Before having insurance and beginning my career in the teaching profession, I was playing basketball and tore my ACL. I was on crutches for awhile. When I got my first teaching job and a coaching position, I limped with pain. I continued to pray during the school year for GOD to heal me. What else was there to do anyway? I didn’t give up hope. I was in pain for quite awhile with no relief in sight. After 7 months, GOD finally answered and took my pain away. I was able to walk with free unhindered motion again. There were times my knee would hurt and I’d remember GOD’s mercy and thank HIM for it. HE then healed it again and I felt no pain. This has been a running theme in my life with this wound in my knee. When it hurts, I thank GOD for HIS mercy and then HE takes away my pain. Several years ago, I thought of getting surgery on my knee to finally get it fixed. After getting the MRI done on it, the doctor showed my old ACL injury. Then he showed me I had a new injury on top of it. You see, I played basketball again being careful with jumping because I learned that my bad cholesterol was high and I needed to exercise again. So my thoughts were it’s either my knee or my heart that I prioritize. I chose to strengthen my heart. I began exercising at a gym and playing basketball again. The new injury is a bucket holder meniscus tear along with my ACL tear. The cost of surgery was very high and I opted for not getting it. My family’s needs came first and foremost. I haven’t gotten the surgery to this day and walk around with two wounds in my knee that may never get fixed here on earth. Ever so often, the pain returns and I thank GOD for HIS mercy in my life and the pain once again dissipates even though the wounds are still present.
My wife has had two strokes in the last year. The numbness to parts of her body have gone away. She can still talk. Sometimes the words don’t come as fluently and finding the right word may be difficult. She gets headaches in parts of her brain that were affected by the strokes. She is depressed. She is depressed because she cannot do as much as she once did, think like she once did, be a part of working and supporting the family more, and being hopeful for a better day is challenged. Thoughts of what if I do not get well again? CT scans, MRI, EKG, other heart tests, and blood tests have all come back normal. However, she doesn’t feel normal. This has been difficult for her to cope with. Suicidal thoughts have been present off and on, but she will never commit suicide. To her it is not an option. I am thankful that GOD provided a job for online teaching that I can do to support our family more so now that she is unable to work along with my teaching job I have in public school. She has been wounded by unexpected health struggles now. There may not be an explanation that we find out about for why? Why did this happen? What must she do to get back on her feet? Will she regain abilities again one day? We will continue to pray and trust GOD through this… She’s wounded and there may not be complete healing. At least for now. In the future? I hope so, I really do!! In Heaven, yes!!!…
Last Sunday while I was teaching online at night, I heard my dog barking emphatically. I kept on teaching for this was my job to do. When I got a break, I went to tell my two oldest kids to check on him. I knew something wasn’t right. I had to get back to teaching. My kids didn’t go check on our dog. When teaching was through, I went myself to check on him and he was bleeding at various parts of his left front leg. We have a metal paneled fence and it has a 2 or 3 inch gap at the bottom. My initial evaluation was that he got his leg caught in the fence and there were two places with jagged edges and that is why he had multiple cuts. My wife and daughter took him to an emergency vet center an hour away. The Vet said that there were definite puncture wounds from another dog. As I rethought what happened, I believe another dog was able to grab a hold onto his leg with its teeth and pulled his leg under the fence biting and yanking on it. His leg rubbed up against the metal fence panel’s bottom edge as well as the two places that had jagged points. The Vet had to amputate one of his toes, because of the trauma done to it. He was put on antibiotics and pain meds. A cone was placed around his neck to keep him from bothering the sutures put in to close the wounds and allow for quicker healing to take place. Well, the cone wasn’t long enough for him not to lick his wound where the toe was amputated. I called the E.R. vet clinic today to ask about him licking this wound where it is still raw. They told me that, he needed another cone to wear so he doesn’t keep licking it or it won’t heal. I took him an hour away to get a new cone for him and to see if anything else needs to be done. The vet came to tell me that she would prescribe a stronger antibiotic and that she would not be able to close the wound due to there not being enough skin to put sutures in to cover it. She said the wound will have to heal on its own. She told me to run water on it like hydrotherapy for 10 minutes and put an ointment on it once a day. He was so dependent on me this week to show him love and comfort. He was definitely traumatized and needed the attention and care. He was not happy tonight with the cool water running over the wound. He looked at me differently than the previous times of feeding him and letting him drink holding the bowl up to him for easier access with the cone around his head hampering him a bit. He hates the cold for he is short haired and the cold water made him shiver. It’s winter and he doesn’t like being outside. He was coming in at night to stay in the kennel every night before all this and now he stays inside most of the day too in order to rest and recover. Hopefully the wound heals on its own and he will walk easier again even without one of his toes.
Sometimes we experience wounds that do not fully heal here on earth. Some wounds may take a long time for healing to occur and we have to wait… Some wounds have to heal on its own and there will be a loss involved that needs to be grieved. We will enter Heaven with scars for sure and only be completely healed there… Even so, I will keep praying for more healing now and all my days that I live… Keep fighting and overcoming even when life isn’t fair and things aren’t going the way you expected…
If you’ve been wounded in any way, trust the LORD for your healing HE will give here or in Heaven… Life is a battle so let HIM help you if you’re a wounded soldier (emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually)…
