amount of pain, any part of my body, called out for God’s help, encouraged me to remain positive,
In May 2016, Marcia Freitas was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, and this made her life a living hell. Her situation forced her to switch roles with one of her sons. She shares her story with us.
‘After having my fourth child, I developed a chronic disease called rheumatoid arthritis. It affected my joints, causing a lot of pain in my body.
In the beginning, I wasn’t able to move any part of my body, not even to go to the bathroom. The pain would only increase, I needed help to do everything. I would feel an immense amount of pain in all of my joints. I became bed-bound for two weeks. At the hospital, the doctors would inject my knees and although it would soothe the pain, it was only temporary. The pains would kick in with a greater impact after a few hours.
The situation was so bad that I couldn’t even take care of my own kids. I was their only carer; their father was extradited to Portugal when I was still pregnant with my last child and although I had the help of friends, I didn’t have him around to help. We struggled constantly, and I felt so useless. I couldn’t do anything for them. One of my sons would look after his three siblings and me. He would go to the shop to buy the basics such as yoghurt, bread, etc. and they would live on takeaways for dinner.
The worst part was knowing that I couldn’t even breastfeed my baby, who depended on me. I was hurting inside and there was nothing I could do. But there was a day where the pain was unbearable and I called out for God’s help. I then remembered the Universal Church. So, I went online to speak to one of their advisers and I was encouraged to take part in one of their meetings.
At the Universal Church, I learnt how to use my faith. At first, I didn’t even know what it meant to have faith, but attending their meetings and listening to the life stories of others made me want to try it. It wasn’t an easy process. There was a point when I thought about giving up because I got worse, but the meetings encouraged me to remain positive. I was being guided to use my faith and to keep receiving medical follow-up.
Gradually, I stopped feeling pains but when I would go for a check-up, the doctors would say that they could still see the problem in my blood. However, I kept believing that I would get better. My faith was pushing me to be optimistic. When I had my last appointment with a specialist doctor last July, the doctor was surprised to find that there was no inflammation in my blood for the first time in two years. Today, I go to the park with my children and my son can live his life. He no longer needs to look after me and we are a happy family.
If I was able to get help in this place, why don’t you try?’
Marcia Freitas
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