Two miracles

If you've kept up with my blog(s) for any length of time, you have no doubt read me saying that I'm a miracle from God due to the fact that I was born with Hydrocephalus and have survived to be 48-years old. Well, after yesterday, I feel that He has touched my life with a miracle - actually two of them - yet again. I say that because, about six weeks ago, I started having trouble with atrial fibrillation where the top two chambers of my heart don't really beat efficiently, they basically just quivered. The result was I stayed weak, tired, and had to seriously curtail my activities -- even my writing which I dearly enjoy. What made it even worse was the fact that, even though my cardiologist had put me on medication, I was still having episodes and still finding my self having to go to the ER at Emory Midtown Hospital. Based on this, he said he wanted to do a heart cath, and that was done yesterday. Therein lies the first miracle: NO BLOCKAGES WERE FOUND! As soon as I found out that I needed a heart cath, I put a message up on Facebook asking my family and friends to be in prayer and their prayers were answered! He did find one thing . . . I have a enlarged aorta which he thinks was the result of my having hypertension since I was a teenager. Even that, however, wasn't causing a problem, but he said we would continue to monitor it.

The second miracle took place while I was waiting to be taken down for the cath. My dad and my step mom had come up to be with us during the procedure and my step mom and I had the opportunity to have a long, heart-to-heart talk . . . something we hadn't done since I was little. My biggest question was "can I call you mom". We both teared up and she said she had been waiting for the day I would ask her that because, even though she's my "step", I've always felt for her like she was my mom. So, what had been a day that filled me with fear and dread, ending up being one of the best days I've had in a long time! Thank you Jesus!

-- Walter

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

 -- James 5:16 (KJV)

Some people . . .

. . .

. . .are just so incredibly mean-spirited when it comes to persons with disabilities. For example, last night I was surfing around on YouTube when I came across this video of "Praise Him, Praise Him" by Fanny J. Crosby. For those who might not be familiar with Ms. Crosby, here is a link to her profile on Wikipedia: Fanny Crosby; she became blind during an infancy so, as many sightless people do, she wore dark glasses. Well, as I was enjoying the video, I was also reading the comments and came across one that said "they shouldn't post videos by people who don't have eyes". How could people be so dumb and mean-spirited? Granted you have to look due to the quality of the old sepia print, but you can make out the frames of her glasses.

I thought it ironic that I came across that comment now as September is Hydrocephalus Awareness Month -- another condition where it's sufferer's are made fun of because of our larger-than-normal heads. I use the term "our" because I am an adult survivor of Hydrocephalus. Most of my life - including the adults years - has been marked by people who made fun of my appearance or made ugly, rude comments. I remember as a junior in high school, I had a freshmen who wanted me to headbutt him just to see if it would cause my head to "bust open" (apparently he compared my head to a ripe water melon). I urge you, if you want to learn more about hydro, just ask me and I'll be glad to explain it. Also, you can check on Facebook as there are a number of Hydrocephalus Support groups on there. Just get educated . . . learn the facts!

Me as a child