Our Fourth of July celebration took place in Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, NJ. Technically it all started in my bathroom late in the afternoon, when I went to brush my teeth and went crashing to the ground. I say crashing, but I have no discernable bruises on my head or body giving me any indication that I fell, unrestrained to the floor, but there it is. I was out like a light–no pulse.

My sweet wife, Corinne, started to give me mouth to mouth.  Shortly thereafter, Sarah, my daughter who works with the public and is trained in CPR for her job, took charge having already called 911.

In a few minutes the ambulance and a fleet of police cars showed up at the house, and the pro’s got to work on me.

“Clear”–zap–“clear”–zap, and off I went to the hospital.

I’d love to tell you all my wonderful story of bright lights, mansions, falling down at Jesus’ feet, and being dragged back kicking and screaming into this mortal life, but I have no memories of any of that. In fact, my actual memories don’t kick in until late Friday, though I was conscious by 7 or 8 pm on the 4^th.

They tell me I put up a fight. The doctor came out and told my family that I was kicking and fighting while they were trying to put a stent in my right coronary artery. They all kind of laughed and the Dr. said it was not funny. Hmmm–I guess I really didn’t want to be there.

I have a photo of the blockage and it’s pretty dramatic. The right coronary artery feeds the right side of the heart. It’s the smaller side of the heart because its only job is to pump blood to the lungs.

They inserted a stent and sent me into recovery. I hung out in the hospital until Sunday, and now I’m working on getting follow up visits scheduled, and generally hanging out. The only real restrictions they put on me was that I lift nothing greater than 10 lbs.

Many of you heard about this, and have been praying for me. I can’t say thank you enough. You have no idea how strong the love of Christ shows through His body until you find yourself in a bad place.

For those of you who only know me here in blog-land, I wanted to share just a bit of my fun Fourth of July festivities with you. (For the record, I don’t recommend it.)

Thanks for all the love and prayers,

Love you all,

Ben