So I’m sure that most of you who have already read one of my previous blogs have heard and read that I’ve been pretty sick lately and also that the Lord took it away…so we thought. After an entire week of not having any problems such as stomach pain, light headiness, and bloody stools I got to feeling pretty good about it being gone. I guess it really is true when people say that things aren’t that easy. So this past Friday my team and I got back from some awesome and tough construction and I felt a strong urge to use the bathroom. In the process I noticed that things weren’t up to par. The blood came back.
I’m not gunna lie…I was pretty pissed. It was gone!!! In what strange way could it have come back!?!?!?!? So I had to come to a decision of telling one of my leaders or just brushing it off thinking that it would just be a false alarm. I knew what would probably happen if I told a leader and I really didn’t want to but I knew that with our ministry project coming up I needed to get this out of the way once and for all. I ended up telling my leader Tana and she took me to the doctors the same day. And then the word was spoken at the doctors office that I never wanted to hear or have such things come to…colonoscopy.
Doctor Ybarra, who is awesome by the way, said that it would be best to get it taken care of ASAP and since I was so willing to figure out what it was that was wrong with me my only option was to say okay. For those of you who don’t know what a colonoscopy is it’s a medical procedure where the doctor puts eight feet of tube into your rectum (butthole) and look around with a camera in there for anything that is not supposed to be fooling around inside of my body. The only reason I really went through with it is because I knew that I was going to be completely knocked out so that was quite convenient. I know people who were partially awake for the procedure and they said that it was not something to enjoy.
I got really scared though. I’ve never been in a hospital and been the one to be operated on. I’m always the one visiting new born babies or family members so this was definitely something different for me. And I love different, for those of you who know me quite well different is something that i thoroughly enjoy! But for most people there are exceptions, being worked on in a hospital is definitely the exception for me. Also because I’m very stubborn about my health.
When I’m sick with serious health issues I don’t enjoy people hovering over me all worried and things like that. I don’t even enjoy prayer on it. I don’t mind it if people and friends pray for me on issues like that, I just don’t want to have to hear their prayers cuz I think that’s something that they should only talk to God with and not have me hear it. So this whole ordeal was and still is very important for me cuz it’s God’s way of breaking that spirit of stubbornness and just showing me how to submit all of my fears and inhibitions to Him.
So they put me in the hospital on Sunday evening and I was there till 9 at night on Monday. Everyone on my team/family wanted to be there with me but I was only allowed one person to stay the night with me. So an old friend of mine and soon to be a leader in Nicaragua volunteered. That friend being Seth Barnes Jr. He stayed with me the whole time. We watched football, movies, and funny commercials with each other for hours. It was the most television we’ve gotten to watch in a long time!!!
Finally it was time for the procedure which happened at 2 PM, Monday afternoon. They gave me some kind of anesthetic that worked wonders during and after the colonoscopy!!! Apparently I was saying crazy wild things, singing, and fidgeting around like a little school girl when I started to wake up. I can’t remember most of it all but I was told that at the beginning I kept on saying things like “I need to defecate!!!” and “Roll me to the bathroom!!!” to the nurses.
But I was also told that I was ministering to the nurses at the same time. Saying that I was in “God’s hands” and asking them if they “go to a Christian establishment.” I would say that because WE being the people who have the faith that Christ died for our sins and rose again are called the church!!! So a thing that we call “church” is just a building or two where people go to worship God when we can do that anywhere. So it was definitely awesome to hear that the Spirit was moving through me and out of me like that even when I was high lol.
It was very reassuring to hear that people back home were praying for me through all of this and thinking of me because it let me know that I wasn’t alone in that hospital bed. Not alone with Seth being there, not alone with the thoughts of my friends and family, and not alone with God sitting in the bed with me.
This is an edit:
I also just forgot about telling you guys that the doctors did figure out what is wrong with me and that it is easily fixed and already is fixed. All I have to do is let my body take control back and use a little bit of the medication and then it’s all good. Thanks for the prayers, cuz they worked.
This was the original copy of the blog :p
“THE WALLS OF A CHURCH DON’T MAKE IT HOLY!!!!!! IT’S WHAT’S AUTHENTIC THAT COMPLETES THE SUM OF THE WHOLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
August Burns Red
You’re my best friend. 🙂
Mr. Folsom – good to read you blog and good to spend two weeks with you. I have high hopes for your time in Nicaragua, and I want to hear all about it, so keep these blogs coming, and if you need ANYTHING. let me know. You are a good, good dude, and I want front row seats to your life.
hey dude, glad to hear everything is going well and your not sick anymore, be good boy we’re all thinking of you here at west ga, i’m still getting asked by some people how your doing, take it easy and good luck
Sam…you’re pretty much my best friend too haha
Matt!!!!! Thanks dude for just being you!!! I can really see God in your life cuz you really want to just get on a real basis with people and have that authenticity with them and even more so with Jesus…which rocks…so thanks man!!!
Chris…when I saw that you made your name on the comment McMuffin it totally made my day!!!!!! I miss you so much bro!!! can’t wait to hear more from ya