August and September were incredibly difficult months for me, physically. Most days, it felt like I was down for the count. The Lord was doing incredible things in my heart and spiritual life, as well as, in the lives of the children I was serving, but physically, getting out of bed everyday was a struggle.
It started with boils. At the beginning of August I noticed one little red dot under my left arm and five little red dots under my right arm one morning. These little red dots within a week had progressed to puss-filled knots under my skin (the one on the left the size of a quarter) that burned and itched and were incredibly painful. With the boils came fatigue and the general feeling of being in a haze. Little did I know this would start a cycle of boils that would last for the next two months.
The short version of the story is that I would start taking a week’s worth of antibiotics- the itching and burning and pain would cease, and the knots would decrease in size, though never go away completely, and always leaving behind little purple scars where the knots were. Then after about a week of being off antibiotics . . . yup, boils, again! This happened three times.
The third time around, I started noticing that I didn’t just have little knots under my skin in isolated locations, but it seemed as though hard tunnels were forming under my skin connecting the knots together, like an underground subway system of boil-evilness under my arm.
I started researching and became very nervous I had developed a disease called: Hidradenitis Suppurativa. It’s an evil disease exacerbated by stress, hormonal changes, and humid heat that offers very little hope for those who have it especially once it has progressed beyond the first stage. Jesus would then be my only hope for healing.
(you can read about it here: Hidradenitis Suppurativa )
So I went to a dermatologist and he gave me my third round of antibiotics (different kind from the first two) and said, if this didn’t work, then we would have to start thinking of ways to treat HS- a disease that has no standard treatment or cure because what works for some invariably will not work for others.
By this time it was September and I was battling, not only boils, but tension headaches several times a week- so painful it hurt to open my eyes; weight loss (even though I stopped exercising when the boils started because I was so exhausted, and hadn’t really changed my eating habits); and canker sores in my mouth.
It was Sunday morning and my lovely little network of boils and tunnels was maybe a little bigger than a quarter under my skin. It was red and angry and itchy. I went to church. A guest speaker from Singapore was preaching on the 5 Valleys we walk through as found in the Bible. And at one point she began speaking on illness, and healing.
At the close of the service she asked us to touch any area of our body that was in pain or diseased. Then we prayed. I was sitting at the back of the church, head down, holding my left armpit in my right hand. I began by worshipping, praising, and thanking God. I began asking the Holy Spirit to come and heal me of my boils; to dry them up at their root so that they will never return. I told the Lord that I do not accept that I have HS. I will not accept it. I do not have that disease.
As I was thanking God and declaring health over myself, I felt the edges of the network of boils begin to shrink. They were no longer hard as a rock, they were becoming soft and they were shrinking! At this point I started balling my eyes out like a baby and I began worshipping, thanking, and praising the Lord even more! I began declaring more and the boils kept shrinking more!
When worship and the time of prayer was over, the borders of the network of boils under my arm had shrank from being a little larger than a quarter, to know being smaller than a dime. I could still feel two tiny knots under my skin, but their size had significantly shrank!
I had about three days of antibiotics left at that point. I finished taking all my antibiotics, but even once they were finished I could still feel the little knots under my skin. So I continued to pray healing over myself and declare that the Lord was drying the boils up completely! By the following Sunday the knots were completely gone!!!
And now I have been off of antibiotics for four weeks and I have not had any reoccurrence of boils!! This is the longest I have been off of antibiotics without the boils coming back!!
I give all glory and honor and praise to the Lord for healing me, for hearing my prayers, and answering me!!
