As many of you may know I’ve recently has some health issues. I’m doing so much better now and wanted to share my journey. First some history. Twenty years ago, I had a detached retina in my left eye and multiple surgeries failed to correct the issue and I lost my vision in that eye. I have been able to cope very well with this and carried on with life. In 2014 I had to have cataract surgery in my right eye but everything turned out fine.
     Then in August of this year, I noted something odd in my right eye. It turned out that the lens they had placed in 2014 was starting to slip. We hoped it would settle but within days the lens was flopping completely out of place. I wound up needing emergency surgery to fix the problem, which unfortunately, proved more difficult and took four hours to complete. Afterwards, my vision was very poor and for the next two weeks, I was virtually immobilized.
     We had already planned holidays in September and, though I wasn’t recovered, I was feeling well enough to go. Lisa did all the driving as we went west to Kelowna to see our son and his wife. We enjoyed our visit immensely and then drove home. Sometime during these weeks of decreased activity and long car rides, I developed a clot in my leg. For some reason, I had no symptoms. No swelling of the leg, no calf tenderness and no redness. When we got home, my eye had improved enough that I was back at work and had resumed exercising.
     On the morning of October 13th, I was just about to start on my exercise machine, when I became light headed and short of breath. I sat down and it settled a bit but when I climbed the stairs to the main floor, I again felt very short of breath. I called Lisa and we went straight to the hospital. It turned out that some of the clot in my leg had broken free and gone into my lungs. I had two small clots on the left and a big one on the right. I had to be admitted to the hospital and started on medication. Over the next five days, I seemed to improve and was released home.
     I had had a low-grade fever the night before which concerned us but had seemed fine overnight. Unfortunately, once home I worsened and was even more short of breath than before. I returned to the emergency room, where it was discovered that I had pneumonia on top of a lung infarction caused by the clot. I needed fairly high flow oxygen and was very short of breath with any exertion. We were all very concerned as I was readmitted and started on antibiotics and more blood thinners.
     Monday and Tuesday were still quite bad, but suddenly on Wednesday, I was dramatically better. I had spoken to our prayer pastor and given him permission to share my health issues. I hadn’t realized, but Tuesday evening was a scheduled prayer meeting at our church. Dave later told Lisa that he had never seen such fervent and heart felt prayers as the people prayed that evening.
     You know what? It worked. God heard their prayers and touched my lungs. My improvement has been fantastic. Within 2 days, I no longer needed oxygen and by Saturday I was home, this time to stay. I have been careful and cautious but am back at work and feeling completely healed. I have no doubt that my improvement and recovery is a miracle from God and an answer to prayer. Thank you to everyone who prayed, and thank you to my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
    Luke 10:9 “Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’”