no surprises...

I'm home from seeing Dr. Brown who is a native New Yorker, left handed and has a great sense of humor. He and his wife visited Helen for the first time last weekend and he was amazed at how crowded it is...

I still have bronchitis. It is probably viral, since it hasn't responded to antibiotics. It's NOT pneumonia ... although there are times that I swear I have pneumonia.

There are old granulomas in my lungs. It's scar tissue. It's completely benign and probably harmless. They're going to do lung function tests on me to make sure. They're also going to do another CT scan. These tests will help set markers for what MY normal is. That way, in the future, if I get sick, we'll know just how sick I am.

It's like any other chronic disorder... it just has to be managed. Dr. Brown wants to treat me as if I have asthma (although I probably don't) and reflux (which I probably don't) because the bronchitis is causing a reactive airway response. This will treat the symptoms.

It is most likely that all of the little ailments I have had over the past few years are related to the granulomatous disease in some measure... sinus cyst, nevus sebaceous, catching colds easily and being slow to heal... all related to some degree.

It is possible that I have some allergy issues as well, which were exacerbated when I moved here where the climate is slightly different. I was offered a referral to the ENT ... which I declined for now... none of that is making the bronchitis any better or worse and I don't want to run from specialist to specialist. PLUS... I'd rather have the lung function data first.

At any rate... had I not gotten bronchitis, I might not have ever known about the rest of it. How many things happen in our lives that are a surprise or a concern to us but are no surprise to God? Ok... so nothing is a surprise to God... but the point is that all of our life stretches before us as a great unknown but He knows... "all of the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be". Psalm 139:16

Faith is just the bridge that takes us from the problem we know about to the solution God has already worked out for us.

I'm going to bed early tonight... Dr. Brown said, "I know you have to be worn out"... ummm... yeah... as a matter of fact... now that you mention it... I could whine a bit about being run down. But instead... I'll just be glad for the things that have been revealed to me over the past year and the resources, by the grace of God, to deal with them.