When You’re One in a Million
You know the toothpaste commercials—4 out 0f dentists.
Or the fine print on contests stating the chances of winning–1 out of 1,000,000.
How about the odds they give for side effects during medical procedures? 1 out of 10,000 will experience…
I realized years ago I’m always going to be that “One in…” and it will always be for the bizarre, not so fun stuff.
In 1995 I went on a cruise to Mexico. I drank bottled water until I could have floated. I returned home and was sick for the next 6 weeks, getting sicker with each day. The doctor was baffled until he asked if I left the country. I knew where he was going with it, but I told him I didn’t drink the water. He explained that 1 in 10,000 (or a ridiculous high number) gets sick on the bottled water, and I was the one.
In 2003 I had a spinal for my c section. As he explained it, 1 in 1000 have a reaction. You guessed it. Days later I was back in the hospital to get relief.
Last week my doctor couldn’t get over it. My x rays defied his track record. I remember weeks ago he stated that only once after a cast came off did he have a patient experience a bone moving the wrong way. I should have known. I’m the second patient he’s ever had to experience the same thing. Instead of being home free, I’m facing surgery and starting all over again.
Yay, me.
Unfortunately, it isn’t just me. I realized the same is true for our daughter and the medical process. Although not so much a 1 in 1,000 kid, God uses her to shake up the medical system.
When she was 8 weeks old the office made a mistake and gave us a false report, delaying critical medicine to her body. She has learning delays because of it. The doctor’s office had to fire the person and change how they did things.
When she was 3 months old she received the wrong prescription and dose from her doctor, and it nearly cost her life. It changed his life, his work, and of course us.
When she was a toddler, we spent 13 hours in an ER where she threw up and no one helped. When respiratory came to finally administer a treatment, she walked out saying she doesn’t do smells. I watched nurses and staff gather in their area and flirt with each other while no one helped our child. A resident wanted her admitted after all that time and our doctor signed off on us denying them because their care was so awful. I wrote the president a letter and until the hospital closed down, the nursing unit used my letter to teach nursing students on what not to do because I had so much proof of their antics.
It isn’t easy, I’m not going to lie. As a parent, you can imagine the anguish. But for the most part I understand God is using her to make a difference, and she is an overcomer as promised.
For me, I joke that I’m 1 in 10,000 and that means I’m special. But in reality I know that means I get the parasites in drinking water, trips back to hospitals, and surgery most of the world won’t ever face. You’re welcome.
You know what else, though? It draws me closer to the Lord where He shares things with me. I lean hard on Him because I need Him, I would without the stats, but realizing when someone say, “Well only 1 in…” I know right then I’ll probably be that 1.
And I’m getting okay with that.
My daughter receives favor. She is the 1 a Radio Disney party chose to answer a trivia question when the school was packed and she was in the back. People hand her gifts–just because.
How about you? Are you the 1 in a million that wins trips and contests? Were you the 1 in 1000 that had a reaction to a spinal? How do you feel when you realize you are that 1?
