Well, Ireland proved to be anything but rejuvenating for me. The first two days were great and we were able to meet Kaleb’s parents, set up camp, go to church and have a fun “homey” Sunday afternoon at Kaleb’s parent’s house. The morning after that though, I woke up in my tent and started to feel a pain in my right side that kept getting worse throughout the day. I started to run a fever and ended up having to spend most of the day laying down and sleeping on and off. That night I wasn’t able to sleep hardly at all due to the pain and discomfort I was in because of my stomach/chest. That next day I tried to go into town and hang out with people but most of my time was spent walking at a snail’s pace trying to lessen the pain I was in. On our last full day in Ireland a bunch of us were planning to go on a tour of the cliffs and some other landmarks near Galway. As we were waiting for the bus I ended up having to turn back because the pain in my chest became so terrible I was barely able to breathe. I ended up finding a doctor and having him tell me I needed to go to the emergency room to get looked at.
Long story short, I ended up going to the hospital and spent 12 hours getting blood work, x-rays, and waiting for a specialist to talk with me. After all that time I was diagnosed with an infection in the lining of my lungs…which was good news since it is hopefully going to be an easy remedy. I ended up being put on antibiotics and released, able to get back to camp to catch a few hours of sleep and get on the bus with everyone to the airport. I tell you this not for sympathy, but so that you realize how to better pray. I realize how much of an attack sickness has been on me throughout this trip and this is extremely frustrating for me and makes me question a lot of things. Things like what I’m doing on the Race, if I am being more of a burden than a blessing to my teammates, why God doesn’t intervene and heal me when I cry out to him, etc.
Anyway, I’m currently getting to the end of my antibiotic regiment. I’m taking less pain medication than I have been, but sometimes the pain will still wake me up in the night and I’ll have to take something in order to get back to sleep. Throughout all of this my teammates and others have been such an encouragement and have been showing me another part of what authentic Christ centered community looks like. I know there are lessons to be learned in just about everything in life, but this sickness lesson is a reoccurring theme that I would rather learn a different way…but that’s not how it works. I just pray that I don’t shut down and get frustrated to the point where I stop being open to letting God teach me.
