Flopping her weary body as I told her to lay down on the exam table, she sighed heavily, still complaining of unrelieved chest pain. Her tiny pupils tried to look through mine, struggling to make sense why she was in deep physical distress. As I started applying the EKG leads on specific parts of her chest and extremities, I noticed some red bumps on her arms and legs and as I expected, I uncovered more needle tracks scattered all around her body. Her disheveled blonde hair, wrinkled face and energy that seemed to be waning as every hour passed by told me she was a substance abuser, long before she related her history with me.
“I use 5 bags of heroin a day,” she cautiously answered to my queries. Then, decided she could not hide anything from me as her chest pain progressed and she got worried knowing she also had some cardiac problem.
“Yes…I also drink a lot everyday,” she volunteered.
“Keep the pill under your tongue,” I commanded as I opened a fresh tiny bottle of Nitroglycerin after taking her abnormal EKG. Strapping her arm with the blood pressure cuff, I started monitoring her blood pressure as the medication could cause a drop. She continued to breathe heavily, restless and having difficulty lying on the exam table still. She tried to avoid the nasal cannula I tried to apply at first to sustain her oxygen intake.
“Relax!”
“How long more, Ma’am? I’m still in pain,” she asked.
“We’re just waiting for the ambulance to arrive. Here…Take the second pill…”
After waiting for 5 minutes that felt like eternity, I asked if she got relieved of her chest pain from the 2nd pill of Nitro.
“A little bit better,” she softly spoke as if trying to gather her remaining energy as she went through withdrawal symptoms at the same time.
Drugs…Alcohol…Prevalent and widely abused nowadays to numb someone’s pain. For what could be fun for others who just wanted to experiment sometimes, ended up using quite a lot more to help them cope with the pain that comes from abusing it. Lives are destroyed. Faces…Aged unnaturally. A lot of times, they feel that there is no more hope for them. But that’s not true… The truth is:
“For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” – 2 Cor.3:17 (NLT)
When God sends His Spirit, transformation takes place. Darkness turns into light. Chaos and confusion turns to order. Death becomes life…
“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.”
- Proverbs 31:30 (NIV)
Beauty recommends none to God. It’s not a proof of wisdom and goodness. It is having a reverential fear of God which shows the true beauty of a soul. A person who reflects good virtuous qualities ages beautifully because that person delights in pleasing no one but God. A person who desires to always be trusted, respected, useful, and honored in his or her ways.
30 DAYS OF THANKSGIVING - 14
5 hours ago
