Medical-->Big Day Tomorrow!!

Tomorrow is big day numero uno! Mom, Dad, and I leave in the afternoon for the drive up to Auburn, Indiana to see Solomon Wickey. I am so excited to see what he has to say! I don't know exactly what to be expecting but I am praying God uses this man to help show us more of what we can do on the natural side of treating health issues. It has been so much fun so far learning about the body and how you can use the earth to get better and this will hopefully just help us that much more!

We really have been learning a lot about the body through this whole ordeal but Mom and I were talking the other day about how hard it is to balance out the 3 approaches to treating any health issues you may have. The first that you go to is of course God and asking that He might heal you and make your body whole, but along with that there is also medicine as well as natural substances from the earth. I believe God made all 3 available to us and He wants us to use them all. I think if you go all one route then you are cutting yourself off from other sources God has provided but it is so hard to balance them out! How much do you just say, "God, I am in your hands." Or how much do you rely on medicines? And how much should you focus on what you eat and what you can get from nature? It had seemed to almost be a day by day process for us but we are learning to just listen to God day by day and follow His promptings. It's a crazy journey but I believe He is in control so I'm along for the ride! Keep us in your prayers tomorrow though. We are praying for more direction from God!

(Also pray for mine and my roommates fish, dear Elppod. He is currently swimming in circles around the top of the bowl half in and half out of the water. He has been doing this for 2 days now and I'm starting to get worried. You might think this is cruel to let him slowly die like this but seeing as 2 weeks ago he laid on the bottom of the bowl motionless for 3 days and then bounced right back to his normal self, I am slightly reluctant to end his life for fear he might just be pretending. He is a very unique fish and trickery is not beneath him. This episode is a little more convincing than the last but I still have hope that he will pull through!)

Medical--> Dos Blessings

I still haven't had any doctors visits lately but I have had bloodwork done. Despite the fact that I had to get stuck 4 times, :) I did get good news from the last work up! My hemoglobin (iron count in the blood) is 13.2!! That is right where is needs to be and where it needs to stay. I've been losing a lot of blood, and thus iron, from my colon and that has been causing my hemoglobin to keep dropping. The pattern has been low hemoglobin, anemia, get iron treatments, iron gets back up, iron goes back down, anemia, more treatments...over and over. Knowing this has been my pattern and that I've been losing blood from my colon, we've been waiting for the time when my hemoglobin stays up because that will mean I'm not losing blood. So...I had my last treatment about a month ago and my iron is still up!! Praise God! It's looking like as long as I can continue to rest and eat right then my colon might be starting to heal itself! We'll find out for sure at Mayo but it's lookin up!

God has given me another blessing recently too. A few weeks ago a good friend of ours asked if she could write a letter to a man named Solomon Wickey about my condition. For those of you who don't know, Solomon Wickey is an Amish herbalist and people come from around the world to see him. He is about 70 years old, lives in northern Indiana, and has had numerous accounts of people being healed from various cancers, spinal issues, IBD, IBS, and just about any other disease you can think of after they saw him. So we said it would be ok if our friend sent him a letter and God took it from there. Mr. Wickey only sees people on Tuesdays and Thursdays and it is usually a 4 to 6 month wait to get in. Our friend wrote him 3 weeks ago and about a week later she recieved a hand-written note back that said he would see me September 22nd! How perfect is that! We are trying all sorts of things and if God wants to use this avenue as the means of healing for me then we're gonna go for it. And it works out great because I will see him the week before Mayo. I am so excited to see what this brings! And who knows, maybe I will even be healed before I get to Mayo and they'll just tell me to go home :) Man oh man, God is good.

Inside Out -->

Well, as far as I go this week has been completely boring, BUT it has been a crazy week for the family as a whole. Jarrod had his surgery on Tuesday to repair his medial meniscus and to check out the severed MCL as well. The surgery went great, praise God! He had 3 stitches put in the meniscus and they left the MCL alone since it was already healing well by itself. He will be on complete bed rest until Friday and then may be able to go to school next week. He is still in pain and on pain meds but he's such a good sport. For as much energy as that boy has, he is doing awesome! I'm very proud of him. (It's been very odd through this whole process to be on the other side of the bed though! I'm so used to being the one everyone has to look after and cater to so although I wish Jarrod never had to go through this, it is nicer being on this side.)

Thank you everyone for your prayers! Keep em comin'! It really does seem like it's been just one thing after another with our family but as always this is nothing God can't handle. He has a plan and a purpose and when I remember that it makes things easier to keep in perspective!

Inside Out -->

Once again, no doctors reports to give right now. It's kind of funny though because I feel like something is missing when I don't have any appointments! ha. I know that's awful but I got used to having weekly and even daily doctors visits so this long break is just different. But don't get me wrong, it is MUCH welcomed.
Anyway, another thing I the Lord has brought to my attention through this whole process is the subject of empty prayer promises. If you are reading this as a regular church attendee then you know exactly what I mean. How many times after church have you listened to someone telling you about a particular struggle in their life and at the end of the conversation you say, "Well, hang in there, I will be praying for you,"?? And though you may have every intention of keeping that person in mind during your prayer times, you end up forgetting or just never get around to it. I don't know about you but I know this is the case for me more often than I'd like to admit.
The kicker with this whole scenario though, and the part the Lord revealed to me, is that I have now let my own empty prayer promises affect my acceptance of others prayers. My prayer life is something I am working on, to pray without ceasing, but because I know I sometimes offer empty prayer promises I now find myself in the back of my mind judging whether or not I think someone will really be praying for me! That's awful isn't it?? And yet, I do it almost without thinking.
So this really challenged me once again. First, to continue on my journey to incorporate prayer more into my daily life and second, to stop letting my own failures be the lense through which I see others. I have had many many people tell me lately that they are praying for me and I know it's true. And even more than that I know many who are praying on there knees, pleading, and standing in the gap for me and my healing even more than I am for myself. And I am thankful! Thank you, truly, to everyone who has been and is continuing to remember me in your prayers.
Another thing that is turning up through this whole process is that God is working things out almost opposite of the way I expected Him to. Like He never does that right? ha. But when I began to accept my situation, I immediately thought, 'Ok, this will be an opportunity for me to share God and really use my circumstances to reach others.' And I admit, that has been happening and I pray it will continue, but even more than I have been helping others, God has been really showing me ways that I need to improve myself. I should have figured considering His theme for me this year has been humility :) but it never ceases to amaze me how God truly does use all things intended for evil and works them for the good of those who love Him. God is good.