The past couple of days, I’ve been having some ups and downs with my umbilical incision.

Wednesday morning I woke up very early and the incision was extremely painful. If you had touched it, I would have kicked you to the moon. It was slightly puffy, not unreasonably so, but it was rock hard. I had to take a lot of pain medication just to get comfortable. By the time the evening rolled around, I was certain it was infected. I didn’t want to go to the ED or urgent care, so I decided to try this new thing our health system has where you can see a doctor online for simple problems, including skin and soft tissue infections. So I downloaded the app and got signed up. It didn’t take me too long to get “seen”, but we had a bad connection, so that appointment was terminated. Fantastic. So I had to go through the same process all over again. Not only that, I got shunted to the back of the line, which I don’t think is fair, personally. So I waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, I was next in line…and the connection was terminated again. I could have killed someone, honestly. So I got shunted to the back of the line again. So I waited. And waited. And waited. By this point, an hour and a half had gone by and I was really getting pissed off. Then finally, I got to see a doctor. When I showed her my incision with the camera on my iPad, she said there was nothing she could do for me because she couldn’t palpate it to see how hard it was. She told me her “script” said that she had to refer me to a higher level of care within the health system, basically to go to urgent care. I had waited for an hour and a half only to be told I couldn’t be helped. So for future reference, I am never using the express care online thing ever again.

I really didn’t feel like it was bad enough to go to urgent care that night (because it was already 7 pm) by this point. David and I decided we would get up early the next morning before he had to go to work in the afternoon and go to an express care clinic. Well, when I woke up Thursday morning, the incision looked significantly better and didn’t hurt and the area of hardness had gotten smaller, so I decided it wasn’t necessary to go in. I felt a lot better, so I didn’t want to waste my own time or anyone else’s time if it was just going to heal on its own.

Fast forward to last night/this morning. I was awake the entire night because I just couldn’t sleep due to my wacky sleep schedule. Plus, my incision was starting to hurt again. A LOT. By the time the sun came up, I was in incredible pain. Within another hour, I was sitting in bed sobbing because it hurt so bad. I even tried cleaning the site and stabbing it with a sterile blunt needle (David and I are both hospital pharmacists; you wouldn’t believe the stuff we carry around in our lab coat pockets) to see if anything nasty could be expressed. Nothing but a little blood. So I put a dressing covered with triple antibiotic ointment on it and tried to go to sleep. I pleaded with the Lord to take my pain away, or at least to lessen it. I had no way to get to an emergency room, even though I was certain I needed to go to one for pain medication. I had taken a whopping 75 mg of oxycodone in a 6 1/2 hour time period and nothing was touching the pain. I was wide awake, sobbing my heart out. I beseeched the Lord in tears, praying Psalms of God’s goodness and deliverance back to Him (Psalm 118 is good for that) praying that He would hear me and in His goodness, give me relief.

“When hard pressed, I cried to the Lord; he brought me into a spacious place. The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? I was pushed back and about to fall,but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation. Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous: ‘The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things! The Lord’s right hand is lifted high; the Lord’s right hand has done mighty things!’ I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the Lord has done. I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation.”                                Psalm 118:5-6, 13-17, 21

Within 10 minutes of my prayers, my pain was gone. Still in tears, I again prayed Psalms of praise to the Lord, thanking Him for His goodness and faithfulness. And I fell asleep in comfort and slept for 10 hours and woke up in no pain.

“I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.” Psalm 116:1-2

Praise the Lord. It doesn’t matter to me what your opinion is about such things (although I do respect all opinions, don’t get me wrong; I believe people should be able to believe whatever they want regardless of what I believe). But I believe I experienced the Great Physician’s healing powers today. And to that, I say amen, hallelujah, and praise the Lord! All glory and honor to Him!

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