Life is unpredictable. We found that out didn’t we? I’m sure you’ve experienced that as I have. About five years ago in 2003, I developed a sinus problem. Actually it started with a sore throat, a cold, a cough. I just couldn’t get rid of it. Dan had it. Darla had it. I got it, and while theirs went away, mine stayed. It stayed and it stayed and it stayed. I couldn’t get over it. I figured that I had gotten it from a patient at the hospital. It seems like during that time that there were so many people coming in with pneumonia, and of course nurses don’t wear masks, do we. We usually don’t unless there is something really bad.

In July 2004 I had lost hearing in my right ear. I had developed some kind of sinus infection. I had never had an ear ache or, an ear infection. So I went to the doctor, at work actually when I had discovered it. I told one of the other nurses to look in my ear because I thought that I need to have my ears cleaned. She looked in my ear and she said, “You probably need to have your ears cleaned.” So that next day I made an appointment to have my ears cleaned.

About two weeks later, it started to ring. Really hard and bad intense ringing. And I thought “Well what’s this.” Never had ringing in my ears, even with the boys, Yah well they would whistle or something it would stay. I went to the doctor and had a hearing test. And I had lost hearing in my right ear. So when I went into the doctor after the audiologist did the test. He said, “You have what is called sudden hearing loss.” I’ve only been a nurse for forty years, I have never heard of sudden hearing loss. And I said, “Well what do I do about it? You know there is something we could do about it.” He said, “There is nothing we could do. It’s neurological.”It was very disconcerting, and I could hardly believe it, I could hardly believe it. As time went on symptoms continued to come, I continued to feel strange in this ear. I don’t know if you ever had… Well I guess it’s kind of like when you get water in your ear, kind of. But it’s a fullness, It’s called aural fullness.

I wasn’t going to give up, even though he said that there is nothing I could do. I got appointments to see a rheumatologist. I went to the University of Washington, and they tested me for meniere’s disease. You know people use to come to the hospital and say, “I’ve dot vertigo.” I’d say to myself, “OK so you’re a little dizzy, no problem.” Any of you who have had vertigo know it’s not just dizziness. It’s the whole gamut. So anyway because I wasn’t spinning yet, he discharged me and said “nothing I could do for you.” I was frustrated of course. I kept working, probably a little too much, a little bit too hard, pushing it. My mom told me “Sharon you just need to go to bed.” You know how moms are. I said “But mother, I’m not feeling sick I’ve got this little bit of a sinus infection and yes I’ve lost some hearing.” So anyway I had to quit singing. I couldn’t stand up here; the noise in my head was having… was just so intense. When I would try to play the piano, one note sounded like two or three. The tones in head were discordant, they clashed. And I couldn’t sing. If some of you saw me, you knew I was sitting in the back. And when you were singing all these beautiful songs, I was kind of crying because I thought, “God I want to sing. I want to be up there singing”.

Life is unpredictable. Well I wasn’t getting any better and about one year later in June of 2005, I began to have equilibrium problems. So all these other things were happening to me, but it wasn’t until June that I rolled over in bed one night and I grabbed Howard. I said “Something’s wrong”, it never happened to me before. I didn’t know why I was feeling like I was falling off of the bed. And I felt like I needed to hang on to something stable. I started taking meclizine to control the dizziness, and it helped a little bit. I continued to work. I would go to work and I would be looking at the med list and I would start to feel dizzy and so I would go get my pill, and it took about fifteen minutes to take effect. Meanwhile going into a lady who had meniere’s, because I was going to give her meclizine. She said “Well”, I had Told her I had it, I had a problem with dizziness. I didn’t know I had meniere’s yet. She said “Well how long do your dizzy spells last?” I said “about fifteen minute.” She said “Oh you’re lucky, you’re lucky.” I didn’t know what I was in for. I didn’t know what was happening.

In December the attacks got so intense and so frequent, that I had to stop working in the middle of my day. I had to wonder down the hallway holding on to a wall and have them call Howard. And he came and got me. A couple time that happened. The second time that happened I knew it was over. I knew I couldn’t push it any more. This was true, this was happening to me and I didn’t know if I would ever go back to nursing. I thought “I’m not ready to retire.” I was off for a Year. And my family could tell that something was wrong with me. Because I wasn’t mom, I wasn’t me. I would be at their house at a birthday party and I would have to leave and go in to the back bedroom and sit in the dark. I felt like I was emotionally, physically and psychologically drained. Howard took care of me during the worst of them, so you never saw me at my worst. I started going to a different otolaryngologist and he put me under a different test. He did the same test that the guy at the University of Washington did which turned out negative. But this time the test was positive for both of my ears. Increased pressure in the inner ear. And that is when I was diagnosed with meniere’s disease. Now I have no proof but I am positive that it was the sinus infection that caused me to lose my hearing.

2006 I was getting better, slowly but surely. I found that being on a no salt diet kept the fluid from building up in my ears, and making all those little hairs in there from going crazy. So I was really, I was doing better. And it took a long time. But in January 2007 I went back to work. And I just, I praise God, I still praise God. That He gave me back one of the joys of my life.

A new position opened up for me. I had told my med surgeon manager, “I can’t come back”, but a new position did open up for me. And so I’m working about twelve hours a week, which is just perfect. I don’t need to work full time; all I want to do is go there.

So my standing before you today is a testimony of God’s grace and healing in my life. You know it’s not the path I would have chosen. It wasn’t an easy road. But I always knew that God is with me. And I knew that I could rest in Him and the hope the He Gave me. There’s no way that I could have stood up here and sung let alone lead worship. So I really do, I really do thank God. So my standing here before you is truly a testament to God. I want you to know how thankful I am to God for touching me for healing me. I will always have meniere’s, the nerve damage is done. But it is under control. And I thank Him for this opportunity to serve Him this morning. Philippians 4:13 say “I could do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” I found that his strength is perfect. And I am on that path that he is leading me on.