First of all I want to Thank my Lord and Savior for my Savation. The Bible says in John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that who so ever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." I think this is one of the greatest scriptures in the Bible. Without my Salvation, I would be nothing and have no chance of seeing Heaven. For in John 3:18 it says:"He that believeth on Him is not condemmed: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
The Lord has been so good to me thru my life and seen me thru many things. The first he saw me thru came when I was only 27 yrs old. I had a brain tumor that was the size of a lemon and was not expected to live, but for the grace of God I had a Christian Doctor who prayed for me before surgery and many other people and I made it thru. It had paralized me me from the neck down and the strange part of this it was a tumor that occurred in people in their sixties. I was at the Mayo Clinic for three months learning to walk and used the rest of my muscles. When I arrived there I had been having trouble for a year. I had been to so many doctors and they said it was all in my mind. Finally an orthopedic doctor (bone doctor) that I had worked with in surgery suspected what it was and sent me right away to the clinic. They did emergency surgery right away which took 16 hours and three blood transfusions. I did go into cardiac arrest several times, but they shocked me and brought me back. Two days later when he touch my feet (The first 48 hours was very crucial for during that time they still didn't know if I would survive or still be paralized) and I moved them. They said you could hear the doctor all over the ICU shouting and praising God. At the time all that was left was my heart beating and my lungs working and that would have been the next to go. They couldn't even believe I had made the trip there and survived, but God was with me and many prayers going up. My left side was still left weak, but I am alive. This was just the first experience that God was with me and heard the prayers of many people. Then came the part of getting off the drugs that other doctors had me on. It wasn't easy and I won't lie, but on returning home another doctor put me on other meds. I went thru a period of deep depression and overdosed about a year later, but God was good to me there also. I survived and the doctor that took care of me thru this said I was on enough meds to kill a horse just by taking them as I should haved. Well the pills went into the trash and I came off everything with God's help. Some people call this cold turkey, but I had prayers going up for me then also and I prayed every minute of everyday when I was in my right mind. This time wasn't easy and I don't remember alot, but twenty days later I knew God had seen me thru this also. I had to ask what date it was and was told it was twenty days later after leaving the hospital from the overdose.
Things went fine for several years if you don't count falling down my stairs that were really narrow and had carpeting on them. I broke my tail bone three times and after that the carpeting came up and rubber mats were put on each step. I had gone back to work as soon as I could. Having three girls it took my husband (we are now not together anymore) and I both working to make ends meet with all the medical bills. We had insurance, but it didn't pay for everything. Like the blood transfusions I had during the tumor operation and other things. I lived in Ohio at that time, but decided to move back to Kentucky where my parents lived.
I got a job right away and everything went fine for awhile. Then two of the girls were married and that just left my youngest daughter and I. At work one night I was training a new nurse and she came to the door of a room I was in to ask a question. I had just finished giving my patient his meds and was turning him. Like a stupid idiot I didn't stand up but was still holding my patient and just twisted around to answer her. I ruptured two discs in my lower back and here came surgery on them. I was off work for months with this and back on meds which really scared me, but made it thru with God's help and prayers going up again for me. My back was bothering me and I had just gotten my meds filled that day. I was alone because my daughter had went with her Dad to Ohio. During the night a blizzard hit that wasn't predicted. Her Dad called and said he wouldn't be able to get back the next day with her. I told him that was fine and I was okay.
The next thing I remember was waking up in ICU about a month later on a respirator. To make things straight I don't remember to this day what happened. All I know was what I was told by the detectives. My daughter wasn't able to get back for three days and she and her Dad found me. We had live way out in the country so I had few neighbors who thought I had gone also. When I was found they thought I was dead. There was no heart beat to be heard. The detective had come to see me when I was released from ICU and he said he was just standing there watching me. I was on the floor and my heat had been turned off and needless to say I only had a black shirt on. This was unusual for me because I always wore a big fluffly housecoat and house shoes. When they showed me the black shirt, I was able to tell them that it wasn't mine. The coroner had been called already when he saw what he thought my stomach move. He said he stood there and watch again and in about two minutes it moved again. He called to his partner to call an ambulance that I was still alive.
The paramedics arrived I was told by one of them when he came to see me also. He went through the process of telling me what happened on the way to the hospital. The nearest hospital was twenty miles away and as they went we have this long bridge that goes across the Cumberland River and the ambulance broke down. They called for another ambulance while all this time giving me CPR. I went into cardiac arrest and the one paramedic said to the other one that I was gone, but he would not give up. PRAISE GOD!!! He was a nurse that was a Vietman Veteran. They got a very low and slow pulse on me again and transferred me to another ambulance and took me on to the hospital. By the time he said they arrived I was breathing once every two minutes, but with a very low and slow pulse beating.
As I told you we had a blizzard and the weather was down to below zero. This is how God works. The doctor who was on in the emergency room had just been the following week to classes on hypothermia and at that that time he was the only one who knew what to do in these cases. My body temperature was at sixty eight degrees. Most people do not survive this low of a body temperature. They worked on me including the paramedic from the Vietnam War for twelve hours bringing my body temperature up and getting me on a respirator. When I awoke a month later I was told all of this by each different person that was involved in saving my life along with prayers going up for me. God works in mysterous ways. He provided everyone I needed that day.
When the detectives came to see me after getting out of ICU they told me that I had probably let someone in that I knew and I had been beaten, probably raped, my heat turned off and left to die. They think they were after my meds. With the hypothermia I did lose both my legs six inches below each knee, but I survived. This has been over twenty five years ago now and I wear artificial prothesis which they also told me I probably would never be able to wear. I walk just like everyone else and most people don't even know it unless told. PRAISE my LORD and SAVIOR!!! I was in the hospital for almost a year and as soon as I could I joined my family in El Paso, Texas where they were at the time and with the help of a wonderful young man making my legs was able to go back to work and worked for the Army for many years including through Desert Storm. I didn't stay idle though until returning to work. I watched my new born grandson for two years for my oldest daughter while she worked. The person was never caught as far as I know so you all know.
It took three years until I was able to go back work, but go back I did. I switched from being a nurse to office and learned computers. I became a supervisor over fourteen clerks, brought several Army Hospitals up on line when they were first starting to use computers, trained people to use them in each clinic (military and civilians), and also programed the different things that had to go into the system. I work through Desert Storm as one of the very few civilians chosen. I was very honored, but very tired when it was over.
I resigned finally in 1993 due to bad health. I fell down some stairs about a year later and shattered my hip. The hip had to be completey rebuilt. I have a zimmer rod and many screws to keep it in place. The zimmer rod goes almost to my knee and I will have to keep this rod and the screws in for life. This was when I was diagnosed with osteoporsis. Since then I have broken my shoulder bone and wrist bone. At that time I had the bones of a seventy year old and now I have the bones of a ninety year old. The wrist bone didn't heal right and most of the time I have to wear a brace on it. It takes just a little bump for a bone to break because they are so small and brittle. While going thru rehab for my hip I had mammogram done and was diagnosed with a tumor they said looked like cancer. A month after surgery on my hip I went thru surgery to remove the tumor in my left breast. Thank God it turned out to be beneign. Then when I went back for a check-up after the surgery six weeks later they told me I had another tumor only deeper and they were sure this one was cancerous. Now to me the first one was deep enough because to be a little humerous here , I am small. Here I thought more surgery. The day came and they did more x-rays to localize this second tumor to remove it, but you know what? On all the x-rays they took they couldn't find it. My surgeon came into x-ray and showed me the first set where it was and it sure was there on eight different x-rays, but on the twenty I guess they must of tooked that day, it was gone. Nothing was there. Our God is Great!!! I believe to this day that He healed me of that second tumor.
About two years later I went through urinary tract surgery to get rid of scar tissue that had built up over the years from kidney infections. Eight weeks later I had the first of one major stroke and almost to the date of the following year I had another one. Prayers were sent up again each time and thank God I have only had some small ones during a year after the last major one I had. God is so Great!!!
Now God is seeing me through a different and very painful disease. I have osteoporosis and degenerating arithritis of my spine. That means the discs in my back are disentagrating (turning to powder) and pushing down on my nerves (especially the sciatic nerve in the lower part of the back) where I cannot set up for long at times because of the pain. I have nine now from two in my neck, two between my shoulder blades, three just several discs down and two right at the bottom of my spine. With the osteoporosis nothing can be done with surgery because they are afraid my bones won't heal. Now all I can do is take meds again to try to make me as comfortable as possible. I am sixty 62 years old and will turn sixty three this year, but have the bones of ninty year old now. God is seeing me through this also and I have so many to thank , especially my family (who are always there for me) and my friends on the internet, for the prayers they say for me. I now also will be going thru cataract surgery on both eyes and having cornia lens transplants put in. I am blind and didn't even realize it, but God is good and prayers are going up for me on this also so I know everything will be alright. Well, finally after two eye surgeries and four months of waiting to get glasses,Praise God, I have them now. Now a waiting period of six months to see if my eyesight improves. The surgery didn't go very well for me though. I had a very rough time with it and my left eye still bothers me at times, but people are still praying and I know that God hears and in the end everything will be okay. I am also right now having new legs made. It's that time. So looking forward to getting them. Have my new legs now and my glasses are helping me alot. I had an MRI done about a month ago(August-2005)and the two discs in my neck are now pushing against my spinal cord and causing it to curve out. I have to really take it easy now.
I do know one thing though. You can always look around you and there is always someone worse than you are. I just felt my testimony was very important to tell everyone and to show that our God is an AWESOME GOD. HE CAN DO ALL THINGS!!! You just have to keep your faith, hope, and continue praying. If you have a down day and start to feel sorry for yourself just turn your eyes to Heaven and He will get you through. There is one thing I don't do and I don't want anyone else to do and that is to feel sorry for me. I have a wonderful family that is always there for me and I know love me and God keeps seeing me through many things and there may be more to come, but He will see me through those things also.
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