I don’t know that I’ve ever been as sick as I was as last week. I kept feeling worse and the pain in my ribs and back was excruciating. Worse than after my neck surgery and worse than pneumonia. As I was lying in bed Saturday night, I reached over to my nightstand and grabbed my clinging cross that my friend Janell gave me several years ago. I clung to it until I fell asleep, praying for relief and a diagnosis. My husband took me to the local emergency room on Sunday night and all they did was tell me that my problem was “muscular.” I knew it wasn’t. Something was wrong.

The next morning, I went to my family doctor, a nurse practitioner in Bovina, Texas, population 1,807. She could see the pain I was in, drew blood and within minutes diagnosed me. I had H.Pylori. It’s a bacterial infection I could have caught as a child, but it decided to wreak havoc on my system this week. I couldn’t even stand up on my own and even breathing was painful. I was really scared. All I can say is that Kim McArthur, NP is amazing.

The pain I was enduring made me think of my mighty warrior Caeleb. If I was in this much pain from an infection in my gut, what was his pain like the nights he screamed in agony over his knee that wouldn’t stop bleeding? His pain went on for hours on end and all I could do was talk to him, try to distract him and ice his swollen joint. Those moments seemed to last a lifetime but now they are a distant memory.

For as much as I have used this year to transform my physical self, I am reminded that sometimes things happen no matter how hard we work to do what we think is best. The next hurdle I have is to deal with the pain that is in my neck and back. My recent MRI scans are not good, but what I do know is that I have my cross by my side there isn’t anything that is dished out to me that I can’t handle in one way or another.

Today I Am Thankful For:

1. My husband, the love of my life, and amazing father to my children
2. My Dad, who I miss terribly
3. potted plants on the porch
4. oranges
5. my clinging cross