The power of PRAYER!

Hi y’all I hope you are having a blessed day,

I want to talk about the power of prayer and how GOD is always there in your life, you just need to ask for his help. Now I’m not talking about only reaching out to GOD in times of trouble or great need, but to praise him for all he has given and done for you. GOD also wants you to not try to take on the hard times by yourself because I’m sure you have found that it just doesn’t work.

When your problems are just too much for you to handle or so over whelming that you are on your knees, then you need to release it all to GOD. Yes, release it. Sometimes GOD is just waiting to see how long it will take you to have FAITH in him and PRAY.

This is what I pray when it is more than I can handle:

Jesus I have tried to do this and I am not strong enough to do it alone. I am giving this up to you because you can do anything in your infinite power. If it is your will for this problem to be taken care of or healing to take place then I know that you can make it happen. If you want someone to come into my life to walk me through this journey I will be open to this, but if it is your will that I continue through, I will accept and praise your will.

In Jesus name, Amen.

Now trust me this is easier said than done. There have been times where I have been on my knees crying out to GOD for help, and out of pure exhaustion and a whisper from GOD, that I finally release it to our Lord. Those times I almost immediately felt a complete release of all the weight of worry, stress and a peace came over me that could only come from God. There have also been times when I felt overwhelmed and prayed for God to take my load, telling him that I was releasing my pain and worries to him. I knew what I was saying wasn’t the truth because I still felt tense, anxious and I immediately asked God to forgive me because I was still holding on to my problems. I promise you that you will only have release from GOD when you have total faith that he will be with you and carry you through.

My latest time of crisis has been my health which started going down hill in early May. It started with pain that had me in a fetal position for hours not knowing what was wrong and afraid to eat anything for fear of it hurting or setting off another attack. I so have GOD with me, because after the first attack started I was supposed to babysit for a couple and when I called to cancel, Chris answered (he’s a doctor) after talking to me he said he thought it could be my gall bladder. No I didn’t go to the ER like he suggested, I have no insurance and no way to pay for it 😦 . He kept calling and checking on me that night and his wife Erica called the next day, they are an amazing couple that give so much to our church and are wonderful parents and people.

I went to my regular doctor within a few days and he said he felt that my gall bladder was probably what was wrong but said I needed an Ultra Sound to tell for sure. I had that done and yes it was conclusive that it had hundreds of stones and needed to come out. For two weeks I got sicker and could barely eat and my worry was how I was going to afford surgery. I prayed that GOD would heal me so that I wouldn’t need the surgery or that he would somehow allow it to happen. Trouble was I was still holding on to all the stress, worry and not really releasing it to him, as I was getting sicker and sicker. I knew that I had to release all to him to take the load and I told him if it was to happen it would be his doing no mine.

On May 14th I saw a surgeon who said my gall bladder was very sick and needed to come out now. The nurse asked when I would like to schedule it and I said “tomorrow” thinking that she would say no way, but she said “how about 1:30”. What are the chances of that happening, I really don’t know statistics but most surgeons are usually booked up. I was so sick that day that I couldn’t even walk on my own into the office or sit in the chair. The next thing GOD made happen was that when it came time to check out they wanted me to pay for the surgery up front before I left that day. I was stunned and told them I had no insurance and didn’t make a lot of money so I would need to make payments. They informed me that full payment was needed and they didn’t take payments. GOD intervened again and I just stood firm and said that the only thing I could do was pay some, and make the rest in payments and they agreed. I had to go to the Surgicenter next and went through the whole no insurance and little money thing again when they said they needed almost $4,000 now for the surgery IN CASH! Are you kidding me, really who carries $4,000 in cash with them, but after I told them what I could do they told me to wait while they talked to someone higher up in the office, they soon came out and said they would work with me. YEAH GOD!

I slept like a baby that night, I had no anxiety, worry, nothing because I knew that GOD had it all in his hands. Later that morning we went to the Surgicenter, I checked in and the last doctor to come for money was the Anesthesiologist. I went through the same speech with the lady and she informed me that they wanted the all the money upfront and no they didn’t take payments, I was so tired of hearing this and was so sick that I just didn’t care and I knew GOD had my back so I just explained everything to her and it was all I could do and everyone else was working with me, she did agree to take payments. That being said do not take NO as the final answer, talk to them and explain what your situation is and ask them to please work with you and remember you need to be working with GOD and he will work with you.

I went in and was out of surgery in 45 minutes. I was told by both doctors that I would have a lot of pain and nausea and be given pills for both. I told them thanks for the information but that I knew I wouldn’t have any pain and that I would be OK, they just looked at me like, this lady doesn’t know what she’s talking about wait till the pain hits her. I want to tell you that I had so many people praying for me and I had put the situation in GOD’s hands and I NEVER had 1 second of pain. I had tenderness where they made the 4 cuts for the Laparoscopy but never pain. I went home within an 1 1/2 hours and did really well except for not being able to eat, which is normal after surgery.

I started to have problems 10 days after surgery when my blood pressure started dropping very low, this was also when I started going back to work. You see I work 3 jobs, 7 days a week so normally I’m a very busy lady. I had been cleared to go back but I was finding myself still very tired, and I was discouraged because everything I was reading said most people go back within 10 days. I found I was getting worse by the day, I could hardly get from my bed to the bathroom without getting dizzy and my hands and body were shaking uncontrollably. I went to my doctor he did blood work and told me I was dehydrated and malnourished, from not eating and my blood pressure was too low. I needed to start monitoring my blood pressure and see how labs came out. He also told me since my blood pressure was so low I needed to get off of one of my medicines – Inderal, which can cause your blood pressure to be lower and try to eat and drink more.

I went through two different lab tests within two weeks looking for different things, started taking a blood pressure medicine to get my blood pressure up to normal, but exhaustion and the shaking was still bad any time I tried to do anything. I did better eating and drinking more and have slowly put back 5 of the 8 pounds I lost. The reason I don’t eat well is that I had Gastric Bi-Pass surgery about 10 years ago so I don’t eat much, and when you have this surgery you don’t eat a lot after, so it really messed me up.

It is now Tuesday 7/5 and I have gone to church for staff prayer and I’m very tired but it’s only for an hour so I know I can do it. I love our hour of prayer together and it is very important to me to be there since I’ve been sick and I’ve missed so many. I did OK for a while and then started to shake like I was in a deep freeze so I asked for prayer from all of my staff family. They surrounded and laid hands on me and prayed, while they prayed I asked GOD to please if it is his will to heal me great and if not to lead me to a doctor who would tell me what was wrong with me.

I went to my office and worked at my desk which allowed me to relax and the shakes to subside and eventually I needed to go to the church for something and when I walked in the doors I saw a friend who was minutes away from leaving. I looked at her and thought, she might know what’s wrong, since I knew she had a problem with her hands shaking. I asked her what caused it and she told me they diagnosed her with Benign Tremors, I got so excited because something inside me said this is what’s wrong. As soon as I got back to my desk I looked it up and there it was BENIGN ESSENTIAL TREMORS, and everything it said fit what was happening to me.

THANK YOU GOD!

Yes I know you are not supposed to believe everything you read on the internet, but I know a lot of good medical sites and I came home and spent hours and hours checking everything out. I did go to see my doctor and we talked about Essential Tremors and all of my problems leading up to thinking this was what it was and starting back on the Inderal. He agreed that it was probably a right diagnosis, but he needed to check to see how my Thyroid was, which is what the web site also said to check. He told me to keep on the Inderal and let him know how I was doing in a few weeks.

Let me tell you another way GOD helped me through this. When I read the first information on the Essential Tremor site, under medication that might helped it listed as the first medication: Inderal, which is a beta-blocker. I have been on this medicine for the last 20 years because of the stress that has been in my life (no I have no heart problems) When I saw that Inderal could help, as soon as I got home I got my pills and took one right away (my blood pressure was normal again) and within 2 hours my hands were no longer shaking and haven’t since.

Finding out about the Inderal was such a blessing because having been on it, I had it already. You see twenty years ago I thought I was having a heart attack and went to the ER and after a full cardiac work up the Cardiologist told me my heart was just fine but I was under a lot of stress so he put me on a Beta-blocker, Inderal. So when I think back now maybe I’ve had Essential Tremors for a long time and the Inderal has kept the tremors under control and it only showed up when I suddenly stopped. How amazing is GOD that he put me in the path of someone who had something that possible was what I had, and that I had the medicine that I could take in my home to get right back on to test it and it worked right away. Our GOD is so powerful.

I am now exercising to build up muscle tone that I have lost due to being in bed resting from lack of energy and being so sick.

All this said, NEVER GIVE UP, PRAY and GIVE IT TO GOD! It may not happen in the time period you want but he will help you through this. Be specific when you pray, ask for exactly what you want:

God I need someone to come into my life to get me to the right doctor or right person.

Please give me the strength to walk through this journey with your guidance GOD.

GOD I am so week and in pain and I need your healing power to reach into my body and hold my (fill in the black as to what is wrong in your body) in your hand and heal it and make it well again and if it is not your will at this time please lead me to a doctor who can help me, because I know it is not your will that I suffer.

Our GOD is so great and good and is only waiting on you to call out to him. I try to thank our Lord every day for all that he has done for me and my family, even in the hard times because he is there with me and I know that he will never leave me. I know this was long but I want you to know that no matter how bad things can seem GOD is always there and I can only show you if I let you know by telling you my experiences and there have been many, hence the name – What I’ve Learned.

I love you all,

Love your family,
Love life,
Pray often,
and smile 🙂

Dionne

The following sites are some I used for information:

Info Med Search
Physicians for Essential Tremors
International Essential Tremors Foundation
We Move-ET
ET Peer-to-Peer
Merck Manual.com/diagnosis
Diagnose Symptom.com
Health Encyclopedia
Web MD