HOPE

HOPE

By Andrea Tadpole-Broussard 

7/8/22

At one point in my life I went for 3 years with something wrong with my vision, balance off and clear liquid spewing out one nostril any time I got up and moved around. Specialist after specialist ran test after test. At one point I was in the hospital for 9 days! This was via Indian Health Care and being farmed out to different doctors. Finally, my PCP sent me to an ENT in Tahlequah. Strangely, they had opening the next day and I went. I found out that day that I was the last IHS patient they were ever accepting again. The ENT looked at me and read the mountain of medical records. He said he knew what it was but there was only one doctor in Tulsa that could treat it. He referred me there. Again, they just happened to have an opening within a couple of days. More tests determined that I had a cerebral spinal fluid leak. Fluid from my brain was leaking out my nose. I had surgery and when they were in there they found that my brain was sagging out of my skull. So, a simple 2 hour patch job for the leak turned in to a 9 hour major brain surgery to put my brain back where it belonged. Not what anyone was expecting!

If you have read this far, PLEASE KEEP READING! I started a new job working from home in July 2019. Benefits went into effect immediately and they gave me 2 weeks PTO up front. This was about the time I started getting referrals to the ENT, then doctors in Tulsa and more tests ran. At the time I did not realize that my new employer gave me short term disability and then I had forgotten that I signed up for extra too. This is something I never did before. Also, my employer gave all employees Christmas thru New Years off with pay, not counting PTO. It just so happened that the date for my surgery was December 28th. Right in the middle of my time off for the holidays. When I came out of surgery and could think straight I called my boss. She reminded me that I had short term disability I could use. I called HR, there was a waiting period before payments started which just so happened to be the same amount of paid holiday time and the 2 weeks PTO I had. So, I never missed a payday. I was off work for 6 months. DOES ANYONE SEE THE HAND OF GOD AT WORK YET?!

I wrote all that to tell you this...even when it feels like God is not working, HE IS WORKING! That is what I learned from what felt like a 3 year nightmare that ended in brain surgery. When I step back, I can see God was working it all out all along. As a result of all that, I have hope today. I heard a guy say the other day that hope means to expectedly wait on God to move.That is the kind of hope I have now. If God will do that for me, I know He's doing the same for you!