This is a long story about what some might call a burden that my life had ... but I see it as "Strength from Above" which made me the person that I am today. Because of this 'thorn in my flesh' God took me and has made me the person, the lady, that I am today. Here is my story . . .
I fell off of a garage roof in the year of 1959 when I was 8 yrs. old, hitting the back of my head on a rock walkway and leaving a crack of about 4" in the walkway. Very soon after that, in just days following, I began having epileptic seizures. I started school that next year, and the kids were really understanding. Jr. High was a little tougher, then high school wasn't easy for me ... it was tough & embarrassing to be different. When I was 16, I simply asked the Lord to heal me, and I didn't care of if healed me physically or spiritually, because I knew that His Will was best for me. **It was not easy being an epileptic, and getting teased at school by some of my classmates. Well He didn't heal me physically, so I felt that Spiritually He would give me the "grace" to be the person that He wanted me to be.
(Continued on Comment #1)
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(God's Timing Is Perfect #1 cont.)
ReplyDelete**I do want to add that I will never forget my Junior year in high school, where I was going down the hall to my next class, and some of the popular boys started teasing me saying, “Come on, Naomi, have a ‘spaz attack’ and roll around on the ground!” I started looking to the ground and crying, and my black girlfriend, Betty, and a friend of hers, walked out of the library and came up from behind me, got on each side of me, and they put their arms through my arms and started walking quickly with me across campus to my next class. The one thing that Betty said to me, which I have never forgotten to this day was, “Naomi, don’t look back … do not look back!!!” And they walked me clear over to my class … and Betty sweetly smiled at me and gave me a big hug, and what an encouragement that was to my life! I have never forgotten those words all throughout life!!
Later that year I met a wonderful young man who loved me in spite of my having epilepsy. I will never forget coming out of a seizure while I was at Church during a service. When I came to 20 minutes later, Rich was holding me in his arms, without embarrassment, and his eyes showed me his love ... and I knew that God had sent me the man that I needed in my life. I graduated high school at 16, and we were married the next year when I was 17, after he came back from Viet Nam the first time. Three years later we had a little girl, but I nearly died and Rich said, "No more children,’ which made me sad, but I knew that it was for our good. I had started having ‘a headache’ when I was 19, and it was one that never left ... it was constant. No doctors ever questioned the headache. It was as though they were 'kept dumb by God.' But they finally got my medications, up to taking 10 Tegretol a day and with the Dilantin I stayed on 4 a day, trying to get the seizures under control.
Well, 12 years later ~ in 1983, I became pregnant again ‘quite unexpectedly.’ But in my second month, I nearly lost our precious ‘little one’ and was in bed for 7 long weeks ... just begging God to let me keep the 'little one' ... and it wasn't until I finally told the Lord that 'if it be His will,' He could take my 'little one' Home. About a week later I was out of bed and doing great! My pregnancy was beautiful, and on August 28, 1985, I gave birth to our beautiful little boy, John Edward. But, as soon as John let out his cry, my doctor pressed on my stomach, and I lost 4 pints of blood again, just as I had with our daughter, Amy. The doctor had done all that he could do, and told my husband that I was gone ~ that there was nothing else he could do, and Rich backed into the corner and watched me dying. All of a sudden, I had a really strong seizure, and hit the back of my head on the birthing table. It not only stopped my bleeding, but also broke the tumor from my brain ~ which I got from that fall off of the garage roof 26 years before.
We didn't know why I was having so many seizures, but it was because the tumor had broken from the brain. But when I got home, every time that I turned around quickly, or bent over and came up quickly ... I would have seizures and auras constantly each day. At that time my husband was building a home in Ventura/Ojai for a neurologist, Dr. Jeffrey Leonard. Rich told him about the constant seizures that I was happening since I had given birth to our son John. Dr. Leonard asked him a lot of questions, and then told Rich when I was ready to bring me into his office.
(God's Timing Is Perfect #2 Cont.)
ReplyDeleteI was one day arguing against abortions on a talk radio show, and right in the middle of the argument I had a seizure and blacked out. . . .in front of all those listening in Ventura Co.. It was extremely humiliating, and I was getting very tired of having the seizures consistently each day, so I told Rich that I was ready to see Dr. Leonard. I made the appointment that day.
In the next couple of days when I went in to see Dr. Leonard, right away he said to me, "Naomi, you are on too many meds to not be under control for having ‘petit mal’ seizures. I want a cat-scan.” So I went in the next couple of days for a cat-scan of my brain. And there in the middle of my senses was a 1" x 1.5" black dead brain tumor... the reason I'd had such a horrific headache for the past 16 years . . . which God did NOT allow ONE doctor to even think about nor question all those years that I had complained to them. He just kept them absolutely dumb! (To me that was absolutely amazing! I can remember describing the headache the doctor who delivered my son, and it didn’t even phase him.) Our God Is A Perfect God … and just as He shut the mouths of the lions, He dumbed & numbed the minds of the physicians 'to not even question it' before 'HE' was ready for it to be found.
When the tumor was broken away from my senses at John's birthing, it started moving around and hitting all of my senses constantly every time I would move my head. The pain alone was severe and much worse, but it was the constant auras & seizures which were even more aggravating, and I became more and more concerned about possibly dropping my newborn baby onto the floor/ground if the aura would come on quickly.
Dr. Leonard called me back into his office at the beginning of the next week, and showed me the large tumor in the midst of the senses. He told me that I would need to have surgery, and that he had found two doctors, one in Ventura Co., and one at UCLA. I said “ABSOLUTELY NO”, to any doctors in Ventura Co., and that I wanted to go to UCLA. And he then told me that he had to offer me two ~ one in the Ventura Co. area, and he then told me that he strongly agreed on my choice of Dr. John G. Frazee at UCLA.
So a week later I went down to see Dr. Frazee, and he looked me straight in the eyes and told me that he absolutley could not understand how I could be alive, and that there was no way in the world that I should be alive with this huge tumor in the middle of my senses. He told me that because of the place which the tumor, the UCLA Neurological Dept. there wanted more testing done, and one would be the new MRI in Pasadena, the other would be a week of testing there at UCLA watching my seizures. Dr. Frazee then sent me to the Eye surgeons there at UCLA to take tests on my vision, and they couldn’t believe that I had 20/20 vision, they told me there that I should be dead, if not totally blind! I had been in the great care of the Great Physician all those years! Then before I signed the agreement for the surgery, Dr. Frazee told me that I would be loosing at least 7 years of my memory, and possibly more, depending upon how far they would have to cut into my senses, and that I also had to sign an agreement which said that I was in total agreement with the possibility of dying. They said it could very well happen in a surgery as serious as this.
(Cont. on Comment #3)
(God's Timing Is Perfect #3 Cont.)
ReplyDeleteI signed the agreement with a lot of peace, that deep settled Peace, in my own heart. We made the decision of the surgery to be on June 7th, 1985. I began preparing for the outcomes of the surgery. One was that I would not even know my little baby boy, John. The other was that I would totally forget at least the seven last years of our daughter’s life. Then when I finally got through those barriers, I then dealt totally with death. No one, not even my husband, my Mom, nor my Dad would talk to me about dying. I was so discouraged, because I desperately needed to talk. I then went and talked to my wonderful Pastor, Pastor John Struhbar, and he really helped me deal through some tough areas for me, one of which was giving up my children & husband, the other was if I were dying. After that time with Pastor John, and praying until I found that ‘deep settled Peace,’ I finally came to a sense of strength which was not my own, and I told my Heavenly Father that I knew that He would bring a special Mom into the lives of my precious children, who would love them as much, and possibly more than I ever did. What a relief that was to my heart. I also asked the Lord to please take me Home, if I would be a burden to my family. . .and I was totally at peace about that. I asked the Lord to give me a verse which I could cling onto through the times I had to battle through this alone. I was reading in Jeremiah, and came to **Jeremiah 32:27 where He said to me, “Behold, I AM the LORD, the GOD of ALL mankind! Is there ANYTHING too hard for ME?” I sat there and said “…no Lord, there is NOTHING too hard for YOU!” And that verse was my strength though those months ahead, and has always been “a constant” for me throughout all situations in my life.” That plus Ephesians 6!!! “… put on the whole armor of God, and when you have done all that you can do … STAND(in HIM)!”
I went for a final prayer time with my Pastor, John Struhbar, and he was such a man of God. He started praying with me, and I was so taken into prayer, that I never heard anything else, except my prayers and Pastor John’s prayer in the background to my Father God. When we were through in prayer, I was so at peace, and I turned around and standing all around me were all nine of our Pastors, and their secretaries, who were all wonderful friends. And my heart was bursting with thanksgiving … because I knew that everything was absolutely ‘OK’! And even more I was clothed in His Peace.
**Early the next morning, my nurse, who was also black and whose name was Betty, came in and prayed with me, and patted my hand and told me everything was going to be ok. I looked back later on and remembered her sweet encouraging voice, and also my girlfriend, Betty, from h.s. who told me to “not look back” and I thought to myself, God does keep a pattern of purposes in our lives for us to cling to …. And it’s ALL in HIS PERFECT PLANS for each one of our lives!
(Cont. on Comment #4)
(God's Timing Is Perfect #4)
ReplyDeleteAfter my husband, parents, and Pastor came in and prayed with me and told me they loved me, then Betty, my nurse, came in for the final preparations before I was taken, I just knew that this was it … and as they were strolling me down the hallway to the surgery room, fear all of a sudden hit me like lightning! It seemed like all my life was before me, and I was seeing windows on the side of the wall, and all I could think of was all of a sudden jumping off of that guernie in fear, and jumping through the window (I thought they were windows, and found out later they were just ‘lights’ on the side of the walls), and I could see me landing 4 floors down and running across the UCLA Medical Plaza’s campus … and then time just stopped! I heard as clearly as if someone right there was talking audibly to me, “Naomi, I love you, and I am going to take care of you.” And I KNEW that my Father God was either going to see me through this, or in moments that I would be Home in Heaven with Him forever! This deep, deep Peace came all over me and washed my fears away, and I was ready for whatever He had for me. I had ‘warm tears of His Joy He’d given to me’ running down my cheeks onto the pad beneath my body … and they wouldn’t stop. I just couldn’t stop the tears of joy, and I had truly heard His Voice! The interns rolled me on into the surgery room and patted my hands and left. The surgical nurse came over to me and took my hand and asked me if I was ok, and I told her, “Oh, I am ready, I’m ready!” I smiled at her with tears still running down my face, and she squeezed my hand, and went on back into her area. In moments I was gone.
Six-seven hours later, I awakened. The first thing that I remember thinking was each and every one of my brother’s and sisters’ names, Juanita Joyce, Helen Yvonne, James Walter, and Dorothy Evelyn. All of a sudden my heart leaped for joy~!!!! I knew all of their names!!! I hadn’t lost any of my memory!!! The tears just streamed down my face. Doctor Frazee came over and patted my hands and said, “It’s over! You didn’t loose any of your senses, the tumor was broken from your brain and we pulled it right out. I just kept on crying and Praising my Father God, then fell asleep.
I was there at UCLA for two weeks, the first week healing, the second week having tests and resting. But the first two days after my surgery, I could hear this swishing sound in my brain, which literally sounded like ocean waves hitting the beach. It scared me at first, and I asked the doctor why it was happening. Dr. Frazee laughed and said, “Naomi, you have had that large tumor in your senses for 27 years … your senses are finally coming back into place!” I was in amazement as I listened to the sounds. It finally became comforting and I laid there in awe and love for my Heavenly Father’s guidance in all that happened in my life. I have never had another seizure since June 7, 1985, and I hate even the smallest of headaches, and hardly ever get them!! And one of my deepest wishes is that I could have watched with those students who were watching the surgery, and could have heard what the doctors had said when they found the tumor was broken from the senses. What a miraculous Father God that we have!
(Cont. on Comment #5)
(God's Timing Is Perfect #5)
ReplyDeleteA year later in June of 1986, I went back to see Dr. Frazee, after I went through a group of tests. He called me into his office, and quietly looked at me, shaking his head. He said that I should have been dead, there was absolutely no way that I should be alive!!! We talked about what I should expect, then about my faith in my Father God throughout the years … and when I told him how very thankful that we were for all that he, and those there at UCLA had done for me. He looked at me with a serious but gentle face and told me, “Naomi … you should never have made it passed that fall! You should have died long ago. There is no way that you should have 20/20 vision … you should have been blinded from that tumor.” Then he said to me very confidently, “It took Someone far greater than me to do this job!” I looked at him and just knew that God had shown Him His Love & His Reality! He then told me that I could drive for the first time in my life, at the age of 36. I was really uneasy about that, because I knew that if I did have a seizure while driving, I would be like a drunk … and could kill someone, but I could probably stay alive. So I decided to wait one more year just to make sure that I didn’t have another seizure.
All through my life God kept the In 1980 they came out with the small chisel to go into that part of the brain which would be less injuring as they cut in that area of the senses; in 1984 I gave birth to our John, and after loosing the blood, hit my head on the birthing table which broke the deadened tumor from the brain; my husband was building a home for the only neurologist in the group of neurology, that I had not been to (one of the other doctors in the group laughed at me when I told him I could pray through my seizures, the other doctor just needed to retire). God dumbed the minds of the doctors all through the years when I complained about my constant headache … it was as though they just overlooked my complaints. That to me was so amazing!!! Then on my birthday in July 1987, I got my first drivers permit, and found that driving among all these crazy people was truly as task which was much harder than it looked!
The one thing that I hated was that Dr. Frazee told me that I would probably have to stay on the 10 tegretol and 4 dilantin the rest of my life, because the tumor had probably done enough damage to my senses that it would probably cause me to have seizures. So he told me to not get off of them. Then in the mid ‘90’s I went to see our family doctor, who was a long time friend of ours from Church and Sunday School through the years. Dave told me that he believed that I could get off of my meds, and I was very scared to even try. Dave told me that he wanted to pray about it, and try to come off ½ of a pill at a time, every 4 months. It took me nearly 3 years to get completely off of the meds, and I have never had another seizure to this day. My Lord completely healed me.
(Cont. on Comment #6)
(God's Timing Is Perfect #6)
ReplyDeleteToday, May 31, 2009 I am now just 7 days from being my 24th year of celebration of the Lord healing me, since the day of my wonderful surgery on June 7, 1985. What a Great, All-knowing, Precise, Deeply Loving Physician, Father, & Dearest Friend that we could ever have, our Father God & Lord & Savior & Holy Spirit!!! The Almighty THREE IN ONE!!!
I know that we should NEVER question God’s timing!!! HIS TIMING IS EXACT AND PERFECTLY PRECISE! I simply asked HIM to heal me, and was anointed for healing in November of 1967. I knew that HE had the power to heal me completely, or the power to give me HIS Strength, as HE did for Paul. Whatever HE decided was alright with me. So from 1959 – 1984 HE kept the doctors dumb until that chisel came out. HE placed me into a position where I had to be willing to trust HIM when I nearly lost our son, and gave John back to him just as Abraham had to. HE then gave/blessed us with our second child, and from the moment of John was borne, the Great Physician laid everything into order for His Plan for my life.
Like I said before ... what a miraculous Father God that we have … we just need to realize when we pray and give Him the prayer & faith … and realize daily that a “day to God is like a thousand years to man.” And we need to remember this and trust in Him fully with all that we ask. His answers are always in His perfection for what is 'best' in our situations. Sometimes we understand, sometimes we don't ... but we can always know, "Our Father Knows Best!"
May you always know that our Heavenly Father is ALWAYS there to lead you and your family and friends to reach out into this world of confusion in which we are now living, and softly call out to the broken hearts of this world. He is here today .. all we need to do is have that simple child-like faith! He longs for us to call on Him, so that He may show us His Reality!!!
There was a bumper sticker that I once had I had on my car for many years after my brain surgery. I just felt that it could reach the hearts of those who read it, and I will never forget looking into my rear view mirror and watching the faces of many people … one in particular … a young man who looked so lost and so broken. Here is what it said:
"JESUS Heals The Brokenhearted!"
Know Him, Pray to Him ... He is right there with you, Read His Word, Have that 'Child-like' Faith. There is NOTHING TOO HARD FOR OUR FATHER GOD! He tells us that in Jeremiah 32:27 "Behold, I AM the LORD, the GOD of ALL mankind! Is there ANYTHING too hard for ME?" Absolutley Not! NOTHING IS TOO HARD FOR OUR LORD ... HE IS THE MAKER OF THE UNIVERSE ... BUT HE IS NEVER EVER TOO BUSY TO HEAR YOUR PRAYER!!!
Remember His Love, Naomi }*)
Next year at this time I will celebrate a quarter of a century being free of the brain tumor and seizures. ;) Praise My Healing Heavenly Father Forever!!!
Thank You Lord, what a blessing to read. The Lord is truly awesome...
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