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Journey to Victory
What will you do when the thing that is attacking you scares doctors?
I called my testimony "Journey to Victory". It took me five years
to be able to be what I am right now. I am more blessed in every area of my life. God restored my health, social, spiritual, emotional, but didn't have to restore my financial (read financial blessing).
Chapter 1. Physical Blessing.
9 months after having my baby, I received a very bad report from the doctor. The doctor found an enlarged blood vessel in my neck and back, growing near my spinal column and pressing upon nerves. Known as AVM (Arterial-Venous Malformation) which is a high-pressure artery connected almost directly to low pressure veins which bleed and grow bigger. This AVM will cause me to be either Die or Paralize. After hearing that report my husband and I rebuked and canceled those words. We declared that Donny will live and not die!!! |
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My condition went from bad to worse. After not being able to move my legs, and eventually my whole lower body and experiencing excruciating pain for about 3 months (I was sleeping, eating, doing everything on or next to the couch in my living room
My condition scared the Austin doctors and they referred me to a specialist department in Dallas, but the doctors in Dallas thought there was no hope, they thought it was growing out of my spinal cord and there was nothing they could do except make things worse still. They sent me home and the doctor went to Europe for a vacation. A few months later things were still growing worse and my hands were becoming numb and weak and we returned to Dallas. Even though the number 1 doctor had given up on me earlier, the assistant doctor was willing to help me. But all he was hoping to do was to save my upper body by performing an extensive surgery on me. |
The devil tried to talk me into quitting "Donny your husband needs a healthy wife and Rachel needs a mom who is able to raise her and take care of her. Look at your condition. There is no hope for you, you're better off quitting and let James find another wife and a healthy mother for Rachel. He is young, smart, and good looking, he will surely able to find your replacement very easily." I was almost buying the devil's lies, but something rose-up within me. And I said to devil, you are a liar! God took my infirmities and by His stripes I am healed. Oh, no devil, I am not going anywhere. I am going to get better and I will be able to be a good wife and a good mother. I will live long life and play with my child and my grandchildren. God will fulfill the number of my days. And I was very determined that I was not going anywhere but to be with my husband and my daughter period.
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I was admitted to Zale Lipshy hospital in Dallas. I stayed there for 3 months. One of the medicines made my face swollen; my legs were bones and skin, my tummy as big 6 months pregnant. I was 24/7 in excruciating pain and not able to move. On top of that I was not able to see due to a mini stroke that caused by the 2nd embolization (AVMs cannot be cut out because they bleed too much and this one was a monster according to the embolization specialist. An embolization is a process to block the blood vessels with little beads and some other type of glue basically causing on purpose the same thing that causes a heart-attack.) In the natural I was in the BIG mess.
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Everything seemed bleak. I am not sure if I would recognize myself? I myself in the natural, but in my spirit, I saw myself beautiful and healthy, playing with my daughter, running around, walking my daughter in her stroller. Shopping at the mall. Being a wonderful wife to my husband and wonderful mom to my daughter. I saw my daughter walking down the aisle and I saw myself playing with my grand children, and great grand children.
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So, to make the long story short: I had 5 embolizations. I had 4 surgeries to remove the blocked AVM, and any muscle or bone that had become taken over by the AVM and to put in a rod to stabilize the neck from all the bone that had been removed. The devil still thought he could kill me and I had 1 more surgery to clear out an infection. Making total of 5 under the knife, surgeries in only a few weeks. A few months later the rod in my neck broke so I had to have another surgery for a total of 6. I wasn't up to the last one for some time. I had the last surgery 1.5 years later after the rod broke. So, I had lived with the broken rod on my neck for 1.5 years (no medication for the pain as a steel sticking me from the inside and poking my neck badly). |
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My Vision:
My life in the hospital before the surgery was, embolization, then ICU, then regular room then back to embolization, then back to ICU, then back to regular room, then embolization (5 times around and around). Then the surgery when they have to cut my neck and my back, and a little of my scalp to give them room to work. The doctor couldn't remove the AVM in one surgery because it was already very big, and even though the main part of the AVM was shut down I would lose too much blood. So they had to do it little by little (each surgery took between 4 to 6 hours). After every surgery the doctor would always wake me up, to make sure that I will wake up and I always woke up and answer the doctor. But after the fourth surgery, I was so tired and I didn't care about anything. I was so tired and I want to sleep. I didn't have to wake up to please the doctors, I want to sleep, I was exhausted and really wanted to sleep and I did!
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Note: This is the part of my testimony that I really want to share, my vision: When I woke up. I felt so light and I was floating in the sky (blue and white clouds around me, looks very nice). I heard music playing, seems like a party going on. I saw many baby angels flying while blowing trumpets. I said to myself "aahha.. party time". I looked around but I didn't see my husband and my daughter. James and Rachel were not there so I went to look for them. All of sudden I was in a different place. I wasn't sure if it's a room as I didn't see any wall. Surrounding me was dark and scary. I didn't like the way I felt and I wanted to get out from there quickly.
I was looking for a way out, and I saw a black door. I walked closer to that
door and I said "eeww... a black door", I didn't like that door it's scary and
gives me a goose bump. I have to get out from here. |
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So, in a blink of eyes, I was no longer in that place but back to the sky where the baby angels were having the party. I only stayed there for a few seconds then I found myself laying on the hospital bed. There was a nurse at the end of my bed and she said Mrs. Eddleman you had been sleeping for two days.
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I like to share this vision because I feel that we ought to know that after we complete our journey in this world there are only two destinations: either going up or going down, light or dark, God's way or no way. There is no in between. I believe, Heaven and Hell are real. I feel that I am here for a purpose, so I can share this vision with/to others, encourage others and the most important is to let them know that God is faithful. If people know what I have been through, whatever challenges that they are facing becomes small, and nothing. Never ever give up on God
period!
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Chapter 2. FINANCIAL BLESSINGS
God restore my physical, social, spiritual, emotional, but not my financial (WHY???). Because my financial health has never been affected. My husband and I are thithers, God rebukes the devourer.
The first stay in the hospital (all the surgeries.) I was thinking about the bill that I am going to pay. According to the world system, my responsibility is either 10 or 20 percent from the bill. If the bill is $300,000 then I have to pay between $30,000 to $ 60,000. Lots of others end up with huge debt after length hospital stays. So I talked to my self that I am not going to pay kind of money for doctor or hospital. I didn't know that the actual bill was going to end up around $830,000. (According to the world system, my portion would be between $83,000 to $166,000). I told my husband about it and both of us in agreement to plant seeds (yes while I was in the hospital). My husband and I are tithers and we believed that God will take care of the bill and rebuke the devourer. So, we planted some seeds I was not able to plant much as after the second embolization I was not able to function like I should be. We don't know how much we have been asked to pay, we haven't kept track, but it's not much more that around $5,000.
I thank God for my wonderful husband. He stood beside me and stay in agreement with me. He lost so much weight as he had to take care of our 1 year old daughter, working, cleaning, travelling back and forth from Austin to Dallas and taking care of the house basically everything and I meant everything! Despite all the things he had to do, he was doing well. He is blessed in his health and he finished his work assignments. Btw, my husband could only work about 4 to 6 hours at night after he put our daughter down to bed. He was not able to come to work as we were in Dallas but was able to work remotely.
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Husband's Job, increase and favor.
After I was discharged from the hospital, I told my husband that his review for this year is going to be interesting (for 3 months working remotely). It was very tough situation for him. He has to take care of daughter, work, and wife who was in very serious condition. The beginning of the year 2006 after he received his review my husband told me that his review was good/excellent. On top of that he received increase in his salary. In addition, he also received back pay for the past 5 years that the company had stopped doing raises. And he also received a bonus. WOW.. that was really God!
More recent blessings: Abundant blessing of a brand new car, expanding our household. Refinanced our mortgage. God canceled the $11,000 bill from the last surgery. God continues His blessing in our finances. And it will increase!
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Chapter 3 Spiritual Blessings
My faith is growing stronger everyday. When the devil's attack became evident ( I don't know when exactly it started), Victory gave me a tape set "Devine Healing" another friend gave me a Kenneth Copeland tape set and I listened to those until some wore out. I watched TBN. I read books. I listened and prayed and read the word up until the embolizations started. When all I could do was pray, I prayed. Those tapes and books prepared me and got the word in me so that no matter what the doctors or nurses or anybody said, nothing mattered unless it lined up with the word of God.
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Chapter 4 Social Blessings
I have more friends than I ever had before. I treasure my friends better than I used to. I remember when I was laying on the hospital bed in crucial pain, not able to move and see, one of the ladies who visited me from my church (Angela Gardner) called me a "Dancing Daughter," and I said it to myselft "that what I am going to do, dancing for the Lord." I started a Victorious Dance
ministry in March 2009.
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My stamina, my
flexibity and my overall health are improving since then " and my youth is renewed
like an eagle". I like exercizing and I love dancing, therefore; if it is God's
will I would like to open a dance school. To keep my body healthy, to help
others to stay healthy, and to show others that we can dance to glorify the
Lord. My 6 months pregnant looking belly now becomes 6 packs looking abs. Currently, I am not only dancing
www.victoriousdance.com but also teaching Zumba classes
(Zumba istructor) at my studio
www.studiovictorious.com , at Fitness19,
Pflugerville
http://www.fitness19.com and at Fitness19, Avery Ranch
http://www.fitness19.com/centers/austin/ (to God all the glory!).
Chapter 5 Emotional Blessings
I have a sound mind and emotion. When the nurse reported me to the doctor that I was depressed, I refused that and said I was not depressed but I missed my daughter and my husband. I keep confessing that I have the mind of Christ. Once a social worker tried to put pressure on me by telling me I wasn't making progress and I'd be discharged before I would be ready to do at least something by myself. I cried, but I believed in what God said about me.
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Conclusion:
God is not only restored my physical and my vision, but also my financial,
spiritual, emotional, and social. What the devil has meant for evil, God turned it for good. I am more blessed in every area of my life
now. Don't give up on God, He will not give up on you. He is faithful. No matter how long it takes, how bleak it looks, chose His way. I am victorious, I chose God, I chose life and I chose to dance!
Visit Victorious Dance.
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More to come "The battle of Victory" (coming soon). - God Bless!--
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