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My journey toward reconstructive back surgery began
years before 2016. Cortisone shots in my lower back reduced the pain and
inflammation, but they were temporary measures, never fixing the big picture. After
air travel alone in January and again in February, after slinging computer bags
into the overhead bins and pulling bags from the baggage carousel, it was clear
that something was wrong.
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| http://www.teachpe.com/anatomy/the_spine.php |
As a fibromyalgia sufferer, it’s sometimes hard to
know if pain is more than just a spike in ‘regular’ pain. For a while I dismissed the pain in my hips,
lower back, buttocks. My right quad would go numb when standing for too long. Tingles
would cascade down my legs. When I woke on March 9 with a massive muscle spasm
from my lower back to behind my knee, my husband said, “Now will you go to the
doctor?”
So I did, finally. After yet another cortisone shot in
my left lower back and an x-ray showing a ‘bone spur’ on the L4 vertebra in the lumbar region, the
physician’s assistant requested an MRI from the insurance company. If you
follow me on Blasting News, you’ve read that story.
How is all of this a metaphor for the Christian Life?
First, you can’t go about changing a problem until you
realize you have a problem. As non-Christians, we all must come to the
conclusion that something is wrong in our lives. All the Tylenol Extra Strength
doses would never fix the cause of my pain. Once I knew that the pain had a
specific cause, I knew I had to fix it. Sin in our lives, yes even Christians
sin, can never be repaired without the Holy Physician’s help. Only He can
remove our sin as far as the east is from the west. Until He excises my sin problem,
my constant missteps without Him, I continue to stumble and fail to live a life
focused on Him instead of dwelling on myself.
