Ep 2: The Ambulance Trip I Don't Remember

Recovery is rarely a straight line. After beating cancer, Austin Gardner found himself in a new valley: COVID-19. Austin talks about the dangers of pride, the physical toll of low oxygen, and why even in our most "difficult" moments, God’s goodness never leaves our side. A must-listen for anyone struggling with a health crisis or family tension during hard times.

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Chapters

• 0:53 Kidney Cancer Diagnosis & Surgery
• 2:10 Recovery At Home With Church Support
• 4:25 Settling Into Life With One Kidney
• 5:24 The Shock Of 2020 And COVID
• 6:38 Headaches, Denial, And Decline
• 8:29 Family Intervention And Ambulance Ride
• 9:37 Hope, Faith, And Next Steps

Transcript

Recovery At Home With Church Support

Settling Into Life With One Kidney

The Shock Of 2020 And COVID

Headaches, Denial, And Decline

Family Intervention And Ambulance Ride

Hope, Faith, And Next Steps

Austin Gardner 0:27

Well, we've already clarified that I had cancer. They took my kidney. And so now I am without my right kidney. I've never had surgery in my life until this a little under 14 years ago. And I'm 71, almost 72 now. So I'd never been sick, never had a problem, didn't know what I was doing or what to expect, to be blunt honest with you. I was in the hospital one day because I had uh kind of a health-sharing, Christian health sharing kind of insurance, and I didn't want to bump it up where I couldn't afford to pay for it. So I was home, I think, within 23 hours. And my friend, Faith and CC May, who was the nurse that's taking care of me, been like family for years. Well, she came to the hospital and they wouldn't let me go. I was full of gas. It gets up because they blow you up when they're going to do that kind of surgery. And they had poked around inside, gotten everything out, and I had gas bubbles under my skin. I didn't know that's what it was. That's what the nurses told me because I was hurting. And faith came and she was walking the halls of me and my wife Betty. And so finally I got to come home and thank God I had a few friends that came here to my house, the one we used to live in, and they took care of me for days because I didn't get a day or two in the hospital. And so they had to help me get out of bed and help me lay back down. I was a big fat boy when all this went down, and so the surgery wasn't easy on me at all. But I was back in the pulpit, and I don't know, less than two weeks. I was back in the pulpit and excited to be all with life and knowing that it would probably never come back and I'd never have another problem. That made my day. I was excited that I probably would never have another problem. That's what the doctor said. And so I went about my life. All was very good. Honestly, I got back to life. I had a, I was missing a kidney. The weirdest thing happened when you would lay down in bed at night and turn over, I could just feel my insides rolling and filling that cavity. I asked the doctor, and he laughed. He said, So I got closet. Don't worry, it'll fill up. And uh sure enough, it went away. And I had had uh, I went to an ordination of a friend, and I was still on medication, and I was hurting, and uh, I cried and acted really foolish because I was a drugged, you know, big baby, never been through a lot of this. And that was my first go around. But I came out of it, it all was great. I was looking forward to what would be a wonderful life. The church treated me very well. Vision Baptist Church is very kind to me, very good to me. The people in the church were super with me. My friends had been there. Everybody came to the hospital and was in the waiting room while I had the surgery. People came to my house, they brought food. What the beautiful thing the church, a Christian body does when everybody loves each other and helps each other. And that was what was going on. And I'll be honest with you, it was wonderful. So I'm going through the cancer, I'm coming out of the cancer, I'm just down a kidney, life is back pretty much to normal. And and finally, the my inside stopped rumbling and things were back to normal. And life was great. I did get a little nervous. You know, even after they cut it out of you, and even after it's over, you wonder, is it over? You wonder if we is there have we got to a solution point. Well, years go by now. So it's like, what, 2021? I have to look at my app to see, you know, COVID started coming. I'm looking at my app. I use an app called the Days App, and it counts the number of days that I have, you know, been been from anything on the way to it or on the way back. And so anyway, I was I was went to the hospital. Let's see here. I'm looking in June 11, 2020. The family had gone on vacation together, and we were down in Florida, and and I'd taken all the family my wife and I had, and everybody was joking about 2020, 2020, Barbara Walters, 2020, 2020. And we had no idea what a wild ride we were in for. All of a sudden, COVID hit. Now, I'll be honest with you, I am not the most non-political guy. I am not the most logical guy. I could get emotional. I didn't like it. I thought it sounded like a fake thing that making everybody wear a mask and all these weird things, and it was just like the flu. So I didn't have a good attitude. Then they shut down the church services. Boy, did that make me mad. They shut down the church services. I felt like if there was anything necessary that ought to be going on other than church. But even the people in my church were like, you know, you need to be a little more careful. There was one or two fellows that stood with me, but the majority thought I was a nut. I was taking too strong a stand on we ought to have church. You know, that's kind of the way I was. Looking back, I think I could have been a little kinder about that. I think I could have been a little easier with people. I didn't believe it. Well, I don't know much about what I'm about to tell you. And this will probably go into an over into another day because I'm only making seven, eight-minute videos here. But what happened was I didn't feel good. I began to get headaches that were killing me. And to be honest with you, this is a week. I am about not going to remember. I'm only going to tell you what I was told. I was told that I used my CPAP machine that I quit using to force hair, and that made me feel a little bit better. I would lay on the bed and lay my head over the side of the bed. I love to work and I'm always busy and I'm always at it, always have been. They said I quit working. Everybody in the family got worried about me. I don't know anything. I'm telling them I'm okay. Well, you see, I have also got a private pilot slice. And so I know that when you get above a certain altitude, you start losing oxygen. When you lose oxygen, you can't think rationally. I already have my pilot fly center certificate, as it's called. And I knew better. Good night, I knew better. That's hard. I didn't know what I was doing then. We can be honest, I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't know what was going on. And finally, my children are now fighting among themselves. Because I'm telling them, I'm okay, I'm fine. I don't remember any of this. My wife is crying because she said, Dad says he's okay. My son in Prue calls and says, Bless God, he needs to go to the hospital. My daughter that's here says, Mama says he's okay, dad says he's okay. They even began to fight amongst themselves. We ought to never fight among ourselves. We ought not. I hate that. So my fault. I brought it on because I was so worried about not accepting the fact that there might be COVID, you know. And so finally, my older son called an ambulance and told my wife, he said, You tell him he's going to the hospital. Well, they said they came in and told me, I don't remember any of this stuff. I've already told you. And they came in and told me I was going to the hospital, so I said, Well, I better go take a shower. So I went in. I barely could stand up, I barely could walk, I was in bad shape. But I didn't look all that bad far as sickly. And they took me out, and I was standing outside waiting, and the ambulance showed up. And I'll tell you how good I looked. And I don't mean I look good, you know. I've never looked good. I would not even claim that I looked good. But I was standing out there and the ambulance drivers showed up. And according to my family, they said, Well, who's going to the hospital? And they pointed at me and they couldn't believe it. And I told them, I will not get in that ambulance and I will not lay down on that gurney. No way I'll do that. I'm not going to do that. I told them clearly the ambulance drivers pulled up. I walked right up in there, climbed up on the gurney, and laid down. I don't remember any of that. And they drove me to the hospital. My wife's in there, don't remember. They drove me to the hospital and they wouldn't let my wife go into the hospital with me. You know what I mean. It was kind of a weird situation, a weird thing going on. And so I'm in the hospital, and I'll take that up with you on the next time. I hope you'll come back. Hope you'll spread the word because I want to help you. I want it to be a blessing to you. My goal here is not to tell my story, but to let you know I know where you've been. I know what it's like to hurt. And I know that even in all the mess that's going on in my life, the goodness of God has always been there. And I don't know what you're going through right now, but he is with you and he will be with you, and he's going to take care of you. God bless you. Share this and get somebody to subscribe.