A Class B Miracle

Hi All,

 

The other night my wife and I were having a Zoom meeting with some old friends and we were sharing about miracles in our lives. Okay, let's be honest. I was interviewing them for stories for The Miracle Box. :)

They had a few really good stories and our one friend began sharing by saying, "This is not a big miracle. It's kind of a Class B Miracle."

That got a laugh, but I knew what she meant. I feel God is always intervening in my life in big and small ways. And some medium ways too. Like Class B. Here's a time where the intervention was medium scale maybe, but it made a huge difference in my life.

In the early part of 2018 I started developing some serious stomach problems. I began to lose weight and gradually over a period of about five months dropped from 160 lbs. down to 135 lbs. Not a good look on someone who is just over six feet tall. As weeks went by I visited local doctors and specialists who examined me, repeatedly scoped and scanned me, and tried various drugs. Nothing made the slightest difference and they could not find anything wrong.

As I dealt with this I came across James 5:14 in my Bible study. "Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord."

I thought, "Nah. I'll just pray to God. He can hear me. He knows what I need. I don't need to ask anyone else in on this. I don't need to go ask people to pray over me." I felt embarrassed or something, but I also kept feeling a nudge.

Well, my symptoms got worse. Finally I stepped out in faith and took action. I went to my pastor and asked if he and the elders would anoint me. He arranged it. I found myself in a back room at church before Sunday service telling these four men my situation and breaking up as I shared my helplessness and fear. They laid their hands on me and prayed with a reassuring confidence.

I waited for something to happen as a result. It didn't. A few more weeks went by. I was running out of options so I decided I would go to the Mayo Clinic down in Jacksonville, Florida, which entailed a three hour drive and an overnight stay. The place was ultra-modern, super-efficient, and very well organized from the word go. They did blood tests that night and when I went to my 7:00 a.m. appointment the doctor had my complete medical record in front of him as well as the blood tests and vital signs from that morning. He was an expert gastroenterologist who said at least twice during his summary, "We can't rule out a malignancy." I thought once was enough myself. I didn't love this doctor or his remarks.

He scheduled an MRI for me the following Monday. I drove home wondering what now. I had been toying with the idea of going to a nutrition-based MD up in New Jersey for months, but that would mean the flight, hotel, rental car, and my insurance wouldn't cover it. I had even called his office once a few months earlier and talked to a receptionist, but then put it off. This time though, when I got home, I called, took the first available appointment for the following Friday and booked a flight.

On Monday afternoon, I traveled back down to Jacksonville and had the MRI done. It was about ten o'clock at night. No one there getting MRI's that night looked good. I'm sure I didn't. The MRI took much longer than I expected or they had told me, and there was some quiet discussion among the techs which I took as a bad sign. Finally, they told me I was done and that I would have the results very soon.

I left feeling pretty down, but thank God there was no pain. The rest of the week went by and each day I checked my patient portal online for results. The test was on there, but no results report yet. It was kind of weird. Usually you get MRI results the same day or at least the next day. There was still no word when on Thursday evening I flew to New Jersey.

That Friday morning I met with Dr. Jay Benson in his office. He evaluated me for about forty-five minutes. Finally he said, "You're borderline malnourished. Your body is not absorbing nutrients. This is  pretty serious and we need to reverse this very quickly."

He said to eat as much as I could, including lots of good fats, and to begin a high dose probiotic he gave me. I immediately took his direction. The next morning I was at Newark Airport and I had already begun to feel surprisingly well. Some of my symptoms had lessened pretty profoundly overnight. I flew home and continued to feel a little better each day that weekend.

By Monday, I was feeling pretty great about the positive changes, when I got a call from my Mayo Clinic case manager in Jacksonville. "Hi, Mr. Krech. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing well, thanks."

She hesitated. "Did you get a call from the hospital last week?"

I told her no and she said, "Oh." Followed by a silence.

"Should I have?"

"Yes. I have the MRI results here. I've been away. I can't believe they didn't call. But, the good news is your gastrointestinal system is fine, including the pancreas, where there was concern. However, they think they may have spotted some blood clots in your lungs. You'll need to get a CT scan of the lungs to check that. Really? No one called you?"

I was very relieved to hear that there was no malignancy, and feeling so good about that, that the blood clots, believe it or not, did not concern me as much. I wasn't feeling any symptoms in the lungs and I'd had blood clots in my legs before and knew how that could be handled with medication pretty efficiently.

What struck me as I sat there in my car after the call was this. I know that with blood clots you are never supposed to fly. It's like the worst thing you can do. Especially blood clots that are already in the lungs! Yet I had taken the flights to Newark and home because I didn't know I had clots. Those flights had enabled me to see Dr. Benson who finally diagnosed me properly and prescribed the correct course of action. If I had received those MRI results any earlier, I would never have been on that plane and most likely never have seen Dr. Benson.

God had delayed the results from the super efficient Mayo Clinic for five days, long enough for me to be treated properly.

Today, I'm back up to 160 lbs. God did me a Class B Miracle that He used to bring me back to health and change my life. Along the way He also taught me some lessons about being humble, being patient, stepping out in faith, and turning to Him in earnest. I'm still thanking Him for that one! Now that I think about it, I'm going to have to upgrade it to Class A.

Bob Krech