Dean P. Demos

I had my port surgically inserted yesterday.  It is a plastic tube with three different valves that sticks out of my now shaved chest.  It gives medical personnel a place to inject or draw my blood without sticking me.  Tomorrow, it will facilitate the injection of the chemo that will kill most of my Myeloma cells.  Then on Thursday, it will conversely receive my stem cells which have been frozen since July.

The “trip” I’m referring to is the way Ketamine affected me.  It is the sedation drug the anesthesiologist used to keep me from feeling the pain of the port surgery.

I began regaining consciousness when they were rolling my gurney from surgery to the recovery room.  It was like nothing else I’d ever experienced … almost an out-of-body sensation.  Everything I saw or heard was distorted and unrealistic.  I had no pain, and no control as I returned to normal.  In that moment, it occurred to me … this is what the hippies meant when they talked about tripping.  Weird.

I am so grateful for the Lord’s care in situations like that.  We can rest in Him when being removed from our comfort zones.  Trusting Him to supervise every part of our lives takes away any fear of the unknown.  The words of a popular Christian tune are “In Christ alone, I place my trust.” 

Be sure to take Jesus with you on every “trip.”