© 1997 mcpumpkin@geocities.com
Now for the testimony.
In April of 1992, my husband, a month after he turned 40, had a major stroke. I am inserting what he wrote, in his own words, about 4 years ago. Then I will add to the end of it.
I was at work on Thursday, April 9,1992. About 9:20 a.m., I went to another office to see someone. In the hall on the way, I felt sick to my stomach, got very dizzy, and leaned up against the wall for a moment. I felt a little better and I went on my way. After taking care of business, I started back to my office. I felt sick on the way back. Again I had stomach problems, dizzy spell, and blurred vision. When I reached my office I made a phone call to a colleague, who mentioned my speech sounded funny. After really listening to myself I had realized I was slurring a little. When I had another spell of feeling sick, I told my manager I was going home. The trip home only took about 25 minutes. In that time I found I had to really concentrate on driving in order to prevent an accident.
After reaching home I laid down to take a nap, but I couldn't go to sleep. When I got up, I noticed my right arm felt heavy and my right leg was very weak. I called my wife at work and noticed my speech was getting worse. I was really getting scared because I had NO idea what was happening to me. I asked my wife to come home and take me to emergency.
When we reached emergency I limped in while she parked the car. The emergency room quickly realized I had a stroke, which was news to me. I always thought strokes only happened to elderly people. You see this happened to me one month after my 40th birthday.
I spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday in ICU, where they put me on blood thinner and ran some tests. Most of those three days is a blur in my memory. By this time my right side had become completely paralyzed. I was just starting to get some movement in my right arm on Saturday. That night about 8:30 I had another stroke. This one completely paralyzed my right side again. There was no movement now, but I did still have feeling in my right side.
By midnight I was being transferred by ambulance to Stanford Hospital, and put under the care of the Director of the Stroke Center. They immediately ran some more tests on me, and found where the strokes had occurred. I had a brain stem stroke. After spending about 3 more days in ICU, I was then transferred to a room. There I had to learn to use my left hand, even though I was right handed. I had to learn to eat and swallow carefully because the right side of my face was drooping which caused the problem of controlling my tongue in order to swallow.
At this time I was very upset at being disabled, but at the same time I was worried about when and if I was going to have more strokes. I was still very confused because two hospitals and several Doctors could not find out why I was having these strokes. Would I get better and then have another one? Would I have another one before I could get better? None of the Doctors could give me an answer! I couldn't sleep much, I was constipated, I was frustrated, I was confused, I was angry, I was disabled!
I spent 5 more days in a hospital room where I slowly learned to get up and drop into a wheel chair. Now I was able to be pushed around. They were talking about sending me to a rehabilitation center. I had never seen a rehab center, I did not know exactly what they did there. It distressed me to be sent to the unknown. After 11 days in the hospitals, an ambulance took me to the rehab center. I didn't know anyone. I didn't know how long I would be there. I just wanted to go home. I thought I would be all right if I could go home! Every night I went to sleep reluctantly wondering if I was going to be paralyzed again when I awoke.
Now I am in rehab, sharing a room with three other men who were strangers. I couldn't get up on my own. When I got help to get up, I had to be in a wheel chair. I had to have help getting dressed. I had to have help with my meals, buttering bread, opening containers, etc. I had to go through speech therapy, physical therapy, and occupational therapy, as well as exercises and games. They had me standing the second day!
Speech therapy worked on my speech and handwriting. Physical therapy worked on my standing, walking, and climbing stairs. Occupational therapy helped me with my arm and shoulder muscles. I had a lot of pain in my right calf after the first week. They thought it might be a blood clot, so I had to have more tests. Thank goodness it was only a pulled muscle. This called for hot and cold packs on my calf for about 2 weeks. There was absolutely no standing or walking during those 3 weeks.
During this time I felt I didn't need those exercises and games. I couldn't get excited about speech therapy. I thought that if I could use my arm and walk I could get by. Boy was I wrong. Everything they have you do in rehab is to help you improve farther and faster. Now I am printing as much as possible because my writing is almost illegible. If I had practiced my writing more, I feel my writing would almost be back to normal.
After about 3 and a half weeks, I just wanted to go home. I kept telling the Doctor that I wanted to go home, I was okay now. Now I wish I had continued my rehab a little longer. I made a lot of mistakes.
I was sent home about the middle of May. I was still limping and I still had to be driven around for Doctor appointments. They still couldn't tell me what caused the strokes. I still wondered if I would have another one anytime. I would still get tired easy. I would try doing dishes and could only stand for about 5 minutes when I first got home. That was very frustrating. Work for 5 minutes and relax for 10 to 15 minutes. Even sitting up I would get tired.
Well by September I was thinking about going back to work in October. Then I had another stroke. Not as severe as the first 2, but it took my stamina back down to zero again. I couldn't stand very long, walk very long, or work very long. When I was just getting better, I had 2 more strokes in November. Again they were just enough to knock my stamina down, leave me limping and my speech slurred.
Late November I went back in the hospital for some more tests. While there I had 5 more minor strokes. There went my stamina again! The Doctors still couldn't tell me what was causing these strokes. I was really getting frustrated. The idea of fighting and working hard just in time to have another stroke gave me a bad attitude. Why should I keep fighting, when all my efforts were gone every time I had another stroke? Although this attitude is natural, it is very wrong.
I was home in time for Christmas, I wasn't able to do much but at least I was home. By the end of January, I was preparing to go back to work in March. The first part of February I had another stroke. This one left me limping, noticeably slurred speech and decreased use of my right arm. The Doctors finally ran the only neurological test they had left, the spinal tap. Once again they found no problems. So far I had 11 strokes, 2 of them paralyzing, in 10 months and no one could tell me why!
Then on March 25, 1993 I went to a Christian Revival. I was completely healed! I limped in to the Church, but I ran out! My speech was slurred from the last stroke, but my slurring stopped. The Lord healed me. I quit taking my medication. I even went jogging the next morning. One of the Neurologists saw me in April. He couldn't believe the difference in my speech, my arm, and my leg. This is now August and I have had no more problems. No more medication and no more doctor appointments.
I want to tell you a little more about going to this revival to show how much God does for us. At that time, I was still out of church and away from God. I was really bitter and I couldn't seem to let go of that bitterness. My sister-in-law lives in Arkansas. She used to live in Watsonville (about 45 miles from here). She called on about the 19th of March to tell us about a revival going on at the Church of God in Watsonville that she used to attend. It was just going into it's ninth week and a lot of miracles were taking place. The evangelist was a young man I had never heard of by the name of Jay Hurt. I hadn't heard of a revival going on like that for many years, so I knew God was really moving. She told us that she felt if we would go, Jim would be healed. We shrugged it off for a few days, then on the 23rd or 24th, I told Jim we needed to make a decision. Did he want to go to the revival on Friday the 25th as that was supposed to be the end of the revival (it ended up going on 2 more weeks). We decided to go. Before the message even got started, the Evangelist looked at my husband and called him up front. He began telling him how he saw a problem with my husbands blood. It was racing through his body at a 100 miles an hour (of course, they had him on blood thinners, and a very expensive, and little known medicine to enlarge his arteries). The evangelist had NO WAY of knowing this except by God. Then the evangelist stopped, looked back at me, then to my husband. He pointed to me and asked my husband if I was with him. He said yes and the evangelist called me up. He said, "I see you standing in front of the mirror in your bathroom, with your hands on the counter, looking in the mirror and saying 'God, I just can't take it any more.'" This had taken place just 2 weeks prior. With all the health problems with my husband, my son was in prison, I was carrying the financial burden, there were marital problems (even before the strokes) I just couldn't see how to go on.The evangelist prayed for me, then my husband. After praying for my husband for a few seconds, he looked at my husband and told him to run to the back of the church and then run back (I wish I had had a camera). My husband looked at him as if he had lost his mind. The evangelist just looked at him and said, I SAID RUN. My husband turned and began limping down the aisle. Half way down, he began to run. The step of faith that the Lord asks us to take. He ran up and back, up and back. When we left the church, he went outside and began jumping puddles. That night, we both came to God, my husband was healed physically and I was healed emotionally. I have been praising God ever since.
© 1997 mcpumpkin@geocities.com
Back To My Homepage!
Sign My Guestbook
View My Guestbook