He Touched Her Hand and the Fever Left her

This morning my prayer time is a bit of recounting my recent experience, a testimony of sickness, God's promise, my recovery and God's commentary on that recovery.  

For the last week I have been sicker than I have ever remembered, and so sick that I have been unable work, unable to do much of anything.  Symptoms were very flu-like, fever, chills, body aches, exhaustion, no appetite, night sweats, etc.  The symptoms came on quickly last Sat., and I have been relegated to the recliner or bed for all but maybe 2 hours all week, when I tried to attend a meeting or two or doctor appointment, but those events which would leave me utterly exhausted and require 2-3 hours of sleep to marginally recover.  I would literally have to save up energy for five minutes just to pick up my phone to reply to a text message, such was the level of my fatigue.  I was sleeping close to 14 hours a day, feverish  anywhere from 100 - 103F.  The scary part is that I had a five day bout of almost the same symptoms that ended only six days prior, so I missed 10 of the last 15 days of work. As the week progressed, I seemed to be getting worse, I was starting to have trouble breathing, or I should say maintaining a good oxygen level.  I found myself breathing hard all the time, having difficulty sleeping because I would wake up breathing hard.  By this past Thursday, we were strongly considering going to the ER.

Back to God's promise.  On Monday morning, with the little energy I had, I asked the Lord if He had a word for me, and I heard Ps 91:4.  At this point my feverish brain could only remember a couple of bible-verses and this wasn't one of them.  I turned there and saw this promise - Psalm 91:4-6 NIV:

[4] "He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. 

[5] You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, 

[6] nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday."

I must say those were welcome words, and they settled strongly into my heart and mind.  They were about the only thing I could pray, and remember for the next 4 days.  

At this point we hadn't done any testing, seen the Dr., or anything, but based on my last experience I figured this was another bout of the flu, which although rare, it was possible that I caught the other variant that was out and about. I made an appointment to get into the Dr. on Monday and started the path of diagnosing my condition.  I was feeling rough, and not getting better.  By Tues. we knew it wasn't FLU, COVID, RSV of the recent surge of Pneumonia, or bacterial infection. I had a imaging appointment for my liver, spleen, gallbladder, kidneys and pancreas, and everything except my gallbladder looked normal.  They are not sure what they saw on my gallbladder, and I have an MRI scheduled on this coming Mon.  I had additional testing conducted and so far everything is coming back normal.  I had no abdominal pain, no sinus or bronchial infection, no sinus drainage, nothing that would indicate an issue, and yet my body was acting like it was being poisoned, as my symptoms were getting worse.

We had been enlisting the prayer help of close family and friends and Thursday ramped it up a notch.  My honey was talking to people, and sending out a more urgent summons to prayer.

Thursday afternoon, because of the issue I was starting to have with oxygen, my honey picked up an Oximeter, and we started monitoring my O2 levels, and I started taking my blood pressure.  My O2 was hovering at 92-93% at complete rest with plenty of heavy breathing ( my normal is 96-98%), and when I took my first blood pressure it was 134/45.  We were both pretty shocked as I never have a low blood pressure.  We checked it again and it was in the same range.  Note: I took it while reclined in my recliner.  We didn't panic yet, but we started thinking about ER at this point. 

Our Doctor had called in a prescription of Prednisone on Thurs. so that afternoon I took the first big dose. 

We decided to wait on ER, and monitor my temp, O2 and Blood pressure throughout the night and if we saw any negative change we were going to head to the hospital.  My fever broke at 10pm, but it had done so the previous 3 nights, for a 2-3 hour window before it would come roaring back about 1am and spike to about 102F.  I was experiencing severe night sweats, and ended up changing outfits 5 times through the night. As I monitored my vitals through out the night, my fever never came back, my O2 levels moved up into my normal range and my BP returned to my normal ranges as well.  I woke up at 7am Friday morning and had more energy that I had over the last 6 days.  I carried my massive load of laundry downstairs, started it and found myself whistling, something I always do, but hadn't done in 6 days!  To say I was well was a bit early, but I actually felt like myself for the first time since Sat. afternoon. 

I felt so good I told my boss I thought I could work!  I started work at 7:30am and finished my day at 5:30pm, feeling totally normal, having had a productive day, and feeling 100% like myself .  Today, I am every bit as normal, and feeling great. 

This morning as I sat down to pray I was thinking about this all and asked the Lord if He had anything to say and I was immediately reminded of Peter's mother-in-law.  The story is short and found in all three synoptic Gospels.  I am quoting the version from Matthew 8:14-15 NIV:

[14] "When Jesus came into Peter's house, he saw Peter's mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. [15] He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him."

I have to say, that is an astounding recovery, and my mine is no less so. I was literally bed-ridden from Sat. afternoon until Fri. morning.  I was unable to do almost anything, without experiencing crippling exhaustion.  The effort to think about something would cause me to sweat profusely and I struggle to maintain coherent thought and conversation. My sweetheart cared for me constantly.  I either took a miracle drug, or experienced the effective prayer of many, or both, this has resulted in the most complete 180degree swing I know of, with the exception of the story above!  As a man of faith, I think the Lord's word and ability to do exactly what He did for Peter's mother-in-law is every bit as true to today as it was back then, and I believe that is exactly what happened in my case.

I didn't feel His touch, or a heightened presence, but the results are undeniable. He touched me and the fever left!  I was talking to the nurse on Friday and she was equally astounded in my swift almost immediate recovery.  

We are still going to pursue the cause, trying to track down what inside my body was causing this attack, but for today I am celebrating my healing and living my life, enjoying every moment of my wellness!

Thank You, thank You, thank You, God!

Amen and Amen!