She saved my daughter's life
I haven’t been in touch for a while and I hope you haven’t forgotten all about me. I hold you all dear to my heart, but had to take, shall I say, a family vacation?
Let me catch you up quickly. June 2017 was a super busy month with my children finishing school, including one graduating from Pre-K, and my oldest celebrating 8th grade graduation, prom, enjoying the last of her middle school days with her friends, and getting ready for high school.
Then one day into July and she started having severe stomach pains. I was quite sure it was appendicitis so off to the hospital we went. She had all the regular tests and imaging. Nothing showed up. Her white blood count stayed high so they kept her in there for observation -- a couple of days turned into a couple of weeks and everyone including myself was perplexed. She was getting better, however, so we left the hospital, only to have to bring her back with severe pain. Again, the doctors saw nothing, experts were brought in, even more tests were done. I worked on healing with my daughter: good nutrition, meditation, prayer -- she was compliant and was doing well although we got more and more exasperated with our stay in the hospital.
Enter "stage right", Dr. Valcek. I am not sure, maybe based on her name, or the reverent way the pediatric residents spoke about her, I expected a tall, big-boned woman. In walks a petite Filipino woman, maybe in her 60s or 70s – yet, commanding as an army general, sharp as a blade. I am not sure what compelled me, maybe simply because she was Filipino and a doctor, but I asked, “Did you go to medical school with my father?” Incidentally, my father died of colon cancer 30 years ago this month. Dr. Valcek said, “Of course, I know him.” They went to the same school 50 years ago at The University of the Philippines!
She proceeded to ask my daughter a few questions and said, “I have to operate and see what’s happening.” And that was that, my daughter had surgery at 11 pm that night. Thank goodness because her appendix had exploded, her pelvic and intestinal wall had become gangrene. Dr. Valcek later told me, “if I had not gone in that night, I am quite sure she would have been overcome.”
I am eternally grateful. It turns out that Dr. Valcek is a nationally renowned pediatric surgeon. She said to me, in the hours before my daughter’s surgery she was home and ready to settle in for the night, she was certainly not planning to travel to Brooklyn to do surgery at night. But she went. She said it was providence. I know God sent her, with maybe my dad working on my daughter’s behalf.
Fast forward, my daughter is enjoying herself in her new high school in Manhattan and so far has 90% or higher in every single class. She has figured out that she no longer wants to be a naturopathic doctor and is thinking maybe she wants to be a surgeon instead as she obsessively watches Grey’s Anatomy reruns. That’s OK! I am quite pleased with this happy ending and I feel that through this ordeal, she may have found her true calling.
The point I am trying to make is God is involved in your healing journey. A naturopathic tip for today is to be conscious of this involvement — ask and pray for your healing. Then believe, or better yet, know! It will happen. Keep going and keep praying.
Please watch my YouTube video below on Faith-Filled Prayer. It’s an oldie, but goodie.
