GOD IS A GOD OF MIRACLES!
I don't think I have ever posted or shared my FULL story like this except maybe one time. This is a story of victory and healing and miracles. Hopefully, this will encourage someone to NEVER stop believing.
Jeremiah 29:11 for I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. This has and always will be my very favorite scripture. God has a purpose and a plan for everyone. And I know first hand, He makes sure that HIS purpose and HIS plans in your life come to pass.
Christmas Day 2015 I was
admitted to the hospital with a second bout of a rare illness called Guilliam
Barre Syndrome. It is rare because not only is it rare to be stricken with the
Miller Fisher variant but rare to come down with it TWICE. It afflicts only
about one person in 100,000.
Guillain-Barre (gee-YAH-buh-RAY) syndrome is a rare disorder in which your body's immune system attacks your nerves. Weakness and tingling in your extremities are usually the first symptoms.
These sensations can quickly spread, eventually paralyzing your whole body. In its most severe form, Guillain-Barre syndrome is a medical emergency. Most people with the condition must be hospitalized to receive treatment.
Miller Fisher syndrome is a rare, acquired nerve disease that is considered to be a variant of Guillain-Barré syndrome. It is characterized by abnormal muscle coordination, paralysis of the eye muscles, and absence of the tendon reflexes. Like Guillain-Barré syndrome, symptoms may be preceded by a viral illness. Additional symptoms include generalized muscle weakness and respiratory failure. The majority of individuals with Miller Fisher syndrome have a unique antibody that characterizes the disorder.
The Miller Fisher variant is so rare, my wife and I have yet to meet anyone that has had it, meeting only ones who battled with the regular Guilliam Barre.
I was in ICU for over 8 weeks, got progressively worse as the days and weeks went on. The doctors offered little hope at times and even encouraged my wife to call my parents to come to be with her on a couple of occasions when I was not responding to treatment.
The RRT (Rapid Response Team) springs into action when a patient codes or they suspect a patient is probable to code) had to be called and they were standing by because I was not responding to anything and my stats were causing concern.
Had moments I am told
that there were concerns about my kidneys due to lack of output and the doctors
were called in. There was fear of organs being in distress and worried my
kidneys were shutting down. The nurses prepared my wife in the event I began to experience organ failure. She sent out a call to prayer that night and
by the next day my output was normal and no sign of kidney or organ distress.
I was heavily sedated
due to intubation, severe nerve damage, and trauma to my body that I was bound
in hand and arm restraints to my bed to prevent me from panic in ripping out
tubes and hurting myself.
I also had to be tube-fed. I was sedated and unresponsive and unaware of all that was happening to me and around me.
Doctors and nurses were trying to prepare my wife that my future was going to be drastically different. My prognosis for a normal future (to them) looked grim. I was unable to move, open my eyes, talk, breath, swallow…I could do nothing on my own. My wife was my voice, my advocate the entire time I was in the hospital, the ICU in rehab.
I thank God that she held on to Hope and held on to God with tenacious indignancy, prayer, and fight. She refused to believe the reports coming at her and told them every single time “that is unacceptable”.
James 5:16 says The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous
man avails much”
(Amp: the earnest
heartfelt, continued prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power
available/dynamic in its working.)
I had a body of
believers continuing night and day warring for me. It wasn’t just my home
church but the Body of Christ all over the world. I had prayer going up for me
from Uganda, Sweden, The Netherlands, Venezuela, Mexico, Korea, Japan, and all
across here at home in the United States.
There is power in prayer. Of this I am convinced! No one can tell me, God does not answer prayer.
My wife and I were told
I would have severe marked neurological deficits, vision impairment, would
likely struggle to speak as before, that I would most likely be primarily
dependent upon a wheelchair because of the severe nerve damage in my legs and
feet. A doctor said that walking and standing independently will most likely no
longer be my “norm”.
My wife was told while I
was out that I had severe muscle and nerve damage to my right arm and hands and
that she should prepare herself for loss of use of that arm and that she should
begin to slowly prepare me that I will most likely not have use of my right
arm/hand.
My wife replied “No.
That is unacceptable. He plays the piano, he is a worshipper. He needs FULL USE
of BOTH of his arms and hands and that’s all there is to it. I am not going to
prepare for no use and I’m certainly not going to prepare my husband for no use
and I will NOT tell him and no one in this hospital is allowed to tell him that
either. Full use, Full recovery. Period.”
They wanted my wife to prepare my home and our lives for us to be dependent upon home health care and that to even be prepared if I couldn’t be cared for at home that I would need to be placed in a nursing home for around the clock care.
This was THEIR MEDICAL
OPINION…. But God!
1 Peter 2:24 …by the stripes of Jesus, I was healed.
Jesus took Guilliam Barre Syndrome upon himself and took it to the cross FOR ME. It is cursed and I am free from it. Never to return again. The Word says I am healed, I believe it and that settles it.
Spending that long in the ICU not being able to move, talk, eat or swallow, on a vent and then a trach put in that I found my faith being tested.
I questioned within
myself “why”. I didn’t understand why I was going through this and all I wanted
was to be home. I didn’t want my family to continue to endure such pain. My
strength and my faith were definitely tested.
At one point when my
body was so critical and in my weakest state (on the trach hooked to the vent)
unaware of what was going on, my wife would put her phone under my pillow by my
ear and play recordings of my church family praying for me and worship
music. One of my worship songs played
and she and my mother both saw me begin to mouth the words to the song as I was
sedated and out.
I may have been out and
unaware, but my Spirit man was worshipping FOR ME. My Spirit Man was calling
out to God on my behalf.
In my weakness, He
became my strength. In a time when I could not worship, pray or sing, He sang
for me. He fought for me, comforted my heart, stayed with me, and Worshipped FOR
ME.
That was a very emotionally up and down journey for me. There have been so many things that God had done and continues to do for me and continues to show me that He is taking this horrible event where the enemy tried to not only rob me of my hands and my voice but to destroy my future and to kill me and instead turned it all around, rescued me from death, defied medical forecasts and He uses me to tell that this sickness is a name and that name has to bow to a God who is still a God of miracles. He is still a God that heals and it’s HIS STORY that I tell and share.
He is using this to now equip neurologists, therapists, and nurses on how better to understand and treat this sickness and how to care for the family. They use my story as a teaching tool to students up and coming in the medical field because by their account I should be bound by a wheelchair and receiving home or around-the-clock care. The nurses and therapists STILL to this day talk about me and use me as an example for other patients.
By their account, I
would not be using my right arm/hand to play my piano. By their account, I would
struggle w/ breath and air to sing.
It is being said in the
classroom in using my case that “he plays the piano, writes songs and sings in
his church and he is of strong Faith.”
When they teach about me it is still medically baffling that I am not
wheelchair-bound and that I am playing the piano with my dead arm/hand, singing, and home with my family and not in a care facility. How is it possible….God is
how it is possible.
At times when I am asked
to share in these classes and tell my story I always tell them I was carried by
the praying Body of Christ and God touched me and rescued me and that I am a miracle because of God.
This is God taking the ugly and making it beautiful. I’m so thankful for every open door where I have the opportunity to share and I’m so thankful for the Body of Christ that stood and warred for me.
I am a testimony to a
God who is still a God of miracles. I am a work in progress and my healing and
miracle is still unfolding. God is not done with me yet. I will forever sing of
His greatness.
Do I still struggle today? Yes. I have my days when I’m feeling weaker in my body more than normal. I have to use this cane for now, though I have an expectation of it being a thing of the past. I have days where I am more unstable and I tend to get in a hurry and my wife and has to remind to slow it down and watch my balance. In my head and heart, I am eager to go as before, but I have to use some common sense until my body has completely caught up with my healing.
It gets to me at times and we have learned to remind each other that We are blessed. Truly Blessed. We know He is and will take care of us. We have learned that we can truly trust Him. He has never failed us and He is always faithful.
When Paul said “without faith it is impossible to please God” I wondered what he was thinking. On those days where I struggle I have to, on purpose, pull down imaginations and shut the mouth of the enemy trying to affect me with lies. On those days I know where my help comes from. I know who fights for me. On those days when I have a moment when I am down, He meets me and I choose to get up. I decide. He is a constant help to me.
When I decided to move in Faith and believe and stand on His word regarding my life regardless of how I feel, I know He is faithful to comfort my heart and it must please the Lord.
It is a decision. A
daily decision that I want to please the Lord. I do not want to look at my
circumstances and give those circumstances my devotion. Instead, I want to please God by speaking to
those circumstances and my body and say “You ARE healed.” And Believe it! Every
day is a decision and every day He is faithful. I am healed.
He gets the Glory and my
gratitude.
Philippians 4: 6-7 Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God. Then because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will Bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. This peace will control the way you think and feel.
It was prayers of the
saints that ministered peace to my wife and daughter when things were pretty
dark. In those times, peace settled upon them, in that room with me and it
comforted them, it carried them and reassured them that God was moving. It
convinced them that I would be healed and would completely recover regardless
of the many bad reports she would receive or what she saw with her eyes.
I know today to pray and not worry and instead allow the peace the Father offers me and let it wash over me. No one may be able to understand how I feel but Jesus knows my heart.
He Blesses me with peace
and a Joy carries me when my flesh and circumstances want me to worry and fret.
He is all I need, He’s a good good Father and I am here because of Him.
There is power in the
name of Jesus. There is healing in the name of Jesus. The enemy has lost. I am
healed. The Word tells me I am and I believe it. On those days where I may not
“feel” it….I’m still healed. That will not change.
If anything today I
challenge you to understand how powerful and important prayer is. How important your Faith in Him and in His
word is. Do you really believe it or has
it become a simple saying or a simple act you know to do.
Prayer changes things.
Believe the TRUTH of the Word. Hold on to it, don’t waiver, Believe it to be
THE TRUTH and SEE your own miracle. Choose daily to trust Him because He can be
trusted. Cling to Him, He is all you need and He is able.
For me, because of the sickness my life was forever changed and turned upside down.
Because of prayer,
because of His great love and favor for me, because He has a plan and purpose
for my life and has given me hope that I am HERE.
This is HIS story, I am
just telling it. This Glory is all His
and it has nothing to do with me.
I am thankful that He rescued me from death and healed me. I am thankful for the healing in my arm that they spoke death over and thankful that I able to worship Him. I will sing of His love forever.
I am thankful for the
lessons I have learned in my emotions and my faith as a result of this trial.
It has changed me and I’m not the same.
I am thankful for the
prayers of the saints on my behalf that flooded and surrounded His throne and
for a God who reached down and touched my body and held my family. I'm thankful that He is still a God of
miracles and that He still moves, heals, and rescues His people. He is always
faithful and my life is His forever.
