I had been sick for what seemed like forever.
For a week I couldn't keep anything down, food or liquid. I would
make countless trips to the bathroom to be sick, but just didn't
want to go to a doctor, thinking it was only the flu. Finally
one night, my husband said "this is it, you're going to the hospital."
We arrived at the emergency room shortly after
midnite. There were no other patients, so I was taken in quickly.
I explained to the doctors and nurses what had been happening in the past
week, and they all agreed that I probably had the flu, and that I was seriously
dehydrated. They admitted me to the hospital, and began to run tests
on me.
Being half way "out of it", I knew I had
to drink a chalky solution, but also knew that it would not stay down.
I agreed to let them put a tube down my nose, into my throat so that they
could pump in the liquid. That was my entry into torture. As
they maneuvered the tube up through my nose, I know that people in the
street could hear me screaming.
"Jesus! Help Me!" I screamed, with
tears spilling down my face. One of the nurses told me to be calm,
that it would be over in just a few minutes, but that did not help.
The nurses took blood from whatever vein they
could reach. I was taken to X-ray, had an ultrasound done on my abdomen,
and an MRI. The results were that my gall bladder, spleen,
kidneys,were all swollen and inflamed. For an unknown reason, my
organs were shutting down. At about 5 am that morning, the
doctor in charge of the
Emergency room came to me, and I will never forget
the look in his eyes as he took my hand and said, "Good luck". This
man knew I was dying and didn't know how to express it!
I prayed. I talked to God and told him,
that if I died that day in the hospital, it would be alright. I knew
that Jesus was my Savior, I believed in Him, and I would open my eyes in
Heaven.
I spent two weeks in the hospital, unable
to move from my bed, I had serious bouts of vomiting, and not wanting
to soil the bed, often made a commotion reaching for the bedpan or small
tub on the table beside the bed. I was unable to even move to the
bathroom, and the nurses were getting upset that I was not taking
care of myself as I should. I did not begin to feel any better, with
the constant flow of nurses in and out of the room to take blood, or at
night to check to see if I was sleeping well. It sounds funny now,
how can you sleep when someone turns on the overhead light to ask
if you're sleeping??
One night I seemed to wake up, and I could barely
see two white figures at the foot of my bed. They were talking, and
one said to the other "she's not getting any better, she has had a seizure."
I felt myself falling back to sleep, and it seemed to me that I saw a book,
opened, and on the page was the number 116. Just as I started to
completely fall asleep, I noticed that the book had Golden edges around
the pages.
The next morning a doctor came to tell me that
I had contracted a strong case of food poisoning. I also had E coli
in my system, but everything was clearing up and I would be able to go
home the next day.
I couldn't get the dream of the book out of my
mind, the golden pages had to be in the Bible. For some reason
I kept feeling the message had to do with Psalms.
When I got home that afternoon, and settled in,
I found my Bible and turned to Psalms 116. What I found there
both amazed me and gave me great comfort. Proof that God listens,
and that He knew me and knew my trouble and delivered me.
Psalm 116
Thanksgiving for Deliverance from Death
I love the Lord because he has heard my voice
and my supplications
Because He has inclined his ear to me (1&2)
The pains of Death surrounded me, and the pangs
of Sheol laid hold of me.
I found trouble and sorrow. Then I called
upon the name of the Lord,
"O Lord, I implore you, deliver me". (
3&4)
For you have delivered my soul from Death, my
eyes from tears,
and my feet from failing. (8).
