They put me into the room with a man 82 years old. He was one of the meanest, nastiest, foul mouthed ex-Navy seals I had ever met. His name was Mr. Mooneyham. His wife was dead and he was mad at the world for it. He was so mean his family lived there in town and didn't come to visit while I was there. He was there to have both hip joints replaced, but his lungs were filled with fluid so they couldn't operate. The nurses were busy prepping people for surgery, so they didn't have much time for him. At this time I had my hair in a pony tail which I had grown back for my H.S. 20 year reunion, so you could imagine what he was thinking of this long-haired freak. From having been on crutches for so long I have a very large upper body(chest and arms), so he said I looked to healthy to be in the hospital. I explained I was having knee surgery. He said he sensed something else, especially since the nurses came in quite frequently to check on me. I told him that he was right, that I'm a diabetic, have high blood pressure, degenerative rheumatoid arthritis and supposedly end up in a wheelchair with my hands and feet gnarled up. Well, he asked the wrong question, "How could I be so happy?". That opened the door for me to witness to him. I don't think he listened much at first. He soon became uncomfortable and in much pain, but the nurses were to busy. I asked him what was the matter and he said it was ingrown toenails. God told me to relieve his pain. I'm like, "Do what?" God told me to humble myself before this man's feet just as Christ did for the Apostles. I went over and pulled back the sheets and looked at his feet. What I saw brought tears to my eyes. On eight of his toes, the toenail curved down the side, through the skin and most likely would have touched the floor when he walked. I found some cotton socks and wove them through between his toes so they wouldn't touch. I also propped up the sheets where they would still give him warmth, but not touch his feet. He asked me why I did this for him, and I explained that if Christ humbled himself before man, how could I refuse God. He looked at me with astonishment in his eyes and said, "You really believe this, don't you?". To which I replied, "With all my heart." Mr. Mooneyham, started being nice to the nurses, eating his meals, his whole demeanor changed that day after I told him I was going to pray for him.

I didn't get much sleep that night, with them constantly monitoring my blood pressure and blood sugars, but I had a great night in THE WORD and in prayer. I felt calm going into this and I could tell everyone was praying for me. When they wheeled me into the pre-op room, they asked me how I was doing, to which I replied, "Great." They said they had never seen anyone so cheerful going into surgery. I explained that I had the Master Surgeon doing my operation and they didn't know what I was talking about. So I explained that no matter what they did, I was in God's hands. The surgery took longer than planned, so my wife went back to the hotel to wait. When they brought me out of the operating room into post-op, I was out for another 30 - 40 minutes. From my previous surgeries I remembered that to get out of post-op you had to be alert and talking, and guess what my favorite subject is? I started witnessing to the nurses, until they would leave and get another one to replace them. Then I would try to wake up the others coming out of surgery to witness to them. Finally after 45 minutes they said I was OK to go back to my room. Later on a young African American female nurse came by my room to tell me that she appreciated what I did and hadn't been to church in years. Now it was time for her to go back to church.

That afternoon, when I got settled in to my bed and looked at the drain tubes out of the 7 inch incision on my shin. I then looked closely at the locking, geared knee brace they had me in. Of all the things to put on someone after surgery. It had the label "BLEDSOE" on it (bled so). In previous surgeries I had gotten hooked on the pain medication. That day I took one extra strength Tylenol and nothing after that. That's with 3 incisions on my leg and 2 each 1-1/4" screws in my shin. God sure answers prayer. The next day they removed me from my bed to change it and made the mistake of putting me in a wheelchair. Now I was mobile, so I went and visited other veterans in their room and sharing the Gospel. They finally hunted me down, caught me and wheeled me back to my room. The third day (sounds familiar) they pulled out the tubes and said I was healing so fast I could go home. I asked my wife to go get me some Christian Thank You note cards and made them out and delivered them to every department I had dealt with, and also to the Hospital Administrator. I received a call the next week from the people in Admissions during their staff meeting saying how they had been touched. After delivering the notes I turned to Mr. Mooneyham to say goodbye. I told him I would continue praying for him. His reply, with tears in his eyes, was "I'll keep praying for you too, son." The Angels sang and God smiled that day. Three weeks later I went back for my checkup. I went to see Mr. Mooneyham. They had moved him to another room, but everyone said how he was such a sweet kindly old man and how he never gave anyone trouble. My checkup went well. So well they couldn't believe it. Bone grafts and where they put in the screws were supposed to take 9 to 12 weeks to heal. They were healed at 3 weeks and I could bear weight on it and bend it almost to my pre-op status. They released me to go back to work with a cane at 6 weeks, and no brace. Of course I used this to witness to the nurses, doctors, and patients at the orthopedics wing.

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