Saturday, December 17, 2016

Medicine and Money Matters


 
God has blessed me to have a great week this week and get through all while waiting out an illness.  I started getting really sick on Sunday and by Monday, I wanted to stay home but I decided to drive in to the office because I had an important meeting scheduled for later that afternoon.  On Tuesday, it was just as bad and I had a bag of snotty tissues gathered in my car, on my desk, and in my pocket (yuck).  Wednesday it was getting better and it pretty much cleared out by Thursday/Friday.  I was able to blow my nose on Friday.   

My dad ended up getting sick (cold/flu) Thursday and I usually don’t see him this way. I got sick because of my son and I assume this is where my dad picked it up from too.  I also heard from my mom that my great aunt was scheduled to have surgery on Monday.  She has not been doing  well at all and is on dialysis. They might give her another port because the other one she had in her arm and I guess now in her chest was clogging.  At the same time, one of my clients is in the hospital.  I knew she went to the ER on 12/08, but with so much going on and me getting sick, I didn’t go about finding out how bad off she was until Friday.  Her main provider is really on top of her health care issues so I trusted them to update me but when it came to Friday, I did not receive any updates so I decided I was going to see her at the hospital.  Her mother was there and did not feel optimistic that she was going to get out or get better.  She said her doctor told her that her condition was worsening.  My aunt too is on dialysis and they have similar complications.  My great aunt is on hemo-dialysis and my client receives peritoneal dialysis every night. My client is in her early 40’s I think, I’m not sure. 

I know that God can heal the sick in an instant but I also know that the Lord allows us to go through situations for a reason.  To wake us or others up to what we should be doing.  To open our eyes to God for the first time and see Him do miracles that no man can ever do. To increase our trust in Him and give us the strength in the future to overcome more challenges designed to make us stronger.

Every situation is an opportunity to allow Jesus to step in and show how it’s done.  Jesus is the ultimate Overcomer. God will not give us more than we can handle and when we go through trials, we think in those times that it is too much to bear, but it really is not.  I think about the cold symptoms I had and they were awful, but if you change your attitude about the situation, the situation doesn’t last as long or feel as long and it will end before you know it. You have to turn your mind to the Lord. 

Honestly, I don’t know if my great aunt or client will make it to Christmas or even 2017.  All I can pray for is the Lord’s will to be done for both of them and that they find peace in Him.  In any situation we go through, we can have peace and I have experienced that which I thought was impossible. 

I came to the hospital to see my client and the parking garage had a charge which I didn’t expect.  I parked and went inside to find that the hospital had my bank’s atm  so I wouldn’t get a surcharge, but when it came time for me to leave, there was no parking attendant so I didn’t have to pay anyway.

On Monday, I took my son to our new PCP for the first time and hoped that he would get the flu shot (he is allergic to egg but had the shot before with no issues). The PCP listened to his lungs and told me he was wheezing so she would not administer the shot that day.  I paid the co-pay with my main credit card, left to fill up my tank with gas and went home.  Tuesday, I drove in to work and walked the 30 minutes in the cold with my flu and felt as though I dropped something when I went to get my snotty tissue for my nose, but didn’t know what.  It wouldn’t be until much later in the office that I would discover my credit card was not in my pocket, but my son’s insurance card still was thankfully.  I had put both cards in my pocket on Monday night after the doctor's office and the gas station stop.  I prayed for the Lord to cover my card from thieves until I could check in my car (the last place it could be because it was not in my bag or wallet). I wiped my nose, dabbed my teary eyes and waited until I returned to my car to search for it, but when I got to my car that afternoon, it was not there.  So naturally I called Captial One and requested a new card.  The customer service representative said there were no charges put on it on Tuesday morning but everything else I paid for on Monday was processed so that was a blessing.  I should be getting a card shortly in the mail. 

I told my mom about this and she said that it was good that the card was cancelled because at this time of year, people are stealing people’s bags, wallets, and doing the most (especially in the area I walked, people get robbed over here in these streets). 

Now on Wednesday, I took the train in to work  and used my bank card to pay for my ticket. When I took the train home, I heard a lady talking loudly to another passenger and something didn’t sound quite right about her so of course my ears tuned in more to her conversation.  She sounded like a drug addict (forgive me, but I’ve heard many conversations by people who are substance abusers and this is how she sounded to me). She talked about a young child she had the privilege of knowing and then her conversation changed to credit cards.  She talked about finding a credit card  this week and calling the number on the back to try to return the card to the owner. This lady couldn’t understand why someone would want to cancel their card and want to be reissued a new one and continued to boast about the good she thought she did on the train.  When I heard her, for a second I thought perhaps she found my card, but then I realized I didn’t take the trains on Tuesday.  I drove the hour into the city and the trains that I take on Mondays and sometimes Wednesdays are by no means close to where I park my car in the city.  I park on off streets not close to the subway and I do this to get free unlimited parking where my car won’t be towed (side eye to some streets that won’t be named).

This situation reminded me of the time years ago when I signed up for a CPR training class and after I completed the course. I was so happy that I did it and felt as if this was yet another thing the Lord could use me for to help someone in need.  As soon as I left the training and got on the train to go home, a person I had never seen before and definitely not in the training class was on the train loudly talking about what a waste of time a CPR class was, how people shouldn’t bother and he joked about a man having a heart attack in his presence that he did not help.  People in ear shot looked at the guy in disgust as he laughed about the man who had the heart attack.  I don’t know if he wanted to take the training class and couldn’t and was bitter about it.  I don’t know if he had a thing against the instructor and heard that the instructor was holding the class.  I don’t know, but I do believe this was an attack by satan to make me feel that what I just learned, the training I wanted to get so that I could be even more useful for the Lord was not worth anything.    The same goes for the train passenger’s criticism of the credit card owner she didn’t know.  This world is exceedingly wicked and people are getting more and more out of control day by day. 

My testimony is that the Lord helped me get through this week while being sick, prevented someone from using my credit card for 5 hours as it lay exposed on a side walk somewhere in the hood, and that I didn’t have to pay for that parking at the hospital (which never ever happens).  I pray that my family (dad, great aunt) and client get better and that His will is done in their lives and others who are concerned for them.  God helped me through with this flu, with my anxiety, with all other situations.  I also learned that I don’t have to pay $800 each month for student loans.  Praise God that I was approved now to pay under $100/month because there was no way that I would be able to pay that much with the income I take in now. 

God is good. Enjoy the Sabbath :)

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