HEALTH UPDATE

Dear friends,

Thank you so much for concern and especially your prayers regarding my health. I am pleased to be able to share that in the two months since my last post, my health has been slowly improving and my thyroid hormone levels getting closer and closer to normal. I have had plenty of rest this last month while I have been off from school. Day by day, the Lord has been gifting me with energy that has fluctuated but overall increased in small amounts to the point of abundant improvement. I only feel a great need to stop and take a nap maybe twice a week now. My brain has been functioning well and it was only a few times this month that I had slight difficulty expressing myself verbally. My endocrinologist is hopeful that my body is normalizing itself. I hope this is so. I will need to continue to reduce stress and over-busyness which means I am saying no to a lot more things, am trying not to push my physical limits, and have reduced my teaching workload for next semester. My doctor will continue to check my thyroid levels regularly and I will continue to be off medication. I feel mostly normal except for an occasional feeling that I describe as "buzzy" - a feeling almost like electricity in my blood. This is a less intense version of what was causing my hands to shake when I was in full hyperthyroidism (a common symptom).

While the last few months were trying, I am thankful that God in His sovereign goodness gave me the opportunity to temporarily lose the health and brain capacity that I took for granted. Not everyone gets the chance to have a loss that is only temporary and then regained. I know this is a blessing and a reminder. This has been a lesson in relying on God's strength instead of my own strength (which, in fact, is really not my own). Despite this, I know I still have not fully learned the lesson because I have found myself feeling anxious this week as I think about the semester ahead which starts tomorrow. The stem of this anxiety is surely a reliance again on my perceived own strength and a fear about its weakness…yet if I were truly wise, I would know in my heart and soul that my strength is out of my control anyway and in the hands of a loving God who provides or does not provide, always for my own good.

"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness…. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose…." (Romans 8:26a, 28, NIV)

Amen. Let me remember and dwell on these reassuring words of true wisdom.