safety chair, where he was restrained, to keep him from injuring himself. He couldn’t hit any windows or metal doors then. But the loud yelling continued. Any arriving cops couldn’t help but peeked through the window to see him as he attracted some attention.

Coming back from my break, the charge nurse told me what happened. So, I had to go and check up on him to make sure he was okay health-wise. As soon as I approached the big glass window, he stopped yelling. Instead, he looked at me like a lion waiting to pounce on a prey. He started mumbling instead. I softly mumbled too. With a prayer commanding for him to stop yelling and trying to scare me in Jesus’ Holy Name. He did stop. But every time I walked away, that was when he would continue to be so loud and screaming profanities at the top of his lungs. Every time I would go near him, he would stop and just stared at me with a piercing stare!

I was grateful for the unseen protective covering on me. The Armor of God that brings victory in this invisible war I was in. Every time. I knew he got quiet because it wasn’t me he was dealing with. I knew he saw the BELT OF TRUTH, THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, THE SANDALS OF PEACE, THE SHIELD OF FAITH, THE HELMET OF SALVATION and he heard when I uttered the sWORD, which was God’s Word. He was facing Christ.

I wasn’t alone in this invisible war. You were in it, too. The moment you gave your life to Christ. Let us be careful that we do not expose any part and make it vulnerable to the enemies’ attacks.

"3Buckle on your armor and advance into battle! 4 Harness the horses, and prepare to mount them. Put on your helmets, sharpen your spears, and prepare your armor" - Jeremiah 46:3-4.

Addendum: I was originally going to post this video "The Battle Belongs To The Lord" but being so tired from last night's work and sensing that it would make my post too long for you to read, I didn't. But after reading sister Charlotte's comment [thank you sister], I had a nudging that the Lord wants me to include this video. For whoever out there is facing a tough time in any kind of trial, the Lord wants to remind us that we can give all of our cares to Him. For the battle belongs to Him! Glory to God! Please silence my playlist on the side bar:

Like A Vapor...Here Now...Then, Gone Just Like That

“I tell ya, I have a feeling that he will start hitting his head again once he wakes up from being sedated,” confidently reported the outgoing Intake Nurse to me, the incoming night nurse.

He was talking about the suicidal man who earlier was so loud, crazy, and started hitting his head and punched the heavy metal door with his right hand. That there was no choice but to send him out to the county’s ER so he could be treated for a laceration he sustained on his left eyebrow and his knuckles that got swollen on his right hand. In ER, the doctor gave him a combo of medications to calm him down and make him sleep.

Confident as he was, my confidence was on my Guardian, Whom I sought before going to work that night. Knowing that I was always limited with things that were about to happen. While He already knew before hand. I remained hopeful that my pleas were answered even before things were about to occur.

I checked on the naked man. Naked, as he was very suicidal and not allowed to have anything to prevent him from using them as potential weapons to hurt himself. The wild man the PM nurse described was calm in front of me. He was answering appropriately. He was cooperative. He declined my offer of water. He was positive that he wasn’t thirsty at that time. He thanked me when I told him that I would monitor him all night long. The loud yelling was replaced with soft whisper-like answers through the slits of the metal door so I could hear his replies. The angry demeanor depicted from the report had a smile shown to me and even in the soft glow of the yellowish light inside the cell, his perfect teeth glistened.

“Sleep! Go get some rest,” I commanded.

“I can’t. But I’ll try, Ma’am. Thank you,” he softly uttered. I saw him get down on the cold floor. Turned to his left side and used his left arm as his pillow. Slowly, he closed his eyes. And he remained quiet all throughout the night. He never gave me any problem.

The PM nurse’s prediction did not happen. It was my answered prayer that prevailed.

There is nothing wrong with being confident in this life. But life is like a fog. Here now…Then…Poof!!! Gone just like that.

We easily forget that we don’t have a lot of time to live. We just don’t know everything that is about to happen. If we want to have a meaningful life, we must live each day for Christ! So that, no matter what happens, even if our lives end, then we will discover that we have fulfilled what His plan is for us.

“13 Look here, you people who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” 14 How do you know what will happen tomorrow? For your life is like the morning fog --- it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. 15 What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” 16 Otherwise you will be boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil.”
- James 4:13-16

So...now...what are you doing here still? Go tell your spouse, children, friends that you love them :) Give them a hug and a kiss. And spend each day as if it's the last. Lord, may we be aware of each passing minute. That every minute is so precious. May we not waste the time doing things that do not glorify you. Please give us the boldness to share Your gift of forgiveness to those who haven't known nor heard about it. May your will be done in my life, O Lord. Thank You for Your love and mercy. I love you Lord. In Jesus' Name. Amen.