Beauty Through Pain: Part 1

This article is a two-part story from Evie Poythress who wrote her testimony several years ago. Since that time, God has been continuing to teach her daily what it is to be completely submitted to Him. Just 9 months ago she married Michael Poythress, and the two of them, currently residing in WA, are now growing in the Lord together, learning even more about what it is to put all your hope and trust in Christ. You can visit Evie's blog here. Be blessed as you read!

~Tiffany

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart,

O God, you will not despise.”
Psalm 51:17

I stumbled into my first head injury when I was three years old; escalators and I have never been friends since. It probably wasn’t the smartest idea after that for me to take gymnastics class, but that was where I fell into my second head injury. I was ten.

I have been seeking treatment for chronic headaches ever since I was eight, and because of my unfortunate tendency to fall on my head, I am now committed to avoiding most strenuous activities and sports. I don’t remember what it was like to live without headaches; so on the one hand, I have the blessing of not really knowing what I’m missing. On the other hand, I do have migraines about twice a week.

Numerous doctors in various fields (including natural medicine) have attempted to come to an acceptable explanation for the pain in my head, but no one has been able to determine the exact cause of the headache or found a treatment for it. I am convinced that the head trauma from 20 years ago damaged some of the blood vessels in my brain, and because these are so small and so numerous, a doctor would be unable to find them unless he knew exactly where to look.

Many godly people are praying for my healing from this pain, but I am resting in the truth that God is in full control. I want to glorify Him in whatever situation He places me, even if that means living with this headache for the rest of my life.

Because the migraines frequently cause intense nausea, my stomach "broke," so to speak, around the end of 2005. After many tests and hospital visits, I was diagnosed with acute Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disorder and a Hiatal Hernia. I had stomach surgery at the end of July, 2006 and the recovery from this took about nine weeks. While the surgeon was working on me, he accidentally damaged a pressure-point connected to the nerves in my left shoulder. This means that I daily experience extreme red-hot pain inside the ball joint of this shoulder, which increases/decreases with every breath. Some side-effects of this operation are that I must chew everything very well, I only eat small amounts of easily digestible foods, and I am no longer capable of throwing up, unless under a great amount of physical stress and pain – which is not as nice a side-effect as you might think at first.

A few months after recovering from this first surgery, I became aware of an increasing pain in my right side. I went for another round of tests and hospital visits in order to discover that my gall bladder had stopped working properly, for no apparent reason. So it was removed in July, 2007. The total recovery time for this surgery was about four weeks. The surgeon explained to me that there was only an 80% chance that removing this organ would fix the problem, because they had been unable to explain why it had malfunctioned to begin with. Two weeks into the recovery, I noticed that the pain was still just as bad, and doctors are still trying to figure out why I am just as ill as I was before the operation.

Another unique struggle I have is a birth-defect in my jaw bone. There is less bone in my right TM Joint than there ought to be, so any time I open my mouth more than half an inch, my jaw dislocates from my skull. It is about as painful as it sounds, and I have grown accustomed to popping it back into place. All that is really connecting the two bones are the cartilage, muscles, and tissues surrounding the joint. Generally, this defect is not too prominent a health issue, and merely assists the headache in being a nuisance.

However, problems do arise whenever I go to the dentist. Because I have to open my mouth as wide as possible, I end up "spraining" my jaw, which is very painful and takes weeks to heal, during which time I am unable to chew or open my mouth effectively. This also means that I probably dislike dentist more than the average person does. My wisdom teeth were removed at the beginning of October, 2007, and I spent about 4 weeks unable to eat anything more than liquid and pureed foods. This was my third surgery in 15 months.So that’s my “unhealthy” history. I have been to the emergency room at least six times (I’m excited that my hospital’s ER now has valet parking so it is an easier process to stop by and visit when the occasion calls for it!). The Lord has used each of these health struggles to draw me ever closer to Himself, though it took some time for me to understand and appreciate God’s faithfulness in doing the very best for my soul through these trials and more.