Jehovah Shammah – the God that is with me.

On April 3, 2012 I sprained my ankle walking out of a grocery store. After a trip to the ER, I went home with a walking boot, crutches and a prescription for Motrin 800’s. Ten days later on Friday, April 13 I went to see T.D. Jakes “Woman Thou Art Loosed on the 7^th Day” at the Star Fairlane in Dearborn, MI. As I walked into the theater I started feeling winded, but I thought it was because it was my first time off the crutches. Two hours later and I still couldn’t catch my breath, as I stood my body felt weak. I began to pray short prayers (Psalm 107:19). “Lord just get me to the door. Thank You for getting me to the door, just get me to my car. Thank You for getting me to the car, give me the strength to get in. Thank You Lord, please get me to the ER. Lord, I need You, please get me in the door.” I began to hear Isaiah 41:10 (NIV) “…do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you…” I walked across the parking lot of the Fairlane ER half dazed, to exhausted to take off my coat. By the time I got in the door I could barely speak. The only thing that came out was, “I can’t breath.”

After several hours and even more test I was informed that I had a blood clot in my lungs and it damaged the right side of my heart but for now I would have to be admitted to the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) for further evaluation. My husband was in Maryland at the time, so I called him to let him know what was going on; he stopped right there and started praying (Mark 11:24). I told him not to come home because he had business in Washington D.C. that Monday. Once I arrived in the MICU I was hooked up to every monitor imaginable. One of the Doctors asked me, “Before you went into the ER how where you feeling? How do you feel now?” I replied, “Just fine.”

The following day my nurse came in and told me I could get washed up. I took her words to mean that I could go to the sink and get washed up; I was so wrong. I use to work on a surgical unit therefore I knew how to disconnect myself; the first thing to go was the oxygen, then the heart monitor. The alarms started to go off, my nurse came flying into the room all flush and panicked. When she saw that everything was fine she reset my monitor. As I looked at the monitor all of my vitals where normal including my oxygen, so the doctor discontinued that order (Psalm 107:20). On Sunday night they transferred me to a General Practice Unit; not the Cardiac or Pulmonary unit as they predicted. On that Monday I received my discharge papers, Tuesday my husband was home.

Jehovah Rapha – the God that heals me.

Ten days after I was admitted to the hospital, April 23, I celebrated my 34^th birthday. My Primary Care Physician finally told me why everyone else was so afraid. I had a massive blot clot that landed in both lungs cutting my lung capacity to less than 50%. Needless to say, I should have died in that movie theater (1 Cor. 1:27). Today I have no residual damage and no medication. God was truly with me that day. He chose to show me that if He would bring me back from the edge of death, that if I trust Him, I can do anything. Every now and then I get those moments where I think I don’t know what I’m doing, and then He reminds me of that day. God has a purpose for my life and the blind faith that I displayed then gives me the drive to keep going.