My dear friend,
As I mentioned before, God wants the glory for my deliverance from my gastrointestinal affliction. Furthermore, in my blog post “I Believe!,” we have already seen that no doctor, no wizard, no man or woman, nor even mine own efforts have been able to lead me out of this affliction that I have now had for nearly thirty years. Therefore, I would be amiss not to explain what specifically it is that God is delivering me from.
When my wife and I were first married, God blessed us with a new home, a new car, and He gave me a new job and promotion in my new career in IT. We had great benefits and medical insurance through my new employer, and my wife had ample money to balance our family budget. She could not have been happier.
God was exceedingly good to us. We had both given Him honor in our wedding ceremony and all the events surrounding it. Had it not been for the fact that she had been so resolute to see the fulfilment of our wedding, God would never have received all the honor and respect that was given to Him during that time. Thus, what did God do? … He repaid us tenfold! He is amazing!
Moreover, she demonstrated great prudence and wisdom in the way that she handled and accounted our finances. She has always been attuned to and engrossed with the reckoning of value for objects and assets. She loves to make account for those things that we have in life, at home, and in business, and she is very good at her profession.
In fact, it was not long after we were married, that she had made an especially thorough tally of our family estate, of which she maintains faithfully to this very day.
How many of you reading this post right now dream of being in such a position as I, to have the confidence that your spouse is taking care of all the financial responsibilities of the family? … and not have to lift one little finger to make any of it happen?
It was at this same time that two other forces began to take shape in my life. The first was that I had begun to read and study the Bible in earnest, and, secondly, my gastrointestinal issues had started impacting my livelihood. I was well aware that there was something going on with my gut, and I had invested a bit of time and effort in an attempt to understand what was going on. However, I had not made it a significant priority in life. It was only at this particular point that I began to make it a priority. I was driven by necessity.
It was in my own early research that I had learned about Candida albicans and the condition known as Candidiasis. (The most commonly diagnosed form of Candidiasis is that of what is typically referred to as a vaginal yeast infection. Although, there are many other forms of Candidiasis.) Based on everything that I had learned, I thought that my alcohol poisoned intestinal tract was a potential target for this opportunistic pathogen.
Nonetheless, none of the medical professionals whom I began to consult took my suggestion seriously. Actually, it was more or less of a collective mockery of my stupidity. Yet, did any of them ever identify what it was that was causing my problems? No! They tried to tell me that it was all in my head!
It would be another five years before my suspicions were confirmed!
It all began on Valentine’s Day when we discovered toxic mold in the master bathroom of our 5-year-old home! We had to hire a mold remediation specialist to seal off – not just one, but two bathrooms! They proceeded to demolish about 90% of the master bathroom and nearly half of our guest bathroom, before they were able to clean and sanitize the remaining structure of the house.
We were left with two gutted out bathrooms. The builder of the home did not cooperate in the slightest, thus we were forced to go into arbitration. After three years, many long and stressful hours of dealing with lawyers, and spending a whole lot of money to get practically nothing in return, we finally had two new bathrooms. Most importantly, I had been led to a doctor that was able to diagnose my condition.
In the process of the legal measures, my lawyer referred me to their medical specialist: the late Dr. Vincent Marinkovich. Not only was Dr. Marinkovich able to diagnose the problem, he was able to treat it, along with the 10 other molds and funguses that I was infected with from the toxic bathroom mold. The problem was that he was expensive and difficult to access.
He was ahead of his time. Dr. Marinkovich was one of the three research physicians that developed the original MAST allergy blood test (Multiple Allergen Simultaneous Test) that detects allergens with the use of cellulose fibers in an enzymatic test chamber. Today, the MAST allergy blood test is the medical standard for diagnostic testing by allergist and immunologist.
When I first saw him in 2002, the medical community was limited to a small subset of the array of tests that are performed with MAST allergy blood test, at the present time. The overwhelming majority of medical insurance companies would not cover the diagnosis or treatment that Dr. Marinkovich was performing on me, because they did not have medical codes for those treatments yet.
Even though, ICD-10 had been in existence for a few years, very few medical organizations were using it. Most organization were still using one of the ICD-9 versions. ICD-9 did not have codes for what he did in his practice. This is also one of the reasons why I could not get any of my previous doctors to order any of the tests that would help them diagnose my real problem.
These tests were not open to them. It had nothing to do with the availability of the tests. There were labs that could do it. No, the problem is that their own organization’s system of [1]pathophysiology was essentially limited by the availability of medical codes! None of my previous doctors would venture into that vein of examination, because they would not step outside of the bounds of their medical organization’s established pathophysiology, which (according to my observation) was bound merely by clerical constraints.
As a result of the cost and the accessibility of Dr. Marinkovich’s services, I stopped seeing him for a time. When I finally realized that I was not making any headway without him, I resolved to set up an appointment with him. Unfortunately, within days of that notion, I received a letter from his office that he had passed away. In the years since then, I have looked for a doctor that might be able to fill his shoes, but sadly I have yet to find any.
I have worked with several other doctors since those days. In a few cases they have been able to help me reach a more exact diagnosis of my condition. After all, they have access to tests and procedures that I cannot perform on my own. Regrettably, none of them really know anything about the human gastrointestinal biome, let alone pathogenic fungal infections of the intestines. Moreover, none of them had any idea that there was yet another complication lingering. They could not help me. Therefore, I have had to go this road alone.
The only thing is that I have not been alone. My blessed Lord and Savior has been guiding me all along the way. God has always provided a way for me. At times, the road has been extremely rough going, but it has always been a sure road. The Lord is my rock, my firm foundation, my shelter from the storm, and my exceedingly great reward. He is my redemption and my redeemer.
The most beautiful thing about all of this trial and tribulation that I have experienced with this gut of mine over the years … is that I understand that I am nothing more than dust and ashes. From the dust of the Earth God raised me up, and to the dust of the Earth my body will return. Yet my soul has been redeemed in Christ. Not because I am good, but because Jesus IS. And the perfect sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross paid for my redemption.
I have no business to still be alive. I have no right of my own to claim for my eternal salvation nor for the salvation of these last twenty years from this disease. Everything that I have was a gift from God, even the air that I breath. Yet I never paid one dime to God for any of it. Still, He lets me live, for He ever lives! Yeah, rather He blesses me exceedingly, day after day after day! … until that day approaching!
My dear friend you also are still alive. Count that as no small miracle! For God loves you, and He will continue to love you.
“38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:38-39 KJV
Love (and many blessings of God) Always,
Dale 😊
This is part 1 of a 2 part story. For part 2 of this story, “Not by Bread Alone.”
[1] If anyone prefers to refer to this as Pathology, that is fine with me. I will not argue with you.
Your comments and questions are welcome, even the critical ones. You can submit comments without specifying an email address (despite the fact that it indicates that an email is required). If you do, I ask that you use a fairly anonymous (benign) username. However, if there is something amiss with your anonymously submitted comment, I will not have any way of telling you what is wrong.
