Healed of Atrial Fibrillation
Once the realization came that God had healed me of Major Depressive Disorder/Bipolar disorder, I wanted to be free of everything else. The first on my list was Atrial fibrillation.
Now, this disease had not only run in both sides of my family, which I was unaware of but also was bought on from stress. In 2002 while in nursing school, I know what you are thinking. Yes, nursing school can be a dangerous place, we will diagnose ourselves with all sorts of things, but also the stress is high. Mine was off the charts, dealing with a terminally ill husband, three boys, working nights in a level one Trauma Center, and attending Emory School of nursing. Later I would find out that the nursing school staff thought for sure I would not make it, and had talked of my health regularly, But God!
However, in November 2002, I was sitting in my car waiting to return to class for an exam, when suddenly it felt like an engine turned over inside my chest. I had never felt anything like it before, but I had experienced SVT during my pregnancies and the maneuvers they did to slow my heart rate. So I tired them, all but the dunking my head in cold water one. But my heart rate was around 147, so I walked inside and took my exam (yes, I may have been a slight overachiever). As I sat down, one of my classmates told me I didn’t look good. I told her I did not feel good, and she told me to go down to the clinic and talk to one of the instructors. I assured her I would go as soon as I took the test.
After the exam, I went downstairs to the lab area where one of our instructors was working, and she said the same thing. I told her what had happened in the car and what maneuvers I had tried. At this point, they took my blood pressure and could not get one. She said I needed to go to the hospital, so I asked if she would take me. The head instructor said, I needed to go by ambulance, but I begged not to. So, they agreed, and we headed out. As I began to walk I realized I was not going to make it, turned, and told them to call an ambulance.
Now comes the funny part of the story. So, we are in the lobby on the first floor of the building, one block from the local fire department. When the first responders showed up, they could not get a BP either. I was very weak at this point and white as a ghost (I was told). They brought a handful of calendar-worthy firefighters in to get me. They even sent the hook and ladder truck, so I said to them, “Really, did you think I was on the roof? How embarrassing.” Anyway, they wanted to convert me in the lobby, and I was like, “No, take me one block to the hospital please”.
At the Emory, ER is where I met a doctor I only wanted to see once! Later the attending came in his place. I was in the hospital for 5 days, and my heart was put back into rhythm but did not remain so I had to undergo ablation. After much debate, mainly because I didn’t have time for this, they convinced me, and I am thankful that I had a great attending who had done this for a while. That ablation lasted 10 years and would have lasted longer I believe had it not been for the stress, I thought I was managing, catching up with me.
The A-Fib returned in 2012 under entirely different circumstances. I had been gaining weight at a ridiculous rate, but could not get anyone to pay attention. In July of that year, I was at work and suddenly felt very ill and was sent down to the ER. I was in Atrial Fibrillation again, and when they checked my thyroid it turned out I had hyperthyroidism and was sent to endocrinology on medication to treat both my thyroid and heart. Within a year the thyroid disease would be gone, determined to be caused by stress and the medication stopped. Ironically, Hyperthyroidism is marked with weight loss, but my body did the opposite, I was furious!
However, the chain of events with my heart (and weight) would continue on and off for 9 more years. Within two years I was cardioverted 6 times, then another more in-depth ablation surgery, which lasted for 2 years until the death of my son. Then 2 more cardioversions, long-term medication, bi-annual cardiologist visits (I do love and trust my cardiologist and have driven three hours across state lines to see him again), monitoring, sometimes blood thinners, and multiple hospital admissions.
I had been cardioverted late in 2020 and that would be my last. In 2021 I decided I had enough, I wanted free of this, so I began to seek the Lord on it. He told me not to stop my medication until He told me to, so I complied and continued. Then one day in August, I was again at the North Georgia Revival (I attend regularly), I was standing in the congregation when Bishop Lance Johnson spoke to disease and called out Atrial Fibrillation and God said, “now”. I knew it was my time and I was healed. I stopped my medication and stood on 1 Peter 2:24 “…for by his stripes you were healed”. I did not have any issue at all, until one evening in mid-September when the devil tried to bring it back on me. I think he was just testing my belief that I was healed.
Now while on a trip, without any medication but close to the cardiologist’s office, I went into A-fib. I did not tell a soul. I merely told it to go in Jesus’ Name and kept going. By that night I still was in A-fib and getting angry about it. I knew I had authority over this body, and it was going to listen! I prayed and told God, that I was ready for God to be God in my life, I was not going to the doctor, hospital, or taking medication for this issue anymore. It was going to go or I was going to be in heaven either way I was okay with it. The next morning, I continued to just go on and know that “by His stripes, I am healed” I ignored it. Then about the middle of the day, I checked my pulse, and we were back in Normal Sinus Rhythm, and I had won!
Now, I should have not been surprised at all and I wasn’t overly surprised, but I was having a dance party because the devil had lost this fight once and for all over my heart. I had tried to stand in 2020 and the outcome was not the same, but I know so much more now about my faith and my authority and was able to see it through.
Our faith in God and His promises activates the work Jesus completed on the Cross. We must know who we are to walk this out, and you cannot ride on the coat tail of anyone else’s faith, or their walk with God. It must be yours and yours alone.
The important news is God is still in the healing and deliverance business!