Sigh…

Lucy with her cousin Sammy, bathed in the pink light of a beautiful sunset on Lucy’s birthday.

Last week I spoke to the people at the Young Living clinic and at this time they are not doing the injections. The training they had scheduled for a group of doctors to learn the procedure in November fell through. I’m assuming the civil unrest that was going on had something to do with this, but for whatever reason it’s not available right now. So much for making plans, right?? I sure know how to make God laugh, Lucy’s passport, check. Katie’s passport, check. Call clinic, make appointment…screech…plans de-railed!!!

You would think that after the events of this past month I would not be surprised by any events or change of plans. Some of you know already but on December 14th, my fit, healthy, 39 year old brother suffered a massive heart attack while out of town and underwent quintuple bypass surgery two days later. Praise God, he is at home now and recovering. My families “plans” for the Christmas season were seriously rearranged. We all handled it with instinct and grace. It wasn’t until it all settled down that I realized just how much everyone went through, changes we made, duties we took on, things we got done, how we all came together to make it happen.

I know the Grace was from God, as well as the ability for our instincts to take over. When I got this news, about the injections, my grace and instincts were malfunctioning and I became apathetic. It has taken me awhile but I think they are warming up and I am getting back into action. We had an appointment with another doctor a few days ago. He confirmed what I had already been thinking since I learned that the injections weren’t an option in the immediate future, that we need to start doing aggressive therapy with Lucy.  She is young enough to see results and old enough to cooperate, maybe…she is till pretty stubborn!!

Like I said, when I got the news that she couldn’t do the injections any time soon, I became momentarily apathetic.  I felt like everything I do or try to do to help her fails.  Then I remembered that everything happens for a reason.  I had thought the reason for all of the delays was so that we could get the injections.  Maybe she will still get the injections, but not right away.  Maybe the reason was so that we would get the third opinion from Dr. Sin, who doesn’t even want to think about surgery for about five years.  Either way, I know I’m not supposed to sit around checking my watch waiting for the surgery day to arrive.  I need to be proactive and take measures to help her body heal without surgery.  It would be irresponsible of me to do anything less.  It’s going to be hard, time consuming and expensive but nevertheless it needs to be done.

So, what exactly am I going to be doing.  First, we need to get a current CT scan.   Things may change after we see exactly what is going on inside her body, but for now my plan is to work with several doctors doing therapy, cranio-manipulation, chiropractic adjusting, cold laser, using an appliance like the ora stretch press I talked about in an earlier post, continue the oils, but more aggressively on her jaw several times a day and possibly look into forcing her jaw open under sedation.

The doctor I met this week also confirmed what I have been thinking all along.  We need to do everything possible to avoid amputating her jaw.  If we amputate her jaw we are, FOR SURE, condemning her to a life of surgery.  We need to exhaust all other options before we do that.  What is the worst that can happen?  We end up having to amputate her jaw???    If at the end of all of this that is God’s will, I will accept it, but for now I need to make sure I am helping the other options along in case it is God’s will that she not have her jaw amputated.  I know God could perform a miracle and heal her jaw without me having to do any work, but that is not His usual way.  The best example of this He has shown us is His own suffering and death on the cross. Sure, He could have saved us by a painless miracle but He didn’t.  I don’t always understand why but I need to understand that if it is good enough for Him it should be good enough for me.  Suffering, pain, hardship, work, are all a part of our lives.  We can sit around and be apathetic, blaming God for not granting us shock and awe miracles or we can get to work, be His instruments and make them happen.

I was listening to a priest on Catholic radio the other morning.  He was talking about how people will say “I prayed to God and He didn’t answer me” and he said “yes He did, He said, ‘no’, that’s an answer. God doesn’t always say ‘yes’ to our prayers, we don’t know what is best for us, He does”.  For whatever reason, God has chosen to not heal Lucy by a shock and awe miracle.  We may never know to the full extent why He does what He does.  I can only fathom it with my limited human knowledge.  Is it because God wants to bring Himself to people through Lucy, does He want all of us to learn to go deeper into prayer through praying for Lucy, does He want me to be able to share the natural things from His creation we use regularly with all of the medical doctors we consult with, maybe it is simply for Lucy, to strengthen her to live a holy and pure life???    I don’t think we will ever know for sure while on this earth, we can only suspect and hope.  We just need to have faith that it is all part of His greater plan.