Poison, Pain, and Promises

It's been a while since this experience happened, but it was a good testimony builder for me so I feel like sharing.

A few months ago I believe in September I had to face one of my biggest fears, one of the things that has been haunting me since I first heard about it...having my wisdom teeth pulled.

The day came and I was terrified, but everything was pushed back because I got sick! I was happy for about two seconds but then realized that I was not safe.  Eventually the real day was upon me and I was filled with complete dread.

 I am hypoglycemic; which means that if I don't eat often I get SUPER sick because my blood-sugar drops too low. I was not allowed to eat anything before my surgery, starting midnight the night before. So when I went to the Oral Surgeon I was feeling sick. I also HATE needles, so the idea of having an I.V. was making me freak out.

Well they pulled me into the surgery room and put me on laughing gas or something, what ever it was it was soooooo not fun! I am claustrophobic, and so having something over my nose like that totally freaked me out, then it started to make my throat ache, and I started to cry silently. I was scared out of my wits, and was strangely extremely aware of the hot tears pouring down my face.  Then I started to lose control of my own thought process, I hate not being in control of myself like that, it makes me angry. I started forgetting how to breath and had to remind myself to breath. I didn't know what to do.

 Then the thought came to me to pray, so that's what I did. I prayed hard, for the strength to get through this, that I would be ok, and that I would have peace. I prayed till the doctor dude came in and he started to get ready to put my I.V. in. He was talking to me and apparently I was being super sarcastic. Just in case you ever wondered, I.V.'s suck!

All the noises and the pressure on my mouth was freaking me out so I started to pray inside my head again, and then the thought came to me to start singing. So I started to hum "How Firm a Foundation" while they were pulling out my teeth. When I finished that song I started "Come Thou Fount" and the next thing I knew the doctor dude was singing along.

Finally it was over and they helped me to walk to my mom, I tried opening my eyes and then had to close them because I got so dizzy that I almost tossed my cookies. I just sat there with my mom sobbing and trying to sing "Ave Maria". I was soooooooooo sad.

On the way home I hugged my teddy-bear named Courage or Curry for short, felt super sick, and was very sad. My mom got me a chocolate shake and a smoothie for later to help my VERY low blood-sugar. I drank a bit of the smoothie. When we got home I threw it up.

The next few hours were brutal. Because of my low blood-sugar and the effects of the anesthesia, I spent my time sobbing, watching "Mako Mermaids",and barfing. I was miserable, I couldn't even hold down a glass of water. I even asked my mom to take me to the hospital to get an I.V. just so I could have some fluids in me. Yeah if I'm asking for that you know I feel like total crap. 

Normally in a situation like this my dad would give me a priesthood blessing, but he was out of town. My mom and I sat wondering what to do, when my boss texted me. My mom called my boss and explained the situation to him. He and his wife came over, and he gave me a blessing. In the blessing I was promised that by the end of the day I would be able to hold some food down, and not feel so sick. After the blessing was over my boss tried to talk to me but I got really dizzy and couldn't really understand what was being said, and I sat trying not to vomit. My boss and his wife could tell that I was not doing well so they said goodbye and went home. I then lost my lunch for the millionth time.

All day it was the same thing; sob, barf, sleep, watch T.V. I wanted to die. At one point I was in the bath and I just started to pray, I begged and pleaded for the Lord to help me be able to eat and bring my blood-sugar back up. I began reminding him that he had promised that he would help me be able to eat by the end of the day, and I told him that I had faith that he could and would help me.

At nine o'clock at night I fell asleep on the couch, and when I woke back up at ten, I felt a million times better. I was still super weak but I felt better. I ate some mashed potatoes and drank some sprite, and for the first time all day I held it down. I was so happy and immediately started to pray and thank my Father in Heaven for all his help throughout the day.

I know that the Lord is there for us always. I know that he will always help us, not always in the way or the timing that we would like, but he does help us. I know if we put our trust in him he will keep and fulfill all his promises to us. I am very grateful to him for all he does for me. I am also grateful to my boss for keeping himself worthy to provide a priesthood blessing, and I am also grateful that he was there to step in when my father was couldn't be there even though he really wished he could. I know that the power of the the Priesthood is real and it blesses our lives.