7 April 2021 | NPM | “One in a Million”

by Gary Evans

 
 Until a few years ago, I was a healthy man.
 I’d ride my bicycle 50 miles after work (100 on Saturdays)
 and volunteer at Friday night football games as a doctor 
 on the sidelines for East High for 12 years.
  
 At the last game, my youngest daughter was drum major.
 It was Homecoming, and my middle daughter came back to town
 from college in Santa Cruz so she could play trombone with the band.
  
 After the game, as I drove her back to college,
 I realized I was coming down with a fever and felt very tired and ill.
 The four-hour drive did me in, but I dropped off my daughter 
 and turned around for the four-hour return trip to Bakersfield.
 I continued to feel extremely tired and finally made it home. 
  
 The next day, my doctor prescribed antibiotics;
 but I was sure that I had Valley Fever and insisted on getting tested.
 The blood titer test confirmed it.
  
 My condition worsened, and the doctors didn’t know
 what was causing the various symptoms I was experiencing:
 excruciating pain in my legs 24/7, muscle cramping and twitching, etc.
 I spent much time researching online, trying to determine
 what could possibly be making me so sick.
  
 The GAD65 test that I insisted on getting proved that I have
 Stiff Person Syndrome (along with numerous other diagnoses)
 which is “one in a million” – there are about 200 known cases worldwide.
 It is a debilitating disease with no known cure; it can be fatal.
  
 Aside from a miracle…
 (in which I completely believe and for which I hope)
 …in His timing, God will heal me. Amen. 

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Gary Evans, DC, is a self-employed chiropractor, currently retired and disabled. He is the father of 3 daughters and has been married for 43 years.  His first published piece is in Pathway to the Heart, WOK’s 2021 anthology.  Gary is a member of Parkside Church and Writers of Kern.