"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."
My friends, my journey with CRPS and EDS isn't in vain. :) That's a truth! This passage of Paul's tells me that suffering produces many things: endurance, character, hope. Which is why I aim to rejoice in my sufferings. It's not always the easiest, but I aim to rejoice in my finger tremors, the discoloration and coldness in my extremities, delayed motor responses, and the burning, aching pain in my feet, arm, and back. I look at Paul's life, and my sufferings pale in comparison to his. He's one of my examples---he boasted in his weaknesses because he wanted to magnify God's grace and power in his life. He had numerous imprisonments and countless beatings, often being near death. He said, "Five time I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea...in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure" (2 Corinthians 11:23-27).
As I go through the ups and downs, many times experiencing the CRPS pain skyrocket to an 8 on a scale of one to ten, I continually look to one of my life verses: "...I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:18-21). As I said in my first blog post, even if you don't have a painful chronic condition like me, join me in my goal! :)
Matt Hammitt has another song called Let It Bring You Praise, and it's exactly my prayer. :)
Update: On Monday, I had my blood drawn in my right arm---two big tubes of blood and one little one! It went well. IVs are definitely worse. ;) And praise God, I didn't get a CRPS flare-up in my right arm! :) I just have a big bruise at the site from the EDS because my blood vessels are very fragile. Anyway, still haven't heard from my dr. regarding the lab work...hopefully soon, but as the saying goes, "No news is good news!" :D I'm now taking duloxetine for the pain, and it's giving me relief already even tho' I'm not at a therapeutic dose yet. :) Still on the waiting list to see Dr. Kern at the pain center for biofeedback. He's booked up till June 15th!! Physical therapy's going great. It's been a long process, but I can now lift my right arm sideways about 145 degrees as opposed to 90 degrees when I first got the varicella vaccine back in March! :)
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