Birthday Wish
My birthday was probably one of the hardest days of my life. I had gotten maybe 5 hours of sleep combined in the last two nights, was 9 months pregnant, and was in so much pain that it killed to stand, sit, lie down, or move. My infection had returned, and the pain was so constant that it was becoming seemingly impossible to keep it out of my mind or sleep.
A couple nights before, I saw a natural healing doctor, Marianna Ebner, for help because my surgery was not successful, and I had learned that they rarely ever were. I’ve read about people who have the gift to find solutions to illnesses, and as I came to find this woman was one of those people. She gave me sulfur to take so that the infection would gather in one area and cream to help the skin thin so that the abscess could come out on its own. And then I just had to wait for it to open naturally, so it could have a chance of completely clearing itself out. Never knowing when the pain would end was probably the hardest part of the pain. When would I be delivered from this nightmare? In twenty minutes? Two hours? Two days? A week?
The more that I fought in my mind that this was happening, the more painful it became. I had to accept it, and let it take its course. But believe me, if I wasn’t pregnant, I’d be enjoying a lot of pain medicine. But, okay, accepting it, wasn’t the easiest thing after only sleeping for 45 minutes by three in the morning. All I wanted to do was cry, and it wasn’t the best time for Hector to tell me that my crying was probably scaring the baby. Well, that’s how my birthday started out as the morning rolled forward.
I wanted the time to pass quickly. I realized that I never had a horrible birthday and wondered how many people I’ve wished happy birthday who were having hard days. But I have to admit that it really meant a lot to me that so many people were thinking of me and wishing me a happy day during this difficult time.
By the afternoon, I had just about lost it. I couldn’t handle any more pain, so I took some pain killer besides it was my birthday. The relief lasted maybe an hour and a half. I took two more three and a half hours latter when I then realized that I could only take six in one day. By the evening, I was trying to separate my mind from my body in attempts to escape the pain. Then Marianna Ebner came to visit me because she heard I was having a really hard time. She took such good care of me. After helping me, she sat in bed next to me and gave me a big hug and told me that she was so sorry that I was having such a hard birthday and that my mom was so far away and that I was in a foreign country far away from my family and that I was so pregnant while I was sick and such. After crying in her arms for a while, I wiped my face and tried to keep moving forward.
I stood/leaned as I ate half of my birthday dinner. It was my favorite, mexican food. But it was too much for me to handle, so I went back in my bed, trying to figure out how to lie to have relief and attempt to move my giant belly around. After a break, I came back and ate my birthday cake, which were really homemade pumpkin scones from Starbucks. Loved it.
Sometime during that night, I asked Heavenly Father if I could just fail this trial–whatever that meant. Then maybe an hour latter, I gave up and reaccepted what was happening.
The next morning I had a baby doctor appointment. I could barely walk. A very nice lady in our ward gave me a ride there because I couldn’t ride my bike. I went into the room where they check the baby’s heart beat. The lady that checks me in couldn’t find the baby’s heart beat. She looked worried, really worried. After the worst 30 seconds of Hector’s and my life, she found it. Sometime when I was lying on that table, a feeling of peace came over me, and I fell into a deep sleep. I was finally asleep. The doctor woke me up. He told me that I should go to the emergency room right now because my condition was so bad. I really did not want to, but I told him I would. I finally felt really good. Really, really good. Then he said that he wanted to check my abscess. He removed the bandage and saw that it had opened.
I went straight to the emergency room at the hospital. My favorite surgeon was there and took me immediately. The abscess cleaned itself out. I’ll leave out the disgusting details even though I want to brag about my third a cup of puss. The doctors who saw me the following weeks to clean out the empty hole asked how they were able to do the surgery so well to clear everything out. When I told them that it opened on its own, they were extremely surprised. I don’t know if that was because they realized how painful that had to have been or if it was just such a clean removal. I am so thankful for Marianna Enber and her help, and of course, I am so thankful for Hector’s help and instructing me to accept the blessing I had received instead of re-asking for a blessing where Heavenly Father just instantly heals me. 😉
Well, once the infection was out, I felt great and walked home. It wasn’t like after the surgery where I couldn’t move for two weeks. And after I was able to rest for three nights, I went into labor Thursday night and ended up having Darian Saturday at 2:32 ish am. I must admit, I learned something of patience.
