My Story of God's Grace

This is my story of God’s Grace and Mercy on my life. I guess I shall start from the beginning and fumble my way through the middle as the middle part I don’t have that much recollection of. I feel like a third person telling this story as I was not aware of all the important stuff at the time.

So it was Wednesday and I woke up feeling a little off. Like you do the day before you get the flu or gastro. Headachy and sore joints. So when I woke up on Thursday feeling awful I was prepared for it and waited for it to pass. By Saturday it seemed to be getting worse. I had the sweats and not able to keep anything down, even water caused me to be sick all over again. So I went to a walk in clinic (cos it a Saturday and who ever gets a dr apt on a Saturday?!) The dr asked my symptoms and gave me some antibiotics saying it either gastro or food poisoning. She told me to go to dr next day if not feeling better. So Sunday I went to Emergency as I was so dehydrated and awful I needed something other than antibiotics. The hospital gave me those horrible saline icy poles that look refreshing but taste like I was licking a dead fish. Then when they took me through they put me on a drip and gave me nauseous tablets and sent me home.

By Monday I had “Aaron the wonderful” stay home to watch the kids . I spent the day in and out of the shower cos I was so hot and I would go to bed and wake up in the sweats again. By Monday night I started to feel a little human again. And I said that Aaron should go to work the next day.

Tuesday, I woke up and sent Grace to a friend’s place. Levi tends to play well on his own and Faith was not herself either so she was clingy and annoying. My mother in law (who lives next door) ended up taking Levi and I put Faith to bed.

I crashed on the couch. Not noticing time or kids. Or that Grace had been dropped home. Or the fact it looked like a Kellogg’s factory had exploded in my family room. The next thing I remember was waking up and everything was hazy. Aaron was talking to me but I couldn’t comprehend what he was saying. He touched my skin and said I was burning. He grabbed his mother and asked her to watch the kids while he took me to the hospital…AGAIN.

We only live about 5 minutes (in peak hour) from the hospital, but it felt forever. I walked in and a nurse came over to us and I was sent straight through. I didn’t even have to talk to the triage nurse. Well I didn’t, Aaron probably did.

My body temperature at this point was about 40.1C. Having asked so many questions and not be able to find out what was wrong they, decided to send me to Fremantle hospital.  They did at one point believe it was gallstones, but Aaron mentioned a few times my gall bladder was removed the previous year.

So I went to Fremantle in an ambulance (not very comfortable) and they would not even let Aaron come with me. And from that point I have no recollection till 8 days later. So I will tell you what was told to me.

Aaron was told not to come with me as there was no point as he would have to sit out in waiting room anyway so he should come in morning and get some rest. The ambulance lady called him to say when I arrived at hospital.

Aaron got a phone call from the ICU dr at 2 in the morning and then again he got a phone call to say I had been resuscitated twice but still alive. He came straight to hospital and sat by my side for 40 hours. I recall having visitors, but I couldn’t tell you if it was day or night or what order.

They finally told Aaron to go home and get some rest and that they would call him regularly to keep him updated. They called every 2 hours through the night. During the early morning Aaron got the regular call from ICU dr and was told they would have to induce a coma as my heart rate was so high (as if I was running a marathon, and not unconscious on the bed), as was my blood pressure. They said my body was suffering multiple organ failure and they needed to do this to give my body a rest and a chance at survival.

I was in a coma for 4 days. At one point I had all the heads of medicine from the hospital around my bed not sure of what the cause was. During this time they did nearly every test under the sun to find out what was wrong. They did bone marrow biopsy, lumbar puncture and took so much blood I could have kept a family of vampires happy for a month. They pumped me full of nearly everything they could think of and so much fluid I literally put on over 20 kilos.

When they brought me out of a coma, I called for Aaron and told him that I was scared. It was one of the scariest times of my life. Because I was not getting answers from the Drs. And nothing could be explained. But I believe that for some reason God only gave me the amount of knowledge I could handle at the time. Because, had I known the full extent of what was happening I honestly don't know how I would have coped. I would have been so overwhelmed with fear I probably would have given up. Because that is my coping mechanism.

I was still on all this medication and my liver was getting worse. So they stopped all medication not knowing what was helping me and what was not. There was a talk of a liver transplant.

And then it was 8 days later. I had no idea what had happened and how severe my symptoms were. I had been out of ICU for a few days by then and was in the NSU (I think that was the anagram. But it was 2 nurses to a patient instead of 1 on 1.) My daily blood results were still showing signs of rapid decline and now it was just a waiting game to see how much worse it would get or if it would just plateau.

During the next few days I was having daily physio therapy. This just involved me getting out of bed and sitting in the chair for a few minutes. The chair was right next to the bed but it still took a good half hour to do it. It didn’t help that I had so many tubes and cords coming out of my body that I looked like a puppet. And I could only sit in the chair for a few minutes before I needed to get back to bed.

A few days later, they had to take out all my cables as they thought they could be a point of infection. I was so relieved. Especially the one in the neck. Makes me queasy thinking about it. And then they said I could go to a normal ward. I was so excited as it was so hard to sleep at night with all the nurses doing their hourly rotations.

So off to the geriatric ward I went. Well, it felt like that anyways. And I got to see my kids!!! Grace (6) Levi (4) and Faith (1). I cant even imagine how Aaron was feeling going home everyday having to answer their questions "How is mummy" and  "Is mummy going to die?" From Levi.

After a few days I was told my liver seemed to have plateaued. And that I might be able to head home in a few days. 4 days later I was packing my bags and going home. With no medications or clear explanation from Dr what the reason was.

I had weekly blood tests for my liver and within 4 weeks, my liver went from probably needing a transplant to being in complete normal range!!!!
During my time in hospital, I had so many people praying for me and my family. We had so many people stepping up with meals and watching the kids so Aaron could come in to see me.

There are probably parts of this story that I have not mentioned as most of the information I am getting is from hearing Aaron tell the story to people. I get more information every time I hear it. And I am starting to feel detached from the whole thing because I think how was that me? I don't recall anything? I feel so normal now. Like it never happened!
 

I believe that through so much prayer, God just did the miraculous. Because the Doctors could not give definitive answers and science and medication were not able to solve anything. And today I am completely and miraculously healed!

Kristy xx