Being ill for three weeks can really bring a person low. When no one is really sure what it is, and nothing is curing it, it seems even worse. And it's even worse yet when it comes on two days after a lovely afternoon devoted entirely to spending time with God - tea and a picnic with a place for Him, painting the dragonflies He provided for entertainment, His Word for some spiritual bread; but mostly, spending time knowing He was there enjoying it with me.
Thankfully Jesus came to heal and to save, and to be our strength in time of need. After eight days of fairly high fever (102's), and even a foray into the 103's, plus eventually a cough, I went in to a clinic and was diagnosed with probably an upper respiratory virus, even though the temps were on the high side for a virus. A couple days later I came down with an extremely painful throat, so on day 13 I was in again for strep test, which, to the great surprise of the nurse practitioner, came out positive. Thus I was prescribed amoxicillin to take care of it. It didn't. At this point, it was a question of, "God? Can I please be well? It's up to You, since nothing is working!"
Well, He didn't just fix me, but He has given me wise friends who know more of infections than I do, and when I began coughing out orange and brown sputum, my friend in med school sent me in to Urgent Care. It was something of a fiasco, but I did see a doctor in the end, and he diagnosed me with a lower respiratory infection of Streptococcus pneumoniae. This is not to be confused with the Strep A that causes Strep throat; this is far worse. It can easily lead to pneumonia, and it is the leading cause of bacterial meningitis, among other nasty problems. It's not something you want infecting your body. But the doc prescribed the super antibiotics, and God has see fit to take care of my infection through that.
Throughout the 21-day illness, I had to rely on God for getting things done (and for making sure my husband picked up the right groceries and did what I needed him to), and I had to rely on Him for comfort in my distress of an extremely painful throat and high fevers. Even for keeping the first round of antibiotics down, when they wanted terribly to come back out of my stomach in the middle of the night. And He was faithful.
It makes sense to me that it was an attack, pure and simple: the devil does not like us to spend time improving our relationship with Jesus. He'd much rather we be too busy. I admit during the illness I was not up to reading my bible as faithfully, and my prayers were pretty centered on "help me feel better, please," but God remains faithful through it all, and He continues to bless us for our love.
"Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2nd Corinthians 12:10
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