A light at the end of the tunnel

I had set out yesterday morning to tell you all about my sh**ty summer and then everything changed. You see, since this May, I have been battling a nasty case of C. dificile, so it was very literally a crappy summer. Unpredictable diarrhea would come for a few days, clear up for a couple of weeks, and then come back with a vengeance. During these last few months, I have had some embarrassing and gross incidents. One time, my sister in law had to help me clean up in the bathroom of a nail salon and go next door to buy me a new shirt. Another time, I managed to get poop on my bathroom floor, walls, shower curtain, toilet, you name it. Me getting myself and the bathroom cleaned up was like a hilarious but sad episode of "I Love Lucy", if Lucy was naked and couldn't walk. So finally after a few unsuccessful attempts to get a stool sample, my doctor put me on antibiotics, which did finally clear it up in 10 short days. However, as sometimes happens with antibiotic use, I then developed a UTI. Wonderful! Then my MS was even worse than usual, plus, I had even worse bladder urgency. I went through a ton of incontinence pads in a day. So now I am back on antibiotics for the UTI, and guess what the side effect of those is: diarrhea. Which I didn't anticipate until a it was too late. So yesterday morning, in between crying and cleaning myself up, I prayed and prayed for and end to this messy ordeal. Then I realized the humor of the whole thing, and that I had survived. While I was thinking about how to write about this, I checked my daily scripture verse, and it was so right on.

Psalm 94: 18 When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your unfailing love, LORD, supported me. 19 When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.

This gave me comfort in just reading the words, and then my children got home from school. Seeing them and laughing with them will continue to be my greatest joy. But my story doesn't end here. Later in the afternoon, I got a phone call from a neighbor who thought she had been seeing my lost cat, Lisa. Of all the cats I have had in my life, this is the sweetest, most awesome cat, and my family and I have missed her deeply. She had been missing for over a month, and so we had given up looking for her. We didn't expect the neighbor to have our kitty, but guess what, it was her! So what started out as a terrible day ended up with an unexpected joy, and I realize my prayers had in fact been heard. The Lord had heard my cries, and had been there all along.