The Blessing of Pain

Our dear Bella complained of pain in her "tummy". We thought it was the usual stomach bug, but when a little vomiting did not relieve her woes and she did not sleep even one hour for over 24 hours because of the pain we took her to the doctor. He did the usual battery of tests and decided it was a stomach bug and sent us home with the advice that her pain and fever would subside in a day or so. The symptoms made sense, except for the pain. I have not ever seen any of our kids in such misery, writhing on the couch uable to pay attention to the cartoons. We did not sleep the following night for the same reason as before. Her pain would not let her be at peace. Then she had white stool. That is never a good sign. I called an ER doctor friend who advised me to take her to the ER (this is where the long-story will be short).

The ER doctor said that she really does have the simple symptoms of a stomach bug, but did not understand the pain she was experiencing. Mind you, at this point she is no longer in pain and actually able to walk around. Oh, did I fail to mention she was unable to walk due to the pain? While they drew blood, etc. I called my ER doctor friend to let him know what was going on. He was adamant (he is never adament) that they x-ray her abdomen. He knew something was not right from the pain and the white stool. I went back in our room and spoke with the doctor until he agreed to do the x-rays. It turns out that our sweet little girl had a tumor on one of her ovaries and it needed to be removed. They operated several hours later and found out that her ovary was twisted and had been for a few days by the looks of it. The great news is that we caught it in time so she is now completely healed from the ordeal and in tip-top shape. Thanks be to God.

Once again I am reminded that pain is not something to avoid, but rather something to explore. It tells us that there is something not right. Something somewhere inside is out of place and not only needing to be restored, but asking. Pain is a form of communication that I have spent a great deal of time and energy throughout my life trying to ignore or silence with noise and busy-ness. It is a dialect that I am trying to understand so that the things that are twisted and broken and dying for life inside of me can be heard. Now to learn the right response.