The Farmer's Place: Day Six : Wait, Patiently Wait

WAIT, WAIT PATIENTLY!

Yet I am confident I will see the Lord’s goodness

while I am here in the land of the living.

Wait patiently for the Lord.

Be brave and courageous.

Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.

Psalm 27:13-14 (NLT)

Wait. Again, wait. I’ve heard it so many times over the last four years. And it never has become easier to hear. In this age, we all want it now. But God kept telling me to wait.

Getting a diagnosis is a long process. There was 6 weeks of waiting while my primary care doctor tried different medications to ease my pain. There was blood labs to wait for. Finally, he decided to send me to a specialist.

At first you think. “Good. Now we will get to the bottom of this.”

But then there is more waiting.

Waiting to schedule an appointment.

Waiting to see the doctor.

Waiting for more blood work results.

Wait to see the doctor again.

And then you hear the words again, “I’m baffled. I want to get a second opinion.” This time we were referred to Mayo Clinic. We were told to wait for their call to schedule an appointment. This wait was about a month long.

And finally, we get the call.

“We will put you on the waiting list.”

“OK. How long will that be?”

“Up to six months.”

My heart sunk. How could I keep waiting that long? I was on high dosages of steroids, just to be able to make it through the days. How could I do this for six months? That was just before Christmas. Fortunately, we received a call after Christmas that an appointment opened up at the end of January. Of course, we accepted the appointment and waited again for the next few weeks.

By this point, we were ready for any kind of diagnosis. It is so frustrating to wait with no idea what is going on. We were tempted to say, “Tell us anything, even bad news, so that we can deal with it.”

Just as we expected, the first visit was only preliminary. We met with one doctor and, of course, the phlebotomist …. They took 16 viles of blood!

And then we waited.

We waited to be scheduled with 5 different specialists and more testing… four more months. At the end of that week of appointments, I was told you have Central Sensitivity Syndrome (CSS) with indications of fibromyalgia, chronic pain syndrome, and Myofacial Pain Syndrome. In other words, I have a lot of pain.

While he had hoped for more help than that, it was a start down the road to managing my pain. I was prescribed the first medication that would help me better deal with pain. And it connected us with an excellent rheumatologist and later Mayo Clinic Pain Center. Across these 3 1/2 years, these have been a Godsend.

My point today, is that good answers seldom come quickly, through all my life, I have heard the instruction to “wait” … from God …. from my parents …. From school teachers.

Did you ever notice that we never seem to be able to hear it once and then just sit down and wait. We are like little children, we sit down for two minutes and then we are up asking, “Is it time yet?” Sadly, I don’t really have a word for the wise today.

I’m just here joining the choir of those who are telling you ….

“Wait, Wait patiently on Jesus”

CHALLENGE:

Read 3-5 Psalms a Day & 1 Proverb

Joy Dare List

1. doctors

2. phlebotomists