Our God is Healer-Part 2

 Part 2

Saturday morning June 16th, was when it all started. We had gone to Hope House with the current team and were helping with crafts, games, and bible stories. All throughout the morning my contacts were bothering me and I kept rubbing at my left eye. We were only at Hope House for a couple hours but by the time we got back to the center I had a headache. I decided that I would stay home and rest for the remainder of the day instead of going to the beach with everyone else. Even after I had taken my contacts out my left eye was still throbbing and the headache was only getting worse, so I took some ibuprofen and tried to sleep it off.

Sunday morning was the same; my head and eye were still hurting. The pain was getting worse and ibuprofen wasn’t helping at all. My eye was completely bloodshot, swollen, and the light was making it burn. I stayed home from church hoping that by the afternoon I’d feel better. By the time lunch came around I did, sort of. The swelling around my eye had gone down a little and I could open my eye without the light burning it, too much. I thought I was on the mend. However, just a few hours later my eye was swollen again and hurting worse than before. The pain continued all day and once again I couldn’t sleep.

Monday morning I felt slightly better but I still went to OSPAC and had a nurse look at my eye, she gave me some eye drops and an anti-biotic cream to put in my eye while I slept. As soon as I got home I put the cream in my eye and tried to sleep (by this time I was getting pretty tired after not sleeping for two nights). I woke up feeling the worst I’d felt so far and my eye was starting to swell shut again. By this time I’d noticed that there was a white spot on my eye but I had no idea what it was and for some reason didn’t think much of it (probably because I wasn’t thinking straight anymore).  All of this time I had been pretty quiet about the pain, I have a high pain tolerance and have the mentality that eventually it will get better so I shouldn’t bother people with it.  Everyone knew my eye was bothering me and that I was in pain but nobody knew just how bad it was getting, because I was trying to stay positive about it.

Monday afternoon I stopped trying to hide how badly I was feeling and just went and curled up in my bed, sometimes crying when the pain was really intense. The girls all came in my room to check on me and realized that something was wrong (I should mention that most girls are in the medical field). They saw the white circle on my eye, researched it and realized that I had a corneal ulcer caused by bacteria. It was this time that I started to realize my vision was going. Before it was hard to see when my eye was swollen and sensitive to the light but then the swelling would go down I’d be able to see again, but now I could tell that it was getting a lot worse. I started keeping an ice pack or frozen peas on it all the time because it helped numb it slightly.  For the third night in a row I didn’t sleep.

Tuesday morning was when things changed. Here is what I remember. I woke up aware that I was in a lot of pain and stumbled off the couch to find some ice. I remember having a hard time getting to the kitchen because I couldn’t see anything out of my left eye and barely anything out of my right eye (this should have been a clue to me that something was seriously wrong…my right eye had nothing wrong with it but yet my vision was still affected). Someone stopped me and took me to the freezer to get the ice pack and then they led me back to the couch. I promptly curled up, the last thing I remember thinking was that I wished I could get someone to just take my eye out because I didn’t want it anymore. I couldn’t tell you anything that was going on around me that morning or who I talked too or anything, because I was completely out of it. Since then I’ve been filled in on what happened. I really have Daisy to thank, a nurse on the Grove City team because if she hadn’t realized how seriously and quickly I was going downhill that morning, I’m pretty sure I would have lost at least my vision. She was the one who had checked my eye in the beginning before anything looked wrong and had continued to encourage me to get it looked at. Apparently, she came over and asked me a few questions and became really concerned. So, Bongolo Hospital was called and Leanne went out and got both of the anti-biotic drops on their list. They also emailed a woman named Wendi who is an at Bongolo eye surgeon at Hospital (she currently is in the states getting ready to have a baby) to ask how serious this was and her opinion on what needed to be done. They came back to the house and set two people watch over me and to start putting drops in my eye every fifteen minutes.

As the afternoon went on the pain which had moved from just my eye to my entire head started to lessen and the swelling started to go down a little as well. Things became less blurry for me and I was able to start thinking straight again. I could tell that these gatifloxacin and atrophine drops were working. It had been decided that I would be flown to Bongolo Hospital the next morning to have the ulcer thoroughly examined, and then depending on how it looked it would be dictate whether or not I could stay in Gabon.

Tuesday night, I was told to prepare myself because if needed I would be sent back to the states to receive all available treatment. I was going to Bongolo to have my eye looked at but unless I was completely out of danger, I’d be going home. At this point I’d been on the anti-biotic treatment for a few hours, however due to the fact that I was starting the treatment so late (I’d had this ulcer for 4 days) it was thought unlikely that I would respond quickly to it. However, I knew that God had been healing me and that I was supposed to stay in Gabon. So, I trusted God.

I arrived at Bongolo hospital Wednesday around 2pm. We went straight from the landing strip to the hospital and I immediately had my eye examined.  It had been a little over 24 hours since I’d started putting drops in my eye and it was obviously getting better, I just didn’t know if it was healing fast enough that I could stay at Bongolo instead of going home. After a thorough exam and a call back to Wendi the head eye surgeon, it was decided that I could stay at the hospital and receive daily checkups. I was also to continue using both anti-biotics every 30 minutes.

Thursday morning, I was told that my ulcer which had been 1.8 millimeters when I arrived had shrunk to under 1 millimeter.

Each morning, I would walk down the giant hill to the hospital with Hannah and have my eye examined, and each time we would get positive news. Soon I was able to stop using the atrophine drops and just use the gatifloxacin drops every hour. My vision was coming back and the light was bothering me less and less. Sleeping at night was getting easier, I was of course sleeping in 1 hour increments but I was sleeping again. We were still waiting for the okay to travel back to Bongolo, I was starting to get a little antsy because I was feeling so much better and just wanted someone to agree with me that I was fine.

Monday morning, I was told the ulcer was gone and that there was only a small scar remaining. I was able to switch to drops every two hours. And the best news by far was that there was a good chance I would be able to leave the next day.

Tuesday, I was given the okay to return to Libreville, just six days after my arrival. My eye was completely healed. All that was left was a little scar, which I gladly keep.

As, we flew back to the capital I was able to gaze out at the bright blue sky and glistening white clouds as if nothing had ever affected my vision. It was a moment of pure adoration and wonder at the power and deep compassion of the Lord. I know that my life is forever changed by the work God completed in my life and I can only hope that it will bring hope to others who need a small miracle of their own. Never doubt the will or power of God. He loves to do the impossible for His children!