GraceofGod

The Great Physician

The Brazen Serpent, Johann König, 1601-1642

My dear friend,

In part two of the explanation of my gastrointestinal issues (titled, “Not by Bread Alone”), I wrapped up the story of my sore tummy and how I arrived at my current condition.  I also introduced the prescription that God has given me to treat my illness and prepare me for my trip around the Globe, a fast.  The interesting thing is that He has not told me how long I am supposed to be on this fast for.  As of today, I have been fasting for nine straight days.  For some reason, I suspect that I will be on this fast for a total of 21 days, but God has yet to confirm that notion.  For all I know it could be 40 days.  Perhaps, He does not want me freak out at the thought that I have 32 days more to go, so He simply is not telling me.

I find that God does that very thing quite often with me.  There are facts that He will not give me until the very last minute; because, He knows that it would crush me if I knew certain details any sooner than necessary.  It is a great comfort to rest in God’s infinite understanding and knowledge, and to trust that He always knows what it best.  When I am truly following His will, I never have to worry about dark the path that is ahead of me.  He provides a path through the menacing gauntlet every time!   Yet I do not understand why it is, but I often worry and fret regardless.  God has been faithful to deliver me time and again – practically every day of my life – and I still cannot seem to remember that fact, until I stop for a moment, pray, and reflect on all His goodness.

In my last post I mentioned the fact that the fungal infection that I am fighting against is an outbreak of Geotrichum candidum in two different areas of my large intestines: in the cecum and in the descending colon.  I also mentioned that I have tried many different treatment protocols over the years, and that none of them have ever been effective enough to overcome the outbreak.  This is true even after I made adjustments to target Geotrichum candidum specifically, and my supposition for this condition is that the infection has taken up root in my appendix.

The problem is that there is no way to delivery enough of any anti-fungal agent to the areas of infection in order to completely wipe it out.  I have come remarkably close a few different times, but in the end, I simply cannot get to the foothold that it has established deep inside my appendix.  What I have determined is that the only way it can be fully exterminated is to starve is out.  I have to stop feeding the fungal colony, which means that I have to stop eating.  Moreover, I must be very careful not to drink any more water than necessary, as water aids in the survival of the fungus.

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Not by Bread Alone

Lord’s cup and bread and bible, John Snyder, 2013

My dear friend,

When I last expounded upon the details of my gastrointestinal issues in one of my previous posts (titled, “Spilling my Guts”), I was only able to tell you half of the story.  Now I would like to take the opportunity to tell you the other half of the story, and to introduce the plan that God has for my deliverance from this affliction.

In the post, Spilling my Guts, I explained how the doctors that I had seen over the years were limited by their own system of pathophysiology (or pathology, take your pick), and how that became the primary obstacle preventing them from properly diagnosing my issue.  Furthermore, I explained how I was blessed by God to meet a doctor that could help me, the late Dr. Vincent Marinkovich.  Dr. Marinkovich was able to properly diagnose the problem, but then he died before I could be appropriately treated for my illness.

Nonetheless, God was faithful in leading me to finding a solution for the original problem that I had, which was Candidiasis (aka overgrowth of Candida albicans).  However, this was a process that took a few more years.  During that time of self-treatment, I was able to get rid of the Candidiasis, but there was a different fungus that moved in and took up residence in place of the Candida albicans.  I do not have any clear notion of when this happened.  For a number of years, I thought that I was still fighting the Candida albicans, when in reality I was fighting this new fungus, Geotrichum candidum.

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