Remembering this same week last year. A few weeks beforehand, an ultrasound had shown an abnormal, complex cyst on my left ovary. I went back in the Monday of Thanksgiving week to find the growth had more than tripled in size, still showing abnormalities, and was scheduled for an MRI for the following week. The day after Thanksgiving, I began having severe, escalating pain on my left side that seemed to be following the same trajectory as an ovarian torsion I had emergency surgery for over Thanksgiving 2007. To complicate matters, the doctor I needed to see had dropped me as a patient and was insisting I wait 3 weeks to be seen. My only options were to wait out the pain at home, hoping the cyst didn’t rupture or go to the ER.
The details are complicated at this point, but to make a long story short, I went to the ER, and they missed the fact that I was in the middle of an intermittent ovarian torsion. Essentially, the cyst had become so large that it was causing the ovary (which is suspended on the fallopian tube) to flip over the fallopian tube and cut off all blood supply to my ovary. The pain is excruciating when it happens. With a normal torsion, the ovary stays flipped, but with an intermittent torsion, it flips back and forth. Which it continued to do for 6 days.
Through the years, I’ve learned to be nonchalant regarding negative medical news, but this time I felt completely overwhelmed—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. It seemed like some sort of surgery was imminent and the weeks leading up to Christmas was the worst timing possible. However, more than anything, I was most concerned about the fact that I didn’t have a confident expectation the Lord was fighting for me. I knew the Lord wasn’t condemning me for a lack of faith, but I also, thankfully, recognized I needed to put myself in a position for the Lord to be able to freely supply me with everything I had need of.
I have a favorite playlist of sermons on healing from our senior pastor, Pastor Joseph Prince. I was only able to move from my bed to the chair in my room listening and watching sermon after sermon that emphasized the finished work of the cross. I frequently took communion, believing that, by His stripes, I had already been made whole. When the pain meds allowed me to sleep, I played worship music that emphasized the truth of the Gospel. Moment, by moment, as I renewed my mind to His truth, I felt my confidence in the Lord rising. The many years I waited for a 2nd child, I would often, intentionally meditate on seeing myself with another baby. It would instantly release a surge of hope that erased any disappointment from negative pregnancy tests. I asked the Lord for a picture of health in this situation I could meditate on. Immediately, in my heart, I began hearing our local pastor, Pastor Samuel Gabriel, share my testimony of total healing—a testimony I hadn’t seen the physical manifestation of yet. That moment was the tipping point for me. I knew with full confident, hopeful expectation that this battle had been fought and won.
Within a few days, the pain completely subsided, and I was only left with some mild soreness. Several weeks later, when I had my doctor’s appointment, I still couldn’t get in with my doctor, only the physician’s assistant. I had repeat imaging at the appointment and they were able to confirm the left ovary was 100% normal. The PA sat at her computer and kept flipping through the imaging I had done in the weeks prior and told me what she was seeing was a medical impossibility. She said the initial pictures showed a complex, abnormal cyst, but by the time I was seen at the ER, though the cyst was large, the composition of the cyst had completely changed into a normal, functional, fluid-filled cyst. She said the only possible explanation was that the cyst I had the Monday before Thanksgiving had completely healed on its own and was quickly replaced with a large simple cyst seen on imaging at the ER four days later. However, at this current appointment, imaging also showed a cyst on my right ovary that was even larger than the one that had been on my left ovary, but was painless. She said that, since my body seemed to be figuring out how to handle the cysts on its own, they were going to give me a few weeks, repeat imaging, and would schedule me for surgery if the cyst was still present at my next appointment. In the meantime, she biopsied my ovaries and uterus due to so much abnormal activity.
At this point, I was so convinced my healing was complete, I didn’t spend even a moment dwelling on the situation. We went on to have the best Christmas season of our married life. In early January, I went back and was finally able to be seen by my doctor who confirmed that both ovaries were completely healed, and all biopsy results were 100% normal. She said she reviewed all the tests and imaging from my ER visit the Friday after Thanksgiving and realized the ER had missed the intermittent torsion. She said that, had she been the doctor on call that night, she would have operated. I’m so thankful that what seemed like a frustrating delay ended up working to my benefit and allowed time for the full fruit of the healing to be clearly seen by all. I’m overwhelmed with gratitude all over again at His inexhaustible love, faithfulness, and power fighting every battle for me, causing me to freely receive everything He’s freely given. When I felt like I was surrounded by giants in the land, the Lord allowed me to see with the eyes of faith, (like Joshua and Caleb), that these giants were food for me to taste and see His goodness yet again.