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I get so excited when I hear young people talk about wanting more of the Bible and craving God’s word. Based on the feedback of young people wanting more access to the Bible, I opened my home four days last week to read the Gospels aloud with some of the youth and leaders from our church. Just a handful gathered around my table, but I really treasured the chance to be a part of the first time one young girl ever read through a whole book of the Bible and for another to experience the totality of the Gospels in a week.

In the midst of a beautiful week of reading the encounters disabled people had with the physical Jesus walking on earth two thousand years ago, I woke up early on Wednesday eager for Jesus to use the human hands and modern medicine to improve my life substantially. By the grace of God, Alicia was able to drive me to my botox appointment at Burwood that morning, and she prayed over me as she drove. I especially appreciated how at the end of her prayer for the doctor to be kind and have steady hands and for the procedure to go perfectly, she added the request for full healing. Because that’s the tension I wake up to everyday. I have yet to receive full healing, so I’ll keep going to the hospital appointments and look for ways to make the most of the bodily function I do have while continuing to care for it to the best of my ability.

For those following the botox drama closely, I had the same doctor I saw in May give the procedure this past week – not the one who consulted with me in August. The earliest opening was with this first doctor, so lots of people had been praying particularly that he would not be as dismissive of my symptoms as before. I was guaranteed that he’d give the injections no matter what, and that honestly was the most important thing. I had been told that the procedure was done without any anaesthesia, so I wasn’t going to get my favourite nap of the year this time. However, the second doctor had recommended a local anaesthetic, so I was assured it wouldn’t be too painful. Also, this procedure is a whopping five minutes.

I was taken into the room and transferred to a bed for the procedure, and the nurse injected the numbing medication into my bladder and said they’d wait twenty minutes for it to take effect before beginning the injections.

“Do you want me to go get your friend while you wait?” she asked.

“Yes, please,” I hoped Alicia wouldn’t mind.

Fortunately, Alicia is a huge Grey’s Anatomy fan and is not bothered by hospital stuff at all. She kept me distracted rather than stewing in my anxiety for the wait, and once the doctor and nurse came in, there wasn’t even time for Alicia to leave. The doctor commented how he remembered I’d been put to sleep before, and as he inserted the scope into my bladder, he added, “You’ve not gotten to see this before then.” He also said they used to put people under here, but they found it was overkill for how short the procedure actually is.

I stared at the tiny monitor he used and watched the inserted needle move around my bladder wall and stick in until the nurse said, “done,” and the doctor moved it to the next location for her to push more botox into my body.

Five minutes.

That was it, and I didn’t have to wait to sleep it off or anything. Alicia took me home, and the botox took effect within a few hours. I’ve not experienced any issues related to that in the past three days. I still can’t walk, and I still need intermittent catheters, but my quality of life is skyrocketing this week. Thank you so much to everyone who prayed for me, and as I keep journeying with this Jesus who heals people of all kinds of disability and diseases, I’ll keep asking for that full healing. My story isn’t over; there is so much more good news to come.