Neee-vada!

We decided to relate the story of our trip as just that, a story. We will try not to philosophize too much. But we are the coupling of a Communications Major and an English Major….so pour yourself a cuppa! Cause we wrote a long post people!

Rebecca woke up on Saturday at 7:30 bright eyed, not even wanting to snuggle, sat right up and said “I’m ready! I’m ready to go on my chip!(trip)”  We left the house at 10am, our goal was 9. So far we were right on track.

2,486.17 feet later (google earth is so cool), at the second light on our way out of Scott’s Valley, our little back seat driver asked “Is this Nee-vada?”  She then proceeded to talk until we stopped for lunch in Folsom….three hours later.

We pulled into Carson City in the late afternoon, with enough time to hit Mills Park (where there is a PINK slide – a big deal for Rebecca) and have a fun family dinner downtown before bedtime. The next morning we got to attend church at Fountainhead Foursquare Church, where our new friends Louie and Peggy Locke are the pastors. You may remember from our previous post that we had met Peggy and Louie while up at camp during the district pastor’s retreat and they had invited us to join them when we came to Carson.

We were so blessed by their church. First, Rebecca was really excited/curious about what it meant to go to a different church and “meet new fends”, but for Matt and me, we were blessed and encouraged to be welcomed and feel like we had a place to go and friends who care about our journey, even when we are far from home.

After church we headed back up the mountain into South Lake Tahoe to our friend’s lovely cabin where we stayed for two nights. Their cabin backs up against a gorgeous little valley with a creek running through it. It is so peaceful. In the morning a coyote bounced around catching bunnies…he was really cute.

Monday found us heading back up and over the pass into Nee-vada (that is what we call Nevada now) for the doctor appointment. Rebecca and I dropped Matt off, and after five years of doctor’s appointments from Santa Barbara to Riverside to Connecticut and now Nee-vada, for some reason, this drop off was really hard for me. I think I was feeling very strongly the reality of being in a strange town, as well as the pull between wanting to be present for my toddler as we had fun around town, but really wanting to be sitting beside Matt. My thoughts were never far from him as Rebecca and I visited the Carson Children’s Museum, and then the Nevada Railway Museum. And at one point, when I realized my phone had died, those fears, which so often attack my mind came on strong. “What it they can’t get ahold of me?” “What if the injections react terribly in his body and they have to rush him to the hospital” (not even a side effect of these injections…just a ridiculous fear tactic) “What if something happens and you are ALL alone in Nevada! WHAT would you do???”

And then in the middle of Nee-vada, God’s peace washed over me, and He spoke into my heart. He didn’t say “that’s stupid Corrie” or “you are being ridiculous”, but He met me where I was, in my thoughts and said: “Corrie, if something went wrong, you would call Louie and Peggy. You have friends in Carson City now too. That’s why I led you to them.”

 And so Rebecca and I went down the tube slide at the museum, we played on the giant piano that you walk on (reminiscent of Tom Hanks in Big), I taught her how to play air hockey….and then we went to the train museum and stood on a train, and purchased a “talking Thomas” for Rebecca’s tracks at home. And all the while the Lord was meeting us, and meeting Matt. And I’ll now turn the story over to him. : )

Matt:

The first phase of my visit involved what’s called Bio-Energy Testing, which measures MANY different body functions/states all by examining your cells’ mitochondrial health.  The testing was non-invasive, but still…uncomfortable.  I had to hold a huge snorkel-like tube in my mouth that I felt made me look like some superhero or, more likely, supervillain.  

After the testing was over, I finally saw the doctor.  He watched as I walked toward him and his office.  Immediately I knew that he, known around the world for his expertise, had compassion on his individual patients.  As I passed him, he put his hand on my shoulder, and it was one of those moments that carries greater meaning than the simple gesture would imply.  It wasn’t an “OK hurry up buddy, I’m busy here,” or a “There, there now, it’ll be ok.”  It was more of a, “Wow, I see your pain, I see your struggle, I know it hurts and I understand…let’s tackle this thing together.”  In that simple hand on my shoulder, I sensed something of the heart of Jesus toward my sickness.

We sat down together in his office and he listened to my story with rapt attention.  He had many of his own opinions as to how he would treat me if he were my primary physician but was also mindful of the fact that he greatly respects our current doctor.  And as we move forward, he and or primary doctor will probably be collaborating on certain aspects of my treatment.

After we talked, he pricked my finger and looked at my blood under a dark field microscope, which was hooked up to a computer monitor.  We could see my blood cells in almost 3D floating around on the slide, and in his words, “It looks like you still have a lot of work to do.”  Apparently your blood cells are supposed to flow individually through your body rather than in clumps.  Well, nearly all of my red cells were in clumps of 10+.  This is caused by the osmotic pressure exerted on them by antibodies present in the blood.  The presence of clumping, and therefore antibodies, is a surefire sign of not only infection but also autoimmune response.  We also saw several white blood cells, just another confirmation in a long list that I do indeed have infections present in my body.

Finally, we got to the exciting part, the ozone joint injections.  After examining my knees and ankle he was confident that these injections would bring relief, since it appears that most of the damage/problems in those joints is soft-tissue rather than bone deformation.  Finances were very tight for us, so I asked him to clarify that the price per shot is in fact $250.  He said, “Well, since you’re getting both knees done, I usually give you a break and charge $350 for the pair.”  I thought, Great!, and told him to go ahead.

As he was treating my knees, the details of which could fill another blog post (with the needles poking way into the knee joints and such…yes, an appropriate reaction on your part is wincing and butterflies in the stomach), I noticed a cross on the wall, and a picture of an old man with hands clasped and two other hands reaching down to him.  In very small writing I thought it said, “Gospel of John” but wasn’t sure…so I asked.

He said, “Yes it does say Gospel of John.”  I took that as my cue to share a bit more of our story: “You know, right around the time I started getting better is when our church started praying for healing.”  And again, one of those moments passed that contained so much more than the casual observer would notice.  He simply said, “Wow!  Interesting.”  I don’t know if he is a believer, or if he simply respects the beliefs or what, but at the very least it seemed as if he was mindfully logging away my story as one more piece of the puzzle to take into account regarding this whole healing thing.

He then told me about a little girl he had treated once:  “She came in with some digestive disease that I had successfully treated many times.  Seriously, this was one of the easiest problems for me to heal people from.  I was thinking to myself, ‘This will be great, I DON’T fail with these cases.’  But she didn’t respond at all to anything I tried.  And after a time of frustrated failure, I finally referred her to another physician.  About a week later I spoke with her parents and asked them how she was doing.  They said she was totally fine!  I asked if they had taken her to the other doctor and they said that they didn’t need to.  They took her to their church where they laid hands on her, and she woke up the next day totally healed!”

It’s nice being treated by a doctor humble enough to allow for the Great Physician to heal also!  After this story, I asked him if he would also be injecting my ankle (the one that’s turned out).  After he said that he was, I asked him to give me a minute to do the financial math to make sure that we could afford the additional shot.  Immediately, he said, “Don’t worry about it.  I’ll throw this one in.”  I had to fight back tears right there in his office.  Really?  Are you kidding me?  This doesn’t often happen in the world of doctors.

Well, he finished with the injections and went out to give the paperwork to the front desk as I put my shoes on and made my way out behind him.  

 When I got to the front, he told me he'd see me next time, for round two of injections, and walked back to his office.  I turned to the administrative assistant, and she said, "Okay, your total for today is $175."

"Wait, WHAT?!"

"$175."

"Did you get the charge for the testing and the injections?!  Even with the break he gave me it should be more than THAT!"

"He told me that it was all included."

Wow!  So instead of leaving his office $1000 or more poorer, we were walking out only having paid $175 and knowing that the Lord is indeed meeting ALL of our needs.  We'll see the full benefits of these injections as the next few weeks play out, but regardless of the outcome, we were blessed immensely by this trip.

Thank you to all of you who helped make this possible through prayer, through giving in various ways, etc.  We can't do this alone, and we know, thanks to you all, we aren't alone.  May God bless you even more in the coming weeks.