This is one of those posts that happened in such a way I believe would be disobedient of me not to share.
It started like this. I was sitting in the nurses office and she says yeah you are positive for hepatitis C… Immediately my stomach fell and I had that oh crap! Feeling just kinda surround my mind and all of a sudden this horrible news is reality, And again my life takes on a completely different light. How am I supposed to tell my mother I have hepatitis C?!?! How am I supposed to tell my future wife im carrying this virus. No one is ever gonna want to be with me or around me, my blood’s tainted and im gonna die alone. Probably early cause this hep c’s gonna turn into cancer or progress and im gonna die an early lonely death by myself with some virus I have no freakin clue how I got! Immediately I resort to the worse possible case scenario without any kind of knowledge of what Hep c even was, All I know is it didn’t sound good. So I got online, checked it out, turns out I probably wasnt going to die and if i could watch what im putting into my body and be concious of my physical health, I could possibly go the rest of my life without any kind of complications at all. Thats obviously a best case scenario because lets face it horrible things happen all the time and the worse is always a possibility.
So some years go by, Ive been somewhat on top of my physical health. I like to go to the gym and I try to eat as clean as I can but i freakin love mcdonalds chicken nuggets. Who cares what they’re really made of they’re good! So my point is I have been far from perfect and yeah I’ve done some things right but could probably do a lot of things different, as far as my health goes. So I’m applying for the World Race and there’s a medical section there for me to state whatever kind of health issues I have. Well here I go, heres another one of those reasons for y’all to not accept me on the race. Yes, I have Hep C. A couple of months go by, I get accepted, everything’s really lookin good, im fund raising preparing to go on this trip right? I get an email from someone at adventures in missions that I need to get this form filled out by a doctor saying that I am capable of going on the World Race and not gonna die on anyone because of my faulty liver. Thats fine, never once did I have any doubt that they would let me go, it was just another hurdle to get over but more then anything it kind of just left me at a stand still.
So I go to the doctor, get a ton of blood work done and I wait. They tested me for everything and did some other test to find out exactly where my liver stood. The blood work’s done and now I have to wait until the results come in. This is when the worry and stress started to kick in. I started thinking what if im positive for something else like HIV or something crazy like that. What if they find something seriously wrong with me? This has started to become a really long week and then I get the results… Everything else was fine, they found nothing new, and I have the lowest classification of HCV the hepetitis c virus. This is all really great news but the best part was the doctor handing me my World Race release form stating that I am medically cleared to leave in January! Hallelujah i’m back on track and everything is going to be ok.
About a month or so goes by and I get this call from a pharmaseutical company requesting my insurance information. Hmm so I ask for what and she says that I have been signed up to partake in this new hep c treatment, I just needed to give them my insurance information to complete the process. Well thats incredible! The doctor went ahead and signed me up. I mean we had talked a little bit about it or whatever but I never thought anything of it. Ive got this virus and im never getting rid of it. Big deal, im still going on the race. Sooo i gave the lady all of my info and I asked her, well how much is this going to cost if my insurance provider doesnt cover me. Yes sir, it will cost approximately $37,000 a month and it is atleast a 2 month treatment so you are looking at $74,000! Holy cow so I immediatly write that one off and go about my life. Ive had insurance with this company for less then 2 years, they are not going to cover me.
Less then a week later I get a call from Walgreens pharmacy at Piedmont hospital letting me know that my medication was ready to be picked up all I needed to do was bring in $5 for my copay… And they cleared me for 3 months just in case 2 doesnt work. No way is this real life right now. I literally did nothing to recieve this treatment I never requested information I never inquired seriously about recieving it, I never even thought it would be possible for me to recieve this treatment. But now it was real and now I was really going to be able to fight this virus and possibly live the rest of my life hepetitis c free. Wow! Thank you Jesus! Clearly this is your hand at work because I literally had nothing to do with it minus my tainted blood and poorly functioning liver.
I picked up the medication, they said to take it with or without food??? This is literally a $1200 pill a day and its telling me to take with or without food. Fair enough, I take it with or without food once a day. All my doctor asks was that I come back in after 1 month so they can run some test just to see how everything was looking. I complete my first month worth of treatment with nothing more then a daily headache as a side effect. I go to the doctor, he runs the test and once again I wait for the results. I got an email the following Monday my results are up on line. So I open the APP, read the results, and to my surprise the Hepetitis C virus is no longer detectable in my system!!! I am actually free from this virus! And in that moment I began to somewhat start to comprehend the faithfullness of God. It is far beyond anything any human can imagine its real and its alive and he really does love and care for us. I remember praying a little fleeting prayer before i was getting baptized, how awesome would it be God, if you took this virus out of my body, if you washed me clean of this, how cool would that be?? And I thought about that when I got the initial results back that I was still in fact positive for hep c. And yes, God could have easily taken it away from me at anytime he wanted but he waited for the perfect time. He gave me this blessing with a tangible piece of paper saying you are Hep C free! He could’ve washed it away and how would I have ever known that it was him that really cured me? It could have just been a false reading from the get go, but no he said here, take this gift and glorify my name through the process. Let everyone know I am the one who cleansed you. I am the one sending you and I am the one who will make the way. So, dear heavenly father thank you for your love, light and favor. Thank you for coming into my life and truly making me a new creation in you. Thank you for seeing and believing in me when no one else does. I pray that somehow my words today hold enough wieght to touch the life every single person reading this, that they can see and believe how great your love for your children truly is. We love you and we praise you its in your sons name I pray, Amen.
