I began suffering with health issues in 2000, the year my niece, Jennifer, and her half-brother, Jimmie, came to live with us. My life was already full of work responsibility with a schedule of Lifestyle of Learning retreats and conferences set in place for the following year. But when the state of Washington called and asked us to give a home to these children I had not even known were homeless, my family felt the conviction to help them. I didn’t know it then, but the additional responsibilities of two very dysfunctional children from drug backgrounds pushed me toward the edge of adrenal exhaustion, but what I experienced in my physical being was an intense chronic cough that was not due to illness. I?was increasingly more tired but still felt “normal.”
This season resulted in a loss of more than half my red blood cells and a chronically poor condition in my white blood cells that the doctor told me later put me frighteningly near death’s door. He said I?had needed a transfusion, but since we didn’t have health insurance and had to pay for my care up front, we chose to rebuild my blood and organs (blood loss weakened my liver and kidneys) naturally with the oversight and regular care of a wonderful naturopath.
During the two-year period of rebuilding my blood, under my doctor’s care, I?felt like a 90-year-old, unable to talk above a whisper, or walk without picking up my feet. My heart felt like it would stop at any time. Being in a car with anyone who was going faster than 45 miles an hour was a frightening experience. Sudden starts and stops were extremely stressful to me. I?had been so weakened that I began suffering with various maladies, including experiencing a seizure that later I learned was a diabetic seizure. My doctor diagnosed me with diabetes, and began experiencing overnight its accompanying host of related symptoms. My blood pressure, which had always been in the low-normal range, sky-rocketed, and I?lost a lot of muscle strength, and developed neuropathy, both of which made it difficult to get out of bed in the mornings without massaging my legs to “wake them up.” Neuropathy is both painful and frightening. It felt like flames of fire licking up my legs; like torture. The nerve activity never subsided except when I ran. And so being in bed was never actually restful. I worked hard at getting diabetes out of my life by eliminating all starchy foods from my diet and walking and slow jogging past the pain.
When you’re in pain the last thing you want to do is aggravate it, but pushing past the pain was the only way I would get well and so Jim and I “ran” every morning. I was so slow and my legs felt so heavy due to nerve damage and the chronic fatigue I was still recovering from, but “run” I did, barely picking my feet up off the ground. My children lovingly called it the “old lady scuffle.” I constantly reminded myself of the Lord’s work in my life and His call to the ministry that I had yet to finish. I was on my way to getting well, achieving victory over diabetes, but little did I know that a more serious condition was silently setting in.
(continued in part 11)