She was 30 years old and her doctor told her "tomorrow is the day" she would have her diseased colon removed to try to save her life.The doctor had been treating her for 2 years and during that time all she could eat was baby food. She had such severe ulcerative colitis she weighed 87 pounds and had been in the hospital for a week and was given blood and fluids to replace what her body was losing through her diseased colon. She was allergic to the medication that normally would have been given to help the bowel to heal. There was nothing else to be done by the doctors besides this drastic surgical procedure.
Her doctor warned her husband to not upset her. She was so weak unless she had the will to live, she might not make it through the surgery. There had been a tragic car wreck involving family members, but nobody dared tell her until after the surgery. She had a mental health consultation and had talked to people who had had colostomies who were supposed to help her feel okay about "life after colostomy," but she was praying to God to either heal her or just let her die because she did not want to have to wear a bag against her abdomen to collect feces every day for the rest of her life.She turned on the television in her room and one of the channels she saw a man who was preaching about healing and James 5. She felt God tell her, "If you do this, I will heal you." She called her husband and told him to bring some deacons and some oil and follow the instructions that were given in the Bible in James 5:14-16. "We don't do that! We're Baptists!" She insisted that if they wouldn't do this for her, she'd call every church of every denomination in the phone book until she found someone who would. Remembering what the doctor had said about not letting her get upset, her husband and deacons soon showed up at her bedside with a bottle of olive oil which they "anointed" her with and prayed for her to be healed. The next morning, the morning of the surgery, the Dr. did a final pre-op colonoscopy to see how much of her bowel would need to be removed. It had only been one week since her last colonoscopy and she had only been given clear fluids and blood transfusions. No medication to help heal the bowel, because she was allergic to it. As the doctor was looking through the colonoscope, he kept saying, "Oh, my! Oh, my!" and my stepmother asked what the "Oh, My-ing" was all about. Her doctor told her, " If I had not been the one treating you for the past 2 years and the one who had done all your colonoscopies, I would not believe this." Her bowel was as perfect as a baby's, he said. No ulcerations, no lesions, no scarring. Perfect. There was no need for the colostomy because there was no disease anymore. What could she eat? Anything. She was sent home and she stopped at the store and her first solid food she was able to eat in 2 years was some Bing cherries. After 2 years of suffering, she was totally healed and has not had a recurrence in 40-plus years. Her name is Mary Anne Missick and she can tell you the story herself, but I think I got all the facts straight. She believes God healed her in response to her following the instructions in James 5:14-16. |
AuthorLydia, single mom of 3 Archives
January 2016
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