Strength in Weakness

“But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

I have just returned from a 9 day mission trip.

A few weeks ago, this trip wasn’t an option for me. Travel. Stairs. Work projects. Waiting in line. A special diet.

But God. He provided all I needed and more. Youth carried my bags. Brian set up my air mattress and thankfully, remembered to bring a box fan. My group had much lighter work projects than some of the others. There were several others on the trip who are also gluten-free, making that aspect of it more manageable. He gave me the strength and energy I needed in order to productively serve Him. Abundant provision.

There were only a few incidents. Mostly minor incidents of an elevated heart rate. A few times I was forced to stop immediately until it went down.

The worst incident occurred Thursday evening. We took the youth to a park where I just sat and watched them play. After a little while, I even went to the van to sit with the AC running. After the park, we took the kids to get ice cream. I sat waiting on the kids then walked to the van afterwards. On the ride home, my heart rate skyrocketed. It’s normal for it to be elevated after activity, but I had been very calm for the several hours leading up to this. It rose quickly and I couldn’t catch my breath. I had my medicine with me so I took some hoping my heart would slow down. It rose so high so fast that my left arm went numb. This has only happened a handful of times and thankfully this time, Brian was with me. After we got back to the church, the kids got out of the van and I leaned the seat back until my heart rate went down. I was super weak so Brian had to help me walk inside.

That was my birthday and the kids put together a Reese’s peanut butter cup “cake”. When it was handed to me, I was too weak to even hold the plate. Thankfully, Brian was next to me and my weakness didn’t create a scene.

I’ve always thought this verse was a huge understatement…because His grace isn’t just sufficient. It’s abundant. I saw that over and over last week in Indianapolis. The opportunity to serve and encourage workers in His ministry. Loving on kids. Meeting needs. Developing relationships with the youth in our church. The strength to persevere. The joy of the Lord. All Abundant Grace.

I’m so thankful He chose to use me in my weakness so that I can experience His abundant grace.

Hope

Today, Brian and I met with the naturopathic doctor, Dr. W.  After a very discouraging weekend, I was really praying that this doctor would be encouraging and have options for treatment. The appointment lasted over an hour and for the first time I felt like someone was listening to me. It was a huge answer to prayer. She encouraged me to continue the gluten-free diet I started on Friday. She mentioned that I may not see results from the GF diet because I have so many symptoms, but that it’s a good long term solution. She gave (well, sold) me a collection of herbs, vitamins, etc. in an effort to get the symptoms under control and mentioned that she will be monitoring my progress to see if she needs to treat this more aggressively.

Dr. W offered to work with my endo, Dr. D and said that for now I need to stay on the meds that have already been prescribed. The hope is that eventually I will be able to reduce doses of the meds and eventually get off of them all together.

We discussed the mission trip and after asking a few questions, Dr. W was very encouraging. She said that I will probably need to take more of the heart medicine while I’m traveling and that she will be available should I need her to prescribe something else while I am gone. She also said that 10 days was plenty of time for the things she was giving me to start working. Again, answered prayer.

She thinks there are plenty of options and that RAI isn’t necessary. I’m so thankful and so encouraged. And all the glory goes to God.

“…I will not yield my glory to another.”

Isaiah 48:11

Sunday Update

Dr. D called this afternoon to let me know the results of the scans. She said it’s Graves (which we already knew) and that my only option is Radioactive Iodine Therapy (RAI). This will destroy my thyroid making my hypothyroid and requiring medication for the rest of my life. She did say that if I don’t want to go that route, I can try the methimazole for a year then do RAI. She said that it’s rare for Graves to go into remission on meds and the severity of my case makes it even more unlikely. The medicine may manage the symptoms for now but it’s not a long term solution because you can’t take this particular medicine longer than a year. She thinks RAI is the only option.

We have been praying from the beginning for natural options. Initially, we were told that natural wasn’t an option. A few friends referred natural doctors to us and we have been researching them. I’m so thankful we have an appointment with a naturopathic doctor this week.

Scans

Today and yesterday were my scans. Praise the Lord that my levels were low enough to be able to do them. They were done at the hospital and the staff was wonderful.

The first day was 2 appointments. The morning one was mostly paperwork. After about an hour, I was given a radioactive pill. I had to stay until I finished a huge glass of water. Then I went home for a few hours. I wasn’t able to eat for an hour but I was told to drink a lot of water. This was supposed to push the radioactive iodine through my system. The side effects were minimal, just a little bit of nausea. The afternoon appointment was lengthy. They did 2 scans, one on my neck and one on my leg (which was a background scan in order to compare what they were seeing in my neck). Then I was put in a huge machine called a Gamma camera. It just took pictures of my thyroid. It was a weird experience similar to a MRI. A flat board came down toward my face. I told Brian that it felt like the trash compactor in Star Wars. These machines aren’t for the claustrophobic. It was relatively painless…just uncomfortable. About the time you think you’re done, they have you turn your head to the side and it repeats. Then to the other side.

This morning, I went in for my final scans. They repeated the scan of my neck and leg. I asked if the results were conclusive and the technician told me that if I had thyroiditis, my results would be in the low 20s. Mine was 78, meaning I have Graves’ Disease. This wasn’t a huge surprise, but we were certainly praying for thyroiditis and my endo was optimistic. I was told that the hospital would immediately fax the results to my dr and I could call at 11am if I hadn’t heard anything to find out what meds I should be taking.

I called at 11am and the nurse said they hadn’t yet received the report from the hospital. So I waited and called back at 2:30pm. The nurse said they still didn’t have the reports but I asked her to check and she found them. She told me Dr. D would look at them and call me back. Knowing they close at 4, I called back at 3:30pm and was told that the dr. still hadn’t looked at the reports. I told them that I hadn’t been on medicine for 3 weeks (with the exception of the 2 days when the scans had to be delayed) and needed to know what I should do. At 3:55pm, I made another effort but was told the dr was busy. I reached out to Dr. M but she had already left for the holiday weekend.

This was a discouraging way to end the week.

“He has made everything beautiful in His time…”

Ecclesiastes 3:11