better by injection

I'm currently coming out of a valley. The valley of death it felt like, but not. Just a valley of bronchitis that probably turned into pneumonia before the antibiotics finally kicked in.

Over the past three weeks I have suffered with a terrible cough; deep chested cough. If you know me, you very well know that I don't really care to go to the doctor, and certainly will do anything I can to avoid a shot. This time, my stubbornness only brought a lot of pain.

After two weeks of the same cough and no sign of relief, I decided that it was time to ask God for wisdom about what to do, because obviously my plan of DOING NOTHING was not working. So, I asked, for wisdom. Within a few hours of asking for wisdom, FOUR people told me to go to the doctor! Talk about a direct answer. So I went to the doctor.

The doc was a nice Honduran guy. He didn't speak much English, so most of the examination was done in Spanish. He listened to me breath and then asked for a chest x-ray. I went and took the x-ray, took it back to him, anticipating an easy answer. Well, he looks at it and said: "There is nothing of pneumonia, but it is bronchitis." Ok, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. He wrote out several prescriptions, including antibiotic pills for five days, cough meds, nebulizer breathing treatments and a shot of steroid and muscle relaxer to get it all started. I didn't avoid the shot after all. Little did I know what was to come......

This appointment took place last Wednesday (a week ago). I woke up Thursday, not feeling much better, and just suffered through the day. Friday morning when I woke up, I expected to feel much better. After all, I was on antibiotic that should be working by now--but--it wasn't! We were about to go back to the hospital, but before we went, we called over a nurse and doctor for a second opinion. The nurse said she heard signs of the first stages of pneumonia. Apparently the antibiotic was not doing its job quickly enough. The doctor that came to the house where I was staying for these few days, brought over a stronger antibiotic, BY INJECTION!!!

Like I said, if you know me, you can probably see my reaction. I was terrified! I don't do doctors, I don't do blood, and I CERTAINLY don't do shots, especially again!!!! I had just taken a shot (in the bum) two days earlier and now he wanted to do it again, in the bum, again! I was not getting better, so this was like a last resort before going to the ER. Here's the catcher, this has to be repeated TWICE A DAY for FIVE days!!! THAT'S TEN SHOTS in the bum.....ahhhhhh!! and ouch!!!! It was that, TEN SHOTS, or not get better. So, over the past five days, I have been traumatized (ok, not traumatized...) by being shot with antibiotic twice a day in a very unpleasant place to be given a shot. Have you ever had an antibiotic shot? THEY HURT! The doc also put me on a steroid, which has caused me to eat everything in sight. I have continued the breathing treatments and pain meds for the chest pain.

I can say that today, a week later, I am finally regaining my strength, feeling back to myself and ready to get on with life.

God has a purpose with all that He ordains, and I'm certain that He ordained this sickness to me, along with everything else in this world that He creates, sustains, allows and ordains. This is especially true for His saints, as we see in the Romans 8:28:

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."

So along with everything else going on in His world, God is working this downtime and illness of mine into the good for His people. Maybe it's for my benefit, maybe for the benefit of another. Either way, it's for OUR GOOD--so--for that I an suffer.

As of just a few minutes ago, I was not sure the purpose of all of this. I'm still not certain that I see the fruit of it, but a friend of mine speaks this wisdom into my heart concerning this sickness:

"You know He's going to work it out, and you and I are both pretty sure that you got this so that you can slow down and give Him time to work some things out."

God is working out things. I probably keep Him pretty busy, ha! or maybe I just keep myself busy with myself. I wear me out.

I will say this, over the past week, I have lacked the energy and, sadly yes, the desire to even meet in my quiet place with my Jesus. We meet most regularly--daily. It's something about the way my physical body relates to my mental body -- it just didn't happen. One thing that did happen, though, is a lot of thought and a considerable amount of prayer. We talked a lot, scriptures came to mind, and He softly wrapped me up in His arms and held me and gave comfort like no other could have through this valley.

"Blessed be Your name, On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering, Blessed be Your name"

PRAISE YOU JESUS!