I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. John 15:5 KJV
As for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord
November 2003 was the start of what would become one of my most (physically) painful times in my life! It was also the start of what would turn out to be one of the greatest lessons of my life!
It was the day after I had taken a trip down south to see family for a Thanksgiving get together. I woke up with an upset stomach. Thinking nothing of it I did what I usually do for such an occurance, I planted myself on the couch and waited for it to pass. It actually may be more accurate to say I "hoped" it would pass. As the day wore on, my stomach felt worse and worse. Eventually what I thought was just a little stomach ache, turned into horrible stomach pain. Most of the evening was spent in the bathroom visiting the toilet and finally by bedtime I was feeling better, although sore from all the pain. Unaware at the time, this was the start of many more stomach aches and much more pain! I didn't know it at the time but I had just had my first Ulcer Flare up.
Several months went by with no thought to what happened that day. Almost a year, in fact, passed and it was all a distant memory... ...until...It happened again! Immediately I thought of the first incident and knew I'd be in for a long day. With the time that had passed between flare ups, and the timing happening right when others were suffering from various stomach ailments, I still thought nothing of it. This is how it was from November 2003 all the way through 2005...I would have a flare up, get over it, and several months would go by before anything happened again. I was totally unaware that I had a "problem" to fix. I believed that I was just having some kind of stomach flu bug because it always seemed to happen when I was hearing of many others also having stomach problems.
In 2005 I became pregnant with my third child (yes thats right, I was dealing with these flare ups and had two small kids to take care of at the same time). The pregnancy went fine, the baby was born in June 2006 and all was well...or so I thought.
Just a few short months after our son was born, he began to have health problems. These problems became so severe and so time consuming and so stressful that I started having almost regular flare ups with my stomach. Everytime it would happen I would convince myself, surely THIS is the last time. Oh I had considered going to the doctor but I'd always talk myself out of it. Always so sure that after this time it wouldn't happen again, it would be all over.
Now just so I am completely understood, you need to realize how painful these flare ups really are. I have had three kids, and all three labors were completely natural NO DRUGS whatsoever...so I was feeling the full brunt of birth pains! And yet, during a flare up I would WISH that I were in labor instead because the pain was worse then that!! Any normal person would have gone to the hospital...and yet I didn't. I can be so stubborn when it comes to going to the doctor and I am more afraid of hospitals then I am some of the sicknesses that can put you there.
Eventually my flare ups were happening every other month. It took me all the way until late summer 2007 before I finally wised up and thought "I'd better go to the doctor"....and your welcome to say no duh Einstien!.
I finally went to see the doctor and come to find out, I had stomach ulcers. She put me on medicine, she discussed with me dietary issues, and so forth. It is now May of 2009 and in the time since I was at the doctors office that day my flare ups have greatly reduced. Sadly, they are not gone..yet..but they will be. We recently changed my medicine and hopefully now I can be free of these little monsters.
The purpose of me sharing this story is because through these Ulcers I learned a very important lesson, one I should never have had to "learn the hard way" but I am just as human as the next guy and thats what it took to get it through my head. During the time that I had these problems, after I knew what I was dealing with, I did alot of research. I was hoping to find a way to make sure that these flare ups never would occur again. I learned alot and one thing I learned is that everytime I had a flare up and did nothing about it, I was putting my life at risk. Any number of things could have happened to me, any number of complications could have occured because I was doing nothing to fix it. My own denial of "having a problem" could very well have killed me. I was risking my life by convincing myself that surely this will be the last time and I don't need to go to the doctor. There were even times I convinced myself "I don't have time" to go to the doctor...little did I know I didn't have time NOT to!
I consider myself incredibly lucky. I never had any stomach bleeding, I didn't mess up my stomach, and I haven't had to resort to surgery to fix it. But the biggest bit of luck I got out of all of this is a lesson in Death.
I learned that Death is an Equal Opportunity Employer. It doesn't matter what your gender, no matter where you live, no matter what your annual income, no matter what your health situation - EVERYONE is at an equal risk of dying! I was not a special case. Just because I was having a health problem that didn't make me special, I didn't get to wear a pin telling everyone "HEY I HAVE HEALTH PROBLEMS I MIGHT DIE BUT YOUR OK BECAUSE YOUR HEALTHY". It doesn't work that way. I am just as much at risk of dying just walking out to get the mail, as I am when I have a flare up. I am just as much at risk of dying when I drive down the road as I am when I get some other kind of sickness.
I have finally come to realize, that GOD truely is in control! He really is the master of everything. When its my time to go I'm gone, no questions asked! There is no such thing as to sick to live and there is no such thing as too healthy to die!
Here recently we have had a national scare with this thing called Swine Flu or as some call it, H1N1 Flu. Many people have feared this Flu strain because so many in Mexico have died from it. But thanks to all my Ulcers, I have learned not to be afraid in times like this. I'll be ok and if its my turn to go home then so be it....I couldn't change God's mind if I wanted to...LOL.