answered prayers

Do you like detours? Or do you find them irritating and time-consuming? We often just want to get where we are going and not waste time, isn’t that true?

Let me share a detour that has caused me to really take a closer look at my life and what I am doing. I had a small health issue the last few weeks off and on, and with it was excruciating pain in the kidney. Thinking I had an infection, I used an over the counter product that would help with the symptoms until I got into the Dr the following day. Apparently with my body metabolism, the amount used wasn’t something that my body could tolerate, but toxic, actually. So my normal appointment to the doctor the next morning turned into going straight from the doctor’s office to ER. Suffice it to say, it was quite a detour. I couldn’t drive myself, couldn’t reach my husband at home, and so I had to be transported to the ER by ambulance for three blocks to the hospital. The journey began. Doctors and nurses worked hard to find out why my oxygen levels were so low and not able to be raised past 88 percent. Not good. Tests, blood test, blood gas tests, scans…you name it and it was done. Find out that my body had a toxic reaction, and a VERY rare case I was. My blood looked almost black, and I was asked from the ER Doctor what planet I was from. I just told him it was strong Norwegian blood! But, I wasn’t out of the woods. My highest levels even with high flow oxygen was only 88 percent. They thought it was caused by blood clots in the lungs and that turned out to be negative, thank you Jesus!! What was it? It turned out to be hypoxia methemoglobinemia. It is very rare for someone to react this way! Oh good! I’m special!!! So with that diagnosis, the doctor knew of the antidote to give me and sent me upstairs to a room to receive it. Warning: my daily bathroom visits could yield all blue for a while. So true. I usually have a high anxiety when visiting the hospital because of my previous experiences, and I get quite emotional. However, it was like someone else dealing with it and it’s seriousness. I couldn’t understand the peace I had. I asked God to give the all clear on the blood clots in the lungs and He did. I am so thankful for that. Blood draws every couple of days doesn’t seem fun at all.

Here is the deal about detours. They are often unexpected when it comes to our lives. Road detours are sometimes announced a head of time and we know how to plan ahead. We have to watch for the sign that tells us the path of the detour. Give ourselves extra time for the detour. But in our lives, that isn’t the case always. Sometimes, it just happens. We have to deal with it as it comes. Is it ok to feel scared? Of course. But we can know where to take that fear. God is always there. Sometimes our detours come and God uses them for us to see something different; a new path or a new direction. As we use these times to ask God what we are to learn from them, we find Him in that storm and He will whisper… He wants my attention in areas I need to be better about.

It my last few weeks, I had been struggling with some areas and asking God to show me where I needed to be, as well as where He wanted me involved. Sometimes, I need to lay down something so another can pick it up and lead. Sometimes He wants to use me in a completely different way. We often see a picture of ourselves and where we are and think, that is where we are to stay. But God may want to reframe our lives in ways that allow Him to use us even more. Am I going to complain about the pain, the pokes and prods, and the uncertainty of what is going on in my body, or will I say thank the Lord for bringing me through it, slowing me down even more, and ask Him to guide my next steps?

If I wasn’t having that appointment that morning, I would have not known what was going on.
If I wasn’t in the doctor’s office.
If the ARNP that was on the ball and recognized my blue lips and blue fingers.
If the saturation levels didn’t indicate an issue.
If the ER doctor hadn’t been diligent enough to keep working at it.

I could have lost my life that day.

But God…He had that detour all planned out. He knew the end from the beginning. The outcome isn’t over, because I now have a whole list of things I can’t take now because of how my body may react to it. I can’t even use BioFreeze, which I often used on my sore back. I got an antibiotic that day for the first issue and that gave me hives. However, it was the only one available to me. I took three doses and that was all I could do, but he said that would work. So… I am now on a new path with different ways I must live; at least for now.

The lesson on this detour? I am re-examining my motives in where I am and what I am involved with. I am taking time to ask Him the hard questions. Then listen to His answers. I can’t expect to have things different in my life if I am unwilling to change what I need to. The biggest ones I think about after this experience? Am I REALLY ready to meet Jesus? Is my life in order? It could have went a lot differently that day. Am I prepared for that? Am I willing to take a different road and let Him show me what He wants me to see? Will I have a new appreciation for life that I am given everyday, because I am breathing today? Take the correction if needed? Forgive someone I may need to forgive? Am I in the Word enough and not just sharing it, but in it enough myself? Billy Graham was known to say the one thing he wished was that he studied the Word more. That leaves a big gap for me if he was saying that. Is my life so busy that I am not slowing down enough to notice where He wants to use me? Is the idea of having stuff more important than something else in my life? A desire for better this or that, rather than being thankful for what I have? Hard questions = Growth.

Yes. Detours can be educational if we allow them to be. I am allowing it to be. I want it to be. Looking forward to the detour. If you are looking for hope, don’t look around, look up.

Until next time…

~JoAnn

Warning: Some pictures are graphic.

I am back among the living…at least I think I am. I have been gone from my blog and normal life for almost six weeks as I underwent surgery. I had bilateral knee replacement, and for a simpler version of that statement, I had total knee replacement on both knees at the same time. Many people ask me if I would recommend it. In fact, that is the first question they usually ask me. My answer is still out on that. I know for me, I did it because I don’t like hospitals and all that goes with it, so I knew I wouldn’t want to come back again to get the second one done. I will tell you it’s not easy and one of the hardest journeys I have taken in a long while.

When you are in this situation, you really have to learn to live with yourself. You have only yourself, your brain, and what you are thinking all the time. I was most fortunate to have a husband that stood by me the whole time. He took time off of work to be with me in the hospital everyday, then when we got home, he took care of me in the day and through the night; eventually doing that and working too. He was a great house husband too! God knows what we need. However, as you know you talk to yourself non-stop all day long and I found that what I was saying certainly didn’t line up with what I was praying. Oops!! Not good. You see, I also had a lot of blood loss, and so I had to have transfusions to even get me to a place that I had enough energy to get myself up out of the bed. And then I had to have it a second time, and I got a reaction so the last half was not administered. So my recovery was very slow. I remember one time thinking that people would say of me, “She came in for knee replacements, but didn’t come home.” Now WHERE did THAT thought come from? To give even a second thought to that was to allow the devil free rein in my thinking, and that just wasn’t going to happen. I may FEEL like I’m going nowhere fast, but I wasn’t going to give in to it. The night hours were the worst when you can’t sleep and satan tries to fill your mind with defeat. I would call the nurse and get up! I would walk to the bathroom and walk back to the bed. I would tell myself, “I was making progress, no matter how slow it may look, I wasn’t destined to be this way forever. It will change.” I was blessed to have my sweetie there all day telling me that I could do it. To say that it was a humbling experience, it to put it mildly. He became my nurse. I believe with all my heart, that I am where I am today because of the prayers of faithful friends and family who covered me daily in prayer. I had circles upon circles prayed around me! Does that mean that I still don’t have times of discouragement? Nope. I still can have that feeling at times when I want to do something that just doesn’t work too well for me right now. But, then I have to remember where I came FROM, and then I am thankful I have come this far.

My experience is not your experience so if you are looking to this in YOUR future, I would say, have a GREAT doctor (do your research), and prepare yourself ahead of time for what you need to do. He is faithful. I walked from the very beginning with a walker, but only for a couple of weeks. Then it was a cane, and the last couple of weeks, I have walked on my own without assistance from either. I would say that is a good track record, and my healing WILL be complete. Is it over? No. I still have pain and discomfort. But I can now do other things to help with that. I am even down to my last three visits of PT. Yay! But I still have to discipline myself to do it on my own. See? We are required to do our part.

Lessons?

Trust. Trust. Trust.
Don’t listen to the wrong voice in your ear.
God will use circumstances and people around you to bless you and lift you up.
The end of something is always better than the beginning. Always…because we have learned.
I learned I have an inner strength given to me by God that keeps me going no matter what.
Have a grateful heart for everything; that included my physical therapy. Yuck…
I am required to do my part.

This is only one snap shot of my life. I will likely have many more, and maybe some that will be harder than this to make it through. But I know where my strength comes from, so I can look to the future with hope! I’m happy to answer any questions if you leave them in the comments.