Seventh Day Adventist - Testimony

So there I was, laying on the floor in my office, staring at the ceiling. I couldn't stand up because of the pain. All I could think about was the pain shooting down my leg. My manager walks in, looks at me, and tells me to go home. He knows that my back bothers me from time to time, and if it was bad enough that I was laying on the floor rather than working, something had to be seriously wrong. He instructed me to go to the doctor, go rest, do something. Just get better soon. That was my last day of work for the next six months. I did not know at the time what the months ahead would entail for me. Positive changes can come in all shapes and sizes; I learned this when I had back surgery at 21.

When I left work that cold December day, I had one thought on my mind. What is wrong with my body? I'm young, I work out regularly and eat a healthy diet. I take care of my body, so why is it falling apart? What I would soon find out, is that due to some unknown reason, I had found myself with a pinched nerve, herniated disk, and fractured vertebrae. For those of you that have never experienced back pain before, count your blessings. For those that know what true back pain feels like, you can relate to that feeling of just crippling pain. The type of pain that makes you walk like a 90-year-old with a hunch. The kind of pain that makes you cry out when you move the wrong way. I found myself in some of the worst pain I had ever experienced.

When I was finally able to get into the doctor, it had been about a week since I left work. I was given muscle relaxers and told to take them every 6 hours and rest. A couple of weeks go by, and it's not getting better, the opposite actually. I had gone from a state of pain when I walked or moved wrong, to discomfort all the time! I schedule another appointment, let the doctor know what was going on, and this time he sees that there's no easy fix. He tells me that he is going to refer me to a spinal surgeon and that I now need to get x-ray's, and an MRI. For the next month, I wait for my appointment to see the specialist. Mind you; this is another month on top of the 2 or 3 weeks I've already been going through. So at this point I am so ready to finally get the results and find out what this surgeon is going to be able to do to help me. I go to my appointment and the first thing he has to offer me is a shot in my spine; once every three weeks and it will take the pain away. All I'm thinking is, "there is no way I'm going to hide my problem by taking a shot once a month and masking whatever is wrong with my back." I tell the doctor, no, I want surgery to fix my back. Kind of shocked he asks me, "you want surgery?" I tell him that unless there is another long term fix to my back problem, I want surgery. It took another month after this appointment to get my surgery done. From the time I left work because of the pain, to the time I went to the hospital to receive surgery, was over three months! One might ask how someone could find positivity in three months worth of pain. How can you look back on an experience like this and say that you are glad that it happened? This three month period restored my Faith.

My surgery only took an hour and a half; I woke up about 2 hours after they put me under. When I woke up, I remembered wondering where I was and not remembering much. I remembered the doctor telling me a joke about how only a few people don't wake up from anesthesiology, and then lights out. Not too funny looking back! I went home that same day, and I was up walking around only an hour after my surgery was complete. Part of the recovery now is they don't want you on bed rest, so I was up moving that same day. I would never have thought at the time, but what I needed in life was something to slow me down and give me a chance to think and make the change in my life, and a back surgery definitely slowed me down! I remember for the month following I had so much free time on my hands, and the months leading up to the surgery I had found an interest in reading and studying my Bible. I didn't know at the time, but my rest I had during my surgery is what recovered my faith and gave me the chance to recommit to God. I was so busy in my life prior and what I truly needed was time to sit back and make a change in my life. During this period I started praying regularly; for strength, for recovery, for guidance, and for financial support. I was able to get through all this time and make it on the other side fully recovered and with a new goal in my life. I no longer was interested in the things I once found so much joy. I proposed to my girlfriend, I quit drinking, and I started resting on the Sabbath. It was truly a life-altering situation, and it shaped me into who I am today.

Some people may ask how any of this could be seen as positive, but if you knew the person I was before and could see the person I am now, you would understand. I was going through life without direction. I had a baby girl on the way and didn't have a plan for my life. I had no interest in "growing up" and making the hard decisions in life because I wanted to do, what I wanted. I needed to start taking responsibility and be the type of person that my family could rely on, and I wasn't. The time spent with myself reflecting on my life gave me the opportunity to become who I needed to be.  It's amazing, but the person I was destined to be was not the person I was, and it's not the person I am right now. It is a constant battle between good and evil and what I learned was that the decisions I was making were not setting up my family for a prosperous future.

If there is one thing I found out throughout this entire situation, it's that you never know what tragedy will turn into a blessing until the real path has been revealed. And the only way you know of this fantastic journey is by putting your faith in something bigger than yourself, and trusting that you are loved.