A sickness and a prayer…

Posted by on November 27, 2012 in Blog, Uncategorized | 1 comment

You may have read about our doozy of a Thanksgiving last week… if not, my last post will give you the back story.

I was sick.  Sick as a dog.  5 full days of raging fever, intense body aches, and extreme fatigue… and that’s all.  No respiratory symptoms, no GI symptoms, no rash.  In fact, this bout of illness put the bout of Malaria I had in 2001 to shame.  Or maybe time has faded my recollection of the intensity of malaria.

Anytime I’ve been sick in my married life, Jamie has always told me, “what would you tell your patient?”… i.e. STOP what you’re doing, STOP working, STOP cleaning, GO to bed!  I admit, I’m always a lousy patient.

This time however, was totally different.  I laid in bed.  Just laid there.  Didn’t watch anything.  Didn’t read anything.  Didn’t occupy myself with anything.  Just laid.  Eyes open, staring blankly.  Drifted off to sleep over and over and over again.

Saturday was by far the worst day.  My voice was barely audible above a whisper, my thoughts were foggy, the day was long and miserable.  We finally went to the doctor.  The only test that could be performed on a Saturday was a rapid malaria test.  It was negative.  I would need to come back on Monday when the lab was open for additional testing.  To be honest, I was hoping it was malaria because then we knew what we were dealing with and how to treat it!  But alas, it remained the elusive illness.

After the doctor, our bed was waiting for me.  And it’s where I stayed for the remainder of the day.  As I lay there, my medical mind, in all it’s fogginess, was going over different diseases, different possibilities, different outcomes.  Typhoid?  Chikungunya?  Dengue?  Admittedly, I was beginning to wonder if this tiny virus/bacteria/parasite within me was gaining strength on my weakening body.  For the first time I became a bit scared.  Finally in my fear, I prayed.  FINALLY!!  What in the world took me so long to earnestly enter into prayer with my Heavenly Father, with my Maker, with the One who loves me far greater than anyone else ever could??!!?

I’m sure glad our four-year old entered into prayer for me a lot sooner than I did.  Her prayer one night at the dinner table when I was in bed went a little something like this….

Dear God,

Please help mommy get better.  Please God, please.  If you do, I’ll be so happy, so glad.  So that mommy can go around town and do the shopping that she wants to do and please, help her God to do the right thing when she’s making her salad dressing so it’s just the way she likes it. 

Amen

I’m not sure the salad dressing that she’s referring to… the only two I make are balsamic vinaigrette and thousand island… oh, and the dressing for chinese chicken salad, so technically three.  No matter the dressing, it was a sweet, heart-felt prayer of our little one to her Heavenly Father on behalf of her mama.

Our Saturday night, a prayer request went out to the prayer chain of our home church.  People were praying. Our Malagasy friends here were praying.  Friends on facebook were praying.  Our kids were praying.  Jamie was praying.  I was praying.  Sunday morning I awoke fever-free for the first time in 5 loooonnnnggggg days.  God is good. He is righteous.  Merciful.  Just.  Kind.

I am thankful.

 

 

PS.  I’ll be thankful if you pass along your favorite salad dressing recipe too!

 

 

 

 

 

1 Comment

  1. Thanks for this – laughed out loud and thought about how many times I have neglected to pray, trying to solve all my own problems.

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