Hospitalization in India
We reached India with a lot of difficulties during travel. Unfortunately, I picked up infections in India and the Ayurveda treatment wasn’t successful like the previous year. Moreover, I went thru a traumatic event and I started bleeding severely. The bleeding didn’t stop even after taking a high dosage of steroids. I started getting high fevers also.
I had to be hospitalized in India also but thankfully got discharged within a week. My hospitalization delayed our travel plans but we had to rush back to the US as my wife was in her 30th week of pregnancy (Airlines don’t allow pregnant women to travel after 32 weeks).
Hospitalization in the US
We arrived in the US safely and started getting prepared for my wife’s labor but all our plans came to a standstill when I started bleeding again. Within a few days, my symptoms were unmanageable and my doctor wanted me to get hospitalized again. We were terribly upset but the Lord strengthened us with His word:
“Praise be to the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses”
1 Kings 8:56
Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom;
Lead thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home;
Lead thou me on!
Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene—one step enough for me.
We believed that the Lord will fulfill His promise and give us rest just as He did to Israel. I was put on IV steroids again but didn’t respond for nearly 20 days. Doctors started pushing me for Surgery (Total Colectomy) again but I stubbornly refused as my wife was 36 weeks pregnant at that time and extensive post-operative care was needed for many months.
The hospital was kind enough to upgrade us to a private room and let my wife stay with me. They were prepared to handle any emergency if she went into labor. I pleaded for the Lord’s mercy to recover without Surgery as I didn’t want to carry my firstborn child with the Colectomy bag. Also, my parents were visiting US to help with my wife’s labor and I didn’t want them to see me in this state. I was in a lot of mental agony as well as unbearable pain when the Lord comforted me with His word:
“Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,
Hebrews 12:2
who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross”
I remembered the promise He gave me when I considered Surgery in 2007 and believed that He’ll bail me out of this situation. My doctor gave me one last option, a drug called Cyclosporine that’s usually given for transplant or Cancer patients but warned me of serious side effects like Liver failure (given my medical history) and told me that it’s not usually prescribed to patients with Ulcerative Colitis. An evangelist in India prayed over the phone and prophesized that none of my organs will be harmed. I gave my consent to the drug and by God’s grace, I responded to it. After 5 weeks of hospitalization, I finally got discharged on my wife’s due date on 6th Jan.
God’s promise for the new year was Eccelesiastes 3:1 and we held on to it.
There is a time for everything,
Ecclesiastes 3:1
and a season for every activity under the heavens;
Birth of our son
We had a week’s time to recuperate at home and my son Cyrus was born on 14th Jan. We named him Cyrus based on Isaiah 45 where the Lord used Cyrus to rebuild the broken city of Jerusalem. Similarly, we believed that the Lord would use our child Cyrus as a source of comfort to rebuild our lives.
So long thy power hath blest me, sure it still
Will lead me on
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone.
And with the morn those angel faces smile,
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile!
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