Car crashes and God’s Redirection

img_5947Auto accidents are no fun. They are never convenient nor can they be planned for.  We got the call as we left Moses Lake and Fiddle Camp that our son was in a car accident. We were hours away and he sounded confused and uncertain.  I called a local friend who was able to go and meet him while we drove that direction. How thankful I am for friends who will drop everything and just come!

The car was totaled and adding another dimension of management to my life. Now, in addition to helping my husband sort through his head, hand and shoulder work injuries, a looming medical layoff and retirement details, my son needed to see additional doctors for his head for concussion and his hand that had glass embedded in it. the paramedics did not take him to the hospital for evaluation. Follow up was up to us.  I am so grateful for a good insurance that continues to cover his recovery!  God was really watching out for him from the looks of his car.

Disappointment as this delayed his completing his CDL training as he healed from a concussion and hand injuries. No video, low light and rest quietly. How to do that? God provides in little and big ways.  Our insurance reimbursed for towing charges and is continuing to pay for his doctor appointments. His car was worth enough that he paid it off with the insurance money. Completing his training he is walking the faith walk necessary to find a new job. He got his truck running and his progress continues. God is providing.

Roadblocks to my plans happen in many different ways. After Fiddle camp, I planned to practice music and prepare to record songs I do with kids and a Christmas CD for when we play out.  I planned to write more blog posts, attend the Oregon Christian Writers Conference and follow through with whatever I learned to do there.   I want to learn how to do a whole lot of things.  Just before the conference began, a chronic ear infection that I have been dealing with for the past 2 and 1/2 years flared up. I went to the Oregon Christian Writers Conference taking oral and topical antibiotics. I could barely hear out of my left ear. I did what I could and attended insightful sessions and met some really interesting and encouraging people. I tried to sit so I could hear out of my best ear.  My fatigue level was a handicap but I pressed on while taking a break daily for a nap.  I purchased a new computer I need to learn more about how to use both for writing and recording. At home, I continued to prepare our yard and house to put on the market by taking loads to the recycle, dump and thrift stores.  I gave my goats away because my energy was so negatively impacted.   Preditors carried off my chickens and duck. It seemed like my load was being lightened somewhat. Meanwhile, I’ve helped Jeff to do many things to do as he navigated a medical layoff, forced early retirement and continuing work to help him heal.

A new doctor asked me how long I’ve had a heart murmur. A heart murmur??? No one had ever told me I had a heart murmur.  In preparation for our annual summer week at Cannon Beach Conference Center, she asked me to keep track of how I responded to my beach walks – how was I breathing? Was I able to set the pace or was I lagging behind?  She ordered a culture on my ears. I went to the beach for the last week of summer. For 25 years I have taken early walks to Haystack rock.  I did not waking up at 6:30 to go for walks. I was slowing the pace, stopping to catch my breath and taking daily naps.  My weight had been creeping back up after I had lost over 100 pounds.  Even after many doctors’ appointments, no one had any answers for me even though something was clearly wrong.  The best most of the doctors could recommend was for me to eat less, exercise more and reduce stress in my life.  No one really had any great advice about how to do that with the various challenges my family members face.

A short while later, the results came in that my ear infection is a combination of bacteria, yeast, and fungal infections. Shocked, I prayed for wisdom on what to do next.  I have spent most of my life studying healthy living and choosing to eat healthy foods.  I felt impressed to call Dr. Russell Kolbo at the Mt. Rainier Clinic.  He gave me a free 15-minute consultation on the phone.  He knew exactly what to do.  Just days before we were to fly to Anchorage,  God opened the door for me to see him, get more labs drawn, test our home for mold using a mold kit from Home Depot, complete a stool sample to mail off and follow his therapy prescription twice before getting on a plane for Alaska. He warned me after the first Ozone IV and lavage that I might feel sick because it was killing the yeast, bacteria, and fungus. I remembered my internship with Dr. Jennifer Huntoon years ago training me in how import intestinal detoxification is. This led me to go to Fred Meyer nutrition center in Anchorage to pick up Sonnes Bentonite clay and psyllium seed as well as distilled water. I began making this “cocktail” twice a day in my shaker jar with a Plexus Slim packet. I added Buffered Vitamin C powder, collagen,  Plexus Pro Bio 5 and Bio Cleanse.   I looked up colon therapy in the Anchorage area and found Tina Williams who got me in for an Ionic Footbath.   She gave me a stack of books and pamphlets to read and recommended the book “One Cause, Many Ailments”  by Dr. John O. A. Pagano to read. She shared the story of her battle with a systemic yeast infection. Her story is on her website “Feel Better Naturally” She said she was glad I was working with Dr. Kolbo and I needed to go home and “do whatever he tells you to do.” I read the book cover to cover marking things that stood out to me as we went to meet our cruise ship.

This was a very different cruise for me as instead of walking laps on board ship, taking music classes and interacting with other guests,  I slept fourteen hours a day.  I got up for meals and to see the glaciers.  I met a few new friends from Australia and Jeff had to plan our excursions. We never made it to any of the sit-down dinners and we did not go dancing. Partly due to the fact that the “scenic cruising through the glaciers” coincided with dinner each night.  Who wants to go get dressed up for dinner when they can go see glaciers, whales, walrus, seals and other things? At any rate, I was much too tired to do what I would normally have done.

My next appointment with Dr. Kolbo revealed I was flunking DHEA and Hormones.  I embarked on a new course of therapies including new supplements for DHEA, hormones and a mold remedy made based on the mold test we did from our home.    I continued Ozone IV with UVI light and ear lavage with Ozone.  My ears improved and my energy only slightly. While preparing me one day the nurse noticed my increasingly high blood pressure and my erratic heartbeats.  She asked another nurse to come and count to double-check what she was hearing.  Perhaps another reason for my fatigue.  The doctor added another IV for the arrhythmia after running an EKG on me.  Further roadblocks as my mind struggled to comprehend what was happening to me.  I added other therapy to help heal my body. Infrared sauna, massage, Bowen, colonic irrigation, cardio tests, myofascial massage and visits with other doctors and therapists. Every day became full of something to do or someone to see or someplace to get to.

I notified people that I am on a “health sabbatical”.  This meant giving up music classes, tutoring and subbing in the public schools, Bible Study Fellowship as my doctor and therapy appointments, as well as my energy,  often prevent me from going. I miss my goats and chickens, playing with my fiddle friends and preparing for Christmas Farmers Markets as we get closer to the Christmas season.  I miss my “young friends” and working in my garden. Yet I see the provision of God in many ways.  My Cannon Beach friends Kathy and Tom who have let me and my daughter stay at their home for a night or two each week so we can be closer to the clinic. My husband who is having to learn how to do a lot of things around the house as well as dealing with his own doctors and therapists for his work-related injuries and recovery.  My neighbor helps with our Airbnb and my daughter does too. My son looking for work until he is delivering packages for UPS while following his recovery protocols for auto and work injuries. Times of healing can feel pretty isolating!

The world seems to spin out of control. To say that our year has not gone the way I expected would be an understatement.  Everywhere I look, articles I read seem to indicate that the world is not the safe, sane and peaceful place I would like to experience.  People are sick, governments are not listening to their people, Israel is being bombed again and I am not able to do a thing about any of it. I am reminded of Psalm 37:1-13  “Fret not because of evildoers or be envious of those who do wrong. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither like the green herb. Trust in the LORD, and do good. Dwell in the land, and enjoy safe pasture. Also, delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD. Trust in Him and He will do this:  He will make your righteousness go out as the light and your justice as the noonday sun. Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently Him. Don’t fret because of him who prospers in the way, because of the man who makes wicked plots happen.  Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Don’t fret, it only leads to evildoing. For evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land. For yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more. Yes, though you look for his place, he isn’t there.  But the humble shall inherit the land, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. The wicked plots against the just, and gnashes at him with his teeth. The LORD will laugh at him, for He sees that his day is coming.”

I can only do the next right thing. I can do my “work heartily as unto the LORD. Knowing that from the LORD I will receive the inheritance in Christ Jesus.”  I am grateful for the reminders for recent sermons about preaching the Gospel as well as living the Gospel.  As I am in contact with other new and different people, I pray that what I do and say shows them that Jesus loves them and He did the Gospel.  The true Gospel is that no matter what I do or say, I am not good enough and I do not do enough good things to make myself right in the eyes of the Highest and HOLY God.  Only the blood of Jesus can do that.  I am grateful that He chose to be the living sacrifice for my sin. I am so grateful it only takes “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” (Acts 4:12) “Confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart (Romans 10:9) that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved. Christ died for our sins. He was buried and He rose again on the third day according to the scriptures. (ICorinthians15:3,4)

He came to bring healing and peace to the most important part of me  – my heart.  One thing I notice in the Book of Acts is how persecution served to move people around to different places so that the Gospel could be taught. Maybe that is what is happening for me. I learned in October that my heart needs to be healed physically as it was determined I had a minor heart attack which caused an irregular heartbeat  I am so thankful for God’s direction to a doctor who not only knew what to do for the systemic infection I have been dealing with, he also knew what to do to help my irregular heartbeat. He started me on a series of minerals and other things that brought healing nutrition directly to the part of me that needed it the most. Jesus does the same thing – if we ask Him – through His Holy Spirit and the study of God’s Word.   He has already healed my heart spiritually.  It appears that while it is being healed physically,  this situation has placed me and my daughter in situations that we would not have chosen but we get to share the fragrance of Jesus where ever we go.  This is something to be truly thankful for in this season.