I'm back!!

Let me preface this post by saying there will be no pictures to go along with this story:) I certainly have some if you're interested, but I don't want to bring anyone to the point of losing their lunch. If you haven't heard already, I am FINALLY healed of the mysterious pain that has been lingering in my life for the past 6 years. In April 2003, I had my gallbladder removed, along with the "hundreds" of stones that filled it. What WEREN'T removed, apparently, were quite a few stones that had ventured into my bile duct. Because of this, I experienced the same original "classic/textbook" gallstone pain off and on for the 6 years following this surgery. After visiting numerous Emergency Rooms, doctors, and my original surgeon, I was convinced that, not only must I have been crazy and possibly even causing this strange pain, but that I was going to have to live with this for the rest of my entire life. Needless to say, that was very disheartening, and quite a bit of anger accompanied the countless episodes of pain.

The pain would come and go, but it never lasted more than a few hours at a time. Two Friday nights ago, however, after the pain had gone on for over 14 hours (accompanied by me throwing up and having chills/hot flashes), we headed to the ER at Baylor Grapevine. Finally, a CAT Scan revealed that there were, in fact, gallstones in my bile duct the whole time. They were removed Sunday morning, and I returned home Monday. Aside from the ups and downs of my and Derek's emotions throughout all of this, we are so thankful that I am finally healed!

During that awful pain Friday night, I prayed and prayed my heart out to God to take the pain away, to heal me, to just let me go to sleep or SOMETHING!!! This was something I had gone through so many times, and I didn't know why God wouldn't cause it to ease up this time! "Why won't you just give me a break!!!" Well, of course, God was doing what was best for me. Had that pain gone away like it normally did, I would have gone on having the same problems, and nothing would have been resolved. Thankfully, Praise the Lord!, the excruciatingly long episode left me with no other choice BUT to go to the ER where my true Healer was graciously awaiting to eternally (!) take this pain away. Thank you, Lord, for saying "No" to me when You knew that this suffering was going to bring about my ultimate healing!

Sorry there aren't any pictures. You would thank me if you knew what those pictures looked like:) (Yes, they did give us pictures of my gallbladder 6 years ago during the surgery, as well as pictures of the stones removed this time around! haha)

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