It is good to be back at the helm of iNews Cayman. Many thanks to my colleague, Colleen, for keeping us up on line.

And as for thanks, I must publicly thank the doctors, nurses and ancillary staff at the George Town Hospital Surgical Ward for making my stay there relatively pain free and an experience I now will remember with much appreciation and gratitude.

I believe I could not have received better treatment and care anywhere else in the World.

When I was moved into the pre-operating room I received a friendly wave from the surgeon and a broad smile. I greeted the operating staff when I went into the theatre with a quip after seeing the tools laid out on various tables and the white coated, hooded and masked personnel, “So this is the butcher’s shop.”

When I am nervous and believe me I was, I am apt to be a humorist to try and calm myself down.

My attempt at being amusing got this response:

“Oh no. This is where miracles happen!”

And to me it was a miracle.

I was expecting and had been told as much that the recovery after the surgery would be long and horrendous.

The surgery was long – 4 hours – much longer than expected and I was awake for much of the time but it was NOT horrendous. I could even watch what they were doing to the most intimate part of my body on a TV monitor. As I am very short sighted what I saw was a blur and quite honestly I was not disappointed in that. Seeing bits of my precious body being cut out really was not high on my list of televised entertainment.

The surgeon apologized for the length of time and explained why but the miracle is because of this I am now free of the long road to recovery.

Less than 48 hours after major surgery I am home recovering and all my body functions are now working 100% better than before the dreaded knife was applied and I do not have to endure the dreaded unpleasant recovery I was expecting.

It is a miracle and in the hands of an amazing surgeon a knife is a weapon of better life and cure, not death.

The constant monitoring of my recovery from the friendly and concerned staff was first class and the food served was as good as any of Cayman’s excellent restaurants could offer. I was even given a choice of food for lunch and evening meal.

And last but not least. I am most humbled by the emails, telephone calls and visits from concerned friends and family in my short time there. Everyone said they were praying for me and I am a great believer in the power of prayer. My dear friends at St George’s Anglican Church have made me feel so loved and wanted and I am not ashamed to say I cried.

I thank God above all else for without Him we are lost. If you don’t have God in your life you are missing the only person who can save you when illness and adversary comes. It is, of course, His decision whether to take you to His kingdom or not. It is not for us to reason why. We must give Him thanks and I most certainly do that.

He has given me a loving wife and I am sorry for the worry I have given her over the 31 years we have been together.

I leave you with this passage from scripture that is not widely known as it from the Apocrypha but it is used by Anglicans and Roman Catholics to commemorate St. Luke’s Day – Luke the writer of the third Gospel and a doctor.

Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 38: 1-4, 6-10, 12-14
Honour physicians for their services, for the Lord created them; for their gift of healing comes from the Most High, and they are rewarded by the King.
The skill of physicians makes them distinguished, and in the presence of the great they are admired.
The Lord created medicines out of the earth, and the sensible will not despise them.
And He gave skill to human beings that He might be glorified in his marvellous works.
By them the physician heals and takes away pain; the pharmacist makes a mixture from them.
God’s works will never be finished; and from Him health spreads over all the earth.
My child, when you are ill, do not delay, but pray to the Lord, and He will heal you.
Give up your faults and direct your hands rightly, and cleanse your heart from all sin.
Then give the physician his place, for the Lord created him; do not let him leave you, for you need him.
There may come a time when recovery lies in the hands of physicians for they too pray to the Lord that He will grant them success in diagnosis and in healing, for the sake of preserving life.
Translation: New RSVP