Friday, May 27, 2016

Healing



For those who have been praying for my health, who have brought us food and taken my kids to various activities, I want to say a deep, heart-felt THANK YOU. These past few months have been challenging, to say the least. BUT, joy comes in the morning! God used each and every one of you in a mighty way! I hope this update gives you a renewed sense of hope and will serve to strengthen your faith, as it has mine.

Over the past few months, as I have struggled to balance all my medications, I have watched my lab test numbers s-l-o-w-l-y drop. (Normal range is 0-200. At my worst point, I was at 3000. With meds, that only dropped by about 100 each week.) I still had the same unexplained, painful spot on my lung that I had had for four years, which limited my ability to breathe deeply, do any sort of rigorous activity, and generally caused discomfort. I had also recently started getting terrible, debilitating stomach aches after each meal that felt like I had a rock in my stomach. With labs every two weeks, I watched my numbers crawl, getting more discouraged every time. I was facing months of this misery. That is, until a few weeks ago.

At a women's retreat, I was talking with a lady whom I had just met who had struggled with significant medical issues in her past. She asked if she could pray over me. During that prayer, she asked God to "restore the years the locust has eaten". After talking and crying and praying for a while, we hugged and went on with the weekend's activities. When I returned home, I had an email waiting for me. You see, the morning I left for the retreat I emailed one of my kid's teachers to discuss some issues with her. In her response (that I received the day I got home from the retreat) she also asked God to "restore the years the locust has eaten". I broke down into tears. God was speaking directly to my heart! Two completely unrelated women. Two completely unrelated events. ONE MIGHTY PROMISE FROM GOD!

Well, let me tell you, GOD STILL HEALS TODAY! From that point on, the painful rock in my stomach never returned, the pain in my lung VANISHED, and later that week when I had my bi-weekly labs done, my numbers had dropped from 1283 to 285! 1000 points in two weeks!!! Today, I went in for my check-up. The doctor was ecstatic about my numbers and completely flabbergasted when he listened to my lungs! He had me take numerous deep breaths and kept saying, "It's gone... I can't believe it! It's gone." 

I believe it.

I had been facing months and months of close to 20 pills a day with all associated side-effects. Today, I was given the go-ahead to begin tapering my meds down. 

THE END IS IN SIGHT!

I cannot tell you how much joy fills my soul right now!

So again, to each of you who have checked on me, prayed for me, helped with my kids, cooked us meals, driven me places, hugged me, loved on me on those really difficult days, I cannot say THANK YOU enough.

And above all, THANK YOU, Jehovah-Rapha...my God who Heals!