In 2010 I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called Guillain–Barré syndrome. It affects the central nervous system and causes paralyzation when triggered by stress, loud noises, falling, or any type of physical stress.
The first time I was afflicted I was paralyzed for 3 months. I had an attack from the disease every year like clockwork. I was not walking with God when all this was going on. It was a really rough time. I didn’t have a job, my dad died, and then I was diagnosed with this.
After I’d had the disease for five years it became part of my identity, how I lived, and how I saw myself. At the time I couldn’t use the stairs, I had to be on flat ground; I couldn’t go on gravel because it could make me fall and go into another episode.
Then I started trusting in Jesus and following him. He showed me that the disease was not my identity. I kept hearing him say “you are not sick” but I had been sick for so long that I had a hard time believing that maybe something had changed.
I was on a lot of medication and God showed me that it was making me numb from the inside out. He put it so strongly on my heart that I needed to change things that, one day, I took a leap of faith and flushed all my medication down the toilet (not medical advice, ok, but it is what I did.) Three weeks later, having gone completely off my medicine, I started to feel hungry again and I felt my body coming alive.
Since then I have not had a Guillain–Barré episode. It has been 7 years since I got off the medicine. I listened to the Lord and did what he asked me to do. It was so scary. I thought, “Either I am going to die, or God is a good God and he will do what He has said.” He did what He said.
Wendy Holden