I went through a series of 5 treatments called plasmapheresis. It was pretty rough. I had a tube placed inside the major vein in my neck (um, I was awake during the procedure\u2026I wish that horror on no one), down into my chest where it remained for 9 days. <\/p>\n
Initially, I started to feel very sorry for myself. But I began reading the book again, and that stopped immediately. I wrote this on my iPad to my husband:<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing great is ever achieved without much enduring.\u201d
\n-St. Catherine of Siena<\/p>\n
I took small steps physically today\u2026 But over the past week, spiritually, I have begun running the \u201crace set before us\u201d (Hebrews 12:1). I can\u2019t help think that \u201cthose cloud of witnesses\u201d include St. Catherine and St. Therese. Their words have inspired me so. I feel like they\u2019re cheering me on, reminding me that \u201c\u2026 Weeping may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning.\u201d (Psalm 30:5)\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In an email to my daughter\u2019s godfather, I included this: \u201cI feel that my time reaching, grasping and stumbling in the dark of doubt is ending. Morning is here, it\u2019s just so dark right before dawn.\u201d<\/p>\n
When I entered the hospital on December 5th, I could only walk a few steps before having to pause to rest. On January 5th, the treatments had worked so well I was able to drive to the park, get out and walk a mile.<\/p>\n
My illness is not over. My new neurologist (who is a God-send), is planning to begin a different outpatient treatment next week. I pray that it will work as some of my symptoms have slowly begun to return. So please continue to pray.<\/p>\n
But thank you all. I spent so much of the past two years feeling my faith wither, and laying on the hospital bed, with tubes in my neck and arms, it was restored. I\u2019m wearing a St. Therese medal right now, and I know God used her to help bring about my spiritual restoration.<\/p>\n
God bless you!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus. Father, bring her to complete healing through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. Mother Mary and St. Luke, pray for her!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A reader writes: I wanted to write you a praise report. I asked for prayer from you and your readers on November 2, 2011, and mentioned that I was reading St. Therese\u2019s book. Well, a little over a month later, I wound up in the hospital. I stayed for ten days. It\u2019s a poor hospital, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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