GOD ON THE GURNEY, IN THE ER, AND AMONGST THE PERPLEXED DOCTORS
Slightly Graphic – Healing Testimony
By Linda A. Knowles
“Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved,
for You are my praise.”
Jeremiah 17:14
Well, it started as an ordinary evening on Monday, January 25 of 2021, and then this happened… My husband had come to bring me a glass of water because I wasn’t feeling very well, but when he came to give me the glass of water, he found me completely unresponsive, passed out on the room floor, and drenched in my own blood. It took two minutes for my husband to get me conscious, and even when he did get me conscious, I couldn’t register anything he was saying. And then when I could finally understand what he was saying I heard him say, “Linda, Love, you passed out. I called 911 and they are on their way.” IT WAS A PURE ADRENALINE RUSH THAT STRUCK ME AT THAT MOMENT. I heard “I called 911,” and I dragged myself up off that floor, slipped on some of the blood on the floor, and managed to stagger like a drunkard through the living room, calling Teresa on the phone. I had lost close to a pint of blood before calling her, and because of that, I made zero sense to her when I was talking to her on the phone as I was crying. I wasn’t crying because I was soaked in my own blood or because I had passed out and really had no idea what was going on. I was crying because my husband called 911, and doctors and needles were the images flooding my mind at that point. I ran into the firemen as I was trying to leave my house as if I could outrun anyone in the state that I was in. I was determined to get down the house steps, but those firemen and rescue workers stuck to me like glue and I was met by the paramedics who saw that I was clearly in slow motion going down the steps just wanting to get away from all of them. They helped me up onto the gurney, strapped me on, loaded me into the ambulance, and they closed the ambulance door. I had no idea what was going on outside the ambulance. All I knew was that the paramedic was trying to stabilize my vital signs, trying to keep my blood pressure from dropping down to the 80s, and was connecting an IV to me. To top everything off, due to COVID rules and regulations, Bill could not come with me in the ambulance or come to the hospital. I told him I had my phone, and he and I stayed in contact by phone when I was able to use my phone.
They got me to the ER, checked me in, still trying to stabilize me. Several doctors did several tests, but half way through my ER visit, they came to me and said they were moving me to their other hospital location where I would be met by a team of specialists. I waited for them to take me to the hospital and found myself talking to God while I was trying to get some rest in the hospital ER. Everything was just… well silent. “Lord, You said you were with me, and now, I have to see a team of specialists? Get me through this night. It’s been crazy. I don’t know what to think not that I can at the moment.” So they loaded me up onto the gurney, strapped me on, and into the second ambulance I went. I got to the second hospital, and upon entry, the doctors went to work on me. The doctors, at this location they took me to, consulted with the doctors at the first hospital. It was an hour later and I heard this from a doctor, “I see an abnormal tissue,” and so that doctor spoke to the second doctor, “I didn’t see anything.” The third doctor was consulted, “I can’t confirm what you saw or what you didn’t see because I couldn’t see in far enough.” The fourth doctor was in the mix in the background. One of the doctors who had already examined me was puzzled because of the consultation with her colleagues. She asked me, “Are you still bleeding?” I looked at her, and at the point, I was tired, the loss of blood took its toll, more blood was taken from me for more tests, and trying to keep track of my surroundings was getting impossible “I have no idea.” She looked at me even more puzzled, “Linda, if you were still bleeding, the blanket you are on would have been soaked. I looked at her, “Then I guess I’m not bleeding.” She checked, “How did you stop bleed…” there was a pause, “ing?” She told the other doctors, and I was listening to them in and out. “She stopped bleeding. There’s no more bleeding.” “How did she stop bleeding?” “I have no idea.” I was muttering under my breath, “I know how I stopped bleeding.” But then how do you explain to a group of doctors that God does miracles, and it’s a miracle I stopped bleeding. Explain a miracle. What happened that night to me cannot be explained by logic or human reasoning. Bill came and picked me up eventually and he got me home the next morning on Tuesday just before 8 a.m.
Wednesday, February 3, 2021 – I was scheduled for surgery because the fourth doctor in the background at the ER had me scheduled. I got to the doctor’s office, and they did what most women hate… They weighed me. I found out I had lost just a little more than 50 pounds. I was so ecstatic I jumped off the scale and did what I call the Linda dance in the middle of the hallway causing doctors to smile as the nurse was laughing. And I thought, “God, the only thing that would make this day even better is if I needed no surgery!” I was sitting on the exam table and was so happy that I lost weight I nearly fell headfirst off the exam table. The nurse ran to the other side of the table catching me and pushing me back up before I fell onto the floor. She was still laughing and smiling. After she did her usual routine for patients on me, and she was about to leave but said to me. “Linda, don’t dance. I won’t be here to catch you.” She left the room. I was waiting and waiting, trying to figure out why I hadn’t been told to get undressed, trying to figure out why I was not in a normal room being prepped for surgery. I found myself talking with God, “God, this is so strange. Usually, they prep a person for surgery. I have never had surgery, but I know they prep you for it. Usually, they ask you to get undressed. What is going on? Am I not going to have to go for…” The doctor came in. The doctor began talking with me, “Linda, you don’t need surgery.” I stared at her blankly, wanting to do another Linda dance but keeping myself calm, “Doctor, did you say I didn’t need surgery?” She smiled, “That’s what I said. All your tests from the ER came back negative. Your blood tests clear. Your pap smear is clear. All your other tests clear.” I looked at her and held back my smile for a moment, “So what you are saying is that all the tests are cleared and I don’t have anything at all?” The doctor said, “That’s what I’m saying.” I had to have looked crazy to the doctor because I shot my hands and in the air saying, “Thank you, God!” I was doing the Linda dance on the exam table as I was sitting on it and the doctor saw I was about to fall off the exam table and she pushed me back on it when she saw I danced half off the table. She was laughing. All I kept saying was “Thank you, God! Thank you, God!” She looked at me smiling, not knowing what to say.
I left her office practically dancing all the way back down to the lobby of the hospital. I called Teresa. “Teresa, I didn’t need the surgery.” Doctors and nurses, medical staff, and patients looked at me like I was crazy. I could barely contain myself. I proceeded to skip Linda style down the hallway as I was talking with Teresa. Hey, I had just been told I was cancer free, no viruses, no infections, no nothing. The hospital lobby clerk looked at me like I was insane. The parking lot attendants thought I was insane.
A few days later, I got a call from my doctor’s office because “I’M GOING IN FOR A HYSTER-what!!!!” I gulped, “WAIT! WHAT IS A HYSTER What you said?” The doctor explained over the phone and it was to rule everything out. “Doctor, couldn’t you just have said you were going scope the inside of my body by using a camera rather than using the word hysteroscopy?” So on Tuesday, February 16, 2021, I went to the hospital to my doctor’s office, where I was prepped and went under anesthesia. A team of about 20 plus more doctors specializing in women’s health were present viewing the screen as they were examining the inside of me. Two days later the pathology report came back, “Linda, no cancer. Nothing. There was nothing. You’re clear.” None of the doctors were able to understand. They read and reread the Emergency Room reports and tests. They consulted with the ER doctors and the specialists in the ER that night. No one had an explanation.
Cancer free. That’s my God. He let me know He was right there. He was the One who told me that there was nothing wrong with me. And then later on, He gave me another word letting me know nothing was wrong with me, but it was through the entire process God showed His faithfulness to me. He was the One who showed me on the gurney that He is faithful to His promises, that He loved me, and that He has never left me. He is the One that in those moments showed me His character in a deeper way. He was the One who told me He was greater than any feeling I had in those moments and that it was Him who guided the hands of each doctor and nurse who interacted with me. We often like to tell God how to heal us, but we forget that God uses doctors and nurses. Don’t forget God gave them the mind they needed in order to help people get well. He gave them the knowledge to build equipment to be able to let you know what is going on inside of you physically. The camera showed the inside of my reproductive system. A small camera traveled inside of me and that entire team was there to see all the film the camera provided, and God left them dumbfounded; There was nothing. Now I’ll tell you that when it comes to the Hospital, Medical Doctors-Surgeons-Specialists-Internal Medicine-Et Cetera, Needles, and the like I’m chicken! I freely admit that! Especially when you have a nurse at your side who has a needle that appears to be the giant superhero of all needles, but I digress.
God was with me from beginning to end. My husband told me, “Linda, the problem with the doctors is that they need an explanation for what happened to you. They have no explanation right now.” And I looked at my husband, “Bill, I’m a medical mystery to them. There is no human reasoning or logic that can explain what happened in the ER that night. None.” How can I explain the miracle God has done. He did the impossible. My God, My God specializes in the impossible. What He did for me. He can do for you.
All I can say is I’m grateful to God for what He did. To God be all the glory.
Stained Glass Confessions 