Foreign.

S welcome to Fed by the Fruit, a podcast focused on nourishment for the mind, body and soul.

I'm kb, a spirit filled certified life and nutrition coach with a calling to disciple women who are hungry for more.

Each week we will learn who God is and what he wants for and from us through powerful testimonies, biblical truth, and so much more as we fuel our minds and bodies in ways that honor Him.

Let's get fed.

Hello friends.

Happy Monday.

Welcome to episode two of Fed by the Fruit.

I'm so excited that you're here.

I have my sweet friend Lauren here today to share an incredible story with you.

As I shared with you last week.

Each month of this podcast will bring a powerful testimony from an incredible guest.

And today that is my friend Lauren.

And then an episode diving deeper into well known or not so well known stories and characters of the Bible, an episode on how to apply biblical truth to our daily lives.

And then a wild card where I will continue to share my life with you and talk about all of the things I love.

So today we get the powerful testimony and I'm so excited for Lauren to just dive right in and share her story.

So welcome Lauren.

Thank you for having me.

I'm happy to be here and share the way the Lord has been working very specifically in my life the past couple months.

Yeah, I just, I think you should just, just start with your story.

It is, it is.

I don't even know how to introduce it, but I think so many people will be able to relate to, like, where you were at and what you were doing and like, just to think, like, how would I react in a similar situation?

I've thought that so many times since I heard your story, like, what would I do if that were me?

I know so many times I've even said, and I'll get right into it, but if I could go back, I would do this or that.

And it's so dumb to say that because if I could go back, I would know everything I know now and I wouldn't have gotten on the plane in the first place.

So my husband and our friends, another couple and I were heading on March 4th.

We flew to the Dominican just to go on a trip together to get away.

We all have kids and as most people do, jobs, lives, families, and we were just going to get some, some rest and have a good time together in beautiful sunshine.

Like you were saying, winter really gets to me.

So that first week of March, we were like, this is going to be amazing.

Sunny and 80 every day and My husband and I had gone on a trip to the Dominican last year, actually for my 40th.

And I said the day we got back from that trip, I said there isn't a thing I would change about that trip.

And the day I got back from this trip, there's not a thing I would change.

There's nothing I wouldn't change about my 2025 trip.

So we get on this plane and we're an hour and a half into the flight.

I felt perfectly well.

I ate a bacon, egg and cheese croissant in the airport.

I drank an iced coffee, totally fine.

And about an hour and a half into the flight I told my husband I was.

Do you have your.

Can I use your sweatshirt?

I'm freezing.

It's freezing on this plane.

And he looked at me and he was like, it is not cold on this plane.

I'm covered in chills.

Twenty minutes after that, I'm vomiting in the bathroom.

And I will spare you any other details, but I was violently ill within an hour and a half when basically when we reached cruising altitude on this flight, after being perfectly well, I went to the gym.

The day before we left my, we celebrated my youngest, my 12 year old daughter's birthday downtown in D.C.

so going around perfectly fine.

So we get down to the resort, we get off the plane.

Sorry.

We do get to the resort eventually, but not for long.

We get off the plane and we had been further up than our friends and I sort of had this weird pain in my shiny and I said to my husband, I know this sounds crazy, but I need to say out loud to you, I have this very strange pain that arrived at the same time as I got nauseous on the plane and I'm fearful that it's going to give me sepsis and I'm going to die on this island.

And he laughed.

I mean, my.

I'm not, it doesn't, it sounds crazy, but that part, that part gives me goosebumps every time you tell the story.

Yes.

Like, it was definitely one of those things where I feel like God was like planting this seed in my head to like be aware.

I am not, I'm not an anxiety prone person.

I am not a person who stresses or worries.

In fact, I don't know that I had been to the doctor in four or five years other than like maybe an annual like ob.

I had had.

We had five kids in six years.

So I went regularly.

I was like, I'm fine, I'm fine.

I'm just not, I'm.

It's not something that I'm prone to.

And I'm thankful that that is not the way my mind naturally goes.

But I was, I would say, like, led to have this.

Premonition is a superstitious sounding word.

But I would say this leading to be like, you need to be on your guard against what's happening here.

This isn't something normal.

So my husband, of course, laughs.

We're waiting for our bags.

Our friends catch up with us, and I say to my friend Amy.

I was like, amy, I.

I think something might be seriously wrong.

And she was like, oh, no, what happened?

And I just was like, I got sick on the plane.

I don't know.

I just don't feel right.

Something's not right.

Um, so we go to the resort, and as soon as I'm walking around there, but I was like, something isn't.

Something isn't great.

I go to bed that night.

Um, we ended up moving resorts because our room was horrifying.

So we move resorts.

They had to take me on, like, a golf cart.

So we're in this other room and I just.

I couldn't even stand up in the hotel lobby.

Like, this is gorgeous place.

You're surrounded by, like, palm trees and just beautiful surroundings.

And I'm literally.

This is not my personality, y' all.

I'm sitting with my head on, in my hands in front of all.

Everyone probably thought I had been drinking all day in the hot sun, which I had.

I had.

I had a mango juice upon arrival.

So my husband is like, are you okay?

Can you make it to the room?

And.

And so there's two full size beds in the room.

And we get there and I was like, just sleep in the other bed.

This is a tiny bed.

If I have the flu, I don't want you to get sick.

So he, like, just lays down.

So all of this to say, my husband is not.

He's not ignoring me, but he's across the room.

Sure.

In the middle of the night, I am crawling to the bathroom.

I can't walk.

My leg is hot and swollen.

It's my left shin from, like, the knee down.

It had gone from something like the size of a ping pong ball to what I would say was, like, radiating out.

And it was.

It was hot and puffy.

It was.

It was probably double the size of my other shin by the morning.

So I'm.

I'm crawling to the bathroom, like, clamoring my way there.

I keep getting sick.

My body's obviously, like, very upset.

And my husband, in the morning Goes out to just see like, maybe I could find her some breakfast or something.

He's unaware of how unwell I have been in the night.

I must be a quiet brawler.

You must be.

I'd have been waking him up, like.

Look, I knew there was nothing he could do.

I was.

It was one of those times where I only wanted to go back to sleep because I felt so, so sick.

So he comes back around 10:30 and he's like, hey, do you want to come down to the beach for some breakfast?

And I said to him, I really hate to say this, but something is horribly wrong and I have to go to the clinic here and at least find out.

And he was like, he knows I'm not like, like, not like that.

I haven't been to the doctor in five years.

So he's like.

He's like, well, do you want me to ask?

He was like, it's right across the street.

Do you want me to ask for the little golf cart?

It's like across the little resort road.

And.

And I was like, I don't know if I can make it.

I had to scoot because we were on like a second floor villa.

I had to scoot, like on my bottom down the steps.

I'm saying bottom.

All my kids down the steps like that.

It was so.

It was like funny now, but horrifying.

Then, like the day before, I walked onto an airplane perfectly well.

Right, right.

So I like flop onto the golf cart.

And the guy, he literally drives like 20ft and looked at me like, was this necessary?

I was like, yes, this is not my style, but yes, this was necessary.

We get into the clinic and the girl, this is where I should have known to.

To flee home.

Dominican healthcare.

They took my temperature in my armpit like it's 1981.

Like, oh my God.

Where have you heard of someone taking.

This is like.

That is like 1950s.

Like, what is happening?

And it was 105 in my armpit, which it's usually a few degrees lower.

In his armpit than it would be.

Oral or on your forehead or whatever.

So the girl's like.

And she looks at my leg and she goes, did something bite you?

And I said, no, this is happened before I touched down here.

She was like, we have a lot of insects.

I was like, no, I'm telling you, this happened.

It had already happened when I landed.

She was like, you have to go to the ER in an ambulance right now.

And I, well, of course we're thinking like America.

So we're like thinking it's going to be like several thousand dollars up front.

And we were like, well, do.

How does it.

Like, is there any other option?

Like just having no idea what we're getting into.

Right, of course.

So.

And me not really having a good concept of what was.

What was happening.

So she says, you could take a taxi, but you're not going to get into the hospital very fast if you don't go in the ambulance.

I was like, okay, I guess we'll go in this ambulance.

So everything is like.

It's like humorously bad.

It's like this rolling chair.

They're like jostling me down.

It hurt for anything to touch my leg.

At this point.

They strapped a seatbelt across my leg and it was like taking my breath away.

Like, you could barely touch it.

And we're bouncing down Dominican, like the Dominican roads.

I don't know if you've ever been like, I know you have traveled to Mexico and stuff.

It's like a.

I described it last year as like a.

It's like a video game, like Mario Kart.

Like, people are just.

They don't care.

I don't know, they.

They just go.

And the ambulance, we.

It was like a 25 minute ride with like the blaring siren.

I'm delirious.

And then we get.

Is your husband.

Your husband's in the back of the ambulance with you Put it.

They put him in the back?

Yeah, they did let him go.

And the guy like, they like dropped me off a curb.

It's not like here, like, I always complain about, like, I'm like, why are there all these like, ramp rules and everything?

America, thank you for the ramp rules.

Because we know.

So painful, so bumpy.

I'm like, literally like being jostled down and everything hurt.

Like my whole body is just having a hard time, like, existing, being alive.

Yes, yes.

Literally fighting for my life.

We use that as a joke.

But I'm like, looking back, I'm like, no, that's what was happening.

So we get there and I'm admitted finally after several, like, bouts and rounds of do.

Did this bite?

You kept asking me if something bit me because my leg was so swollen and red.

Right.

And like, they kept.

The communication was poor, which it's not the U.S.

like, I chose to go to a non English speaking country, but this was like a resort hospital.

So the communication was incredibly frustrating.

They finally are like, yeah, you need to stay.

And it's a private hospital, so you pay every day.

Like, they just come and say, like, here's Your bill, everything's in Spanish.

And so they're like, they're like, it's going to be $4,000 to be admitted tonight.

And so we're like, okay, thinking like, we'll go, we'll get admitted, I'll get on antibiotics and I'll head back to the resort the next day.

It's like what was in our head, right?

So we get, I get admitted.

And soon after it became clear like that the communication and the treatment was just not going well.

Like I was getting sicker.

Everyone who came in, my husband would say, what are you giving her?

What is that?

Like the iv?

You know how in the US The IV runs through like a computer and there's beeping, like beeping to the point of like, okay, calm down.

This was like, it was like this shining.

There's like a pole and a tube and hopefully gravity will dose out what you need at the right speed.

Gosh.

Wow.

Yeah.

Some of the stuff, it was like, my husband would say, you know, this hasn't, this, this medicine hasn't dosed at all.

Like it hasn't moved in 24 hours.

And they would just like flick it and they'd be like, oh, it's slow.

And he was like, no, no, it's 12 ounces and 24 hours.

It hasn't gone at all.

So I'm getting no hydration.

I couldn't eat and I hadn't eaten since my croissant on Tuesday morning.

This is Wednesday night.

So anyway, I'm getting sicker.

Thankfully they did run a few blood tests the second day.

They were like, oh, whatever, antibiotics.

And I'm allergic to penicillin.

So they're trying to find things that aren't related, which is kind of hard in the antibacterial world, especially cross crossing languages as well.

So anyway, they were like, whatever antibiotics we're giving you are where your kidneys are shutting down, like your, your organs are dying.

So we need to take you off of that.

So thankfully, I think that drew red flags in to bring a specialist.

They were like, oh, that she's not responding the way we would expect to these original course of treatment, which was given by a general surgeon.

So the internist comes in and I, at that point I didn't know it, but I was going septic.

And so I've been in the U.

Out of the US for 48 hours and my blood is turning on my body and people die.

People our age die of sepsis in the US within 48 to 72 hours of having it So I was having these horrifying, I would say demonic, like, hallucinations when I would close my eyes in the room and I just wanted to sleep because I'm so.

Such high levels of infection and exhaustion from the fever.

But I would close my eyes and the room would still be there, but there would be other things present in the room.

Picture things that you would see in, like, movies, like, where.

Where people are cursed.

And sometimes it would be, like, children who were helpless, like, around me.

And I.

It.

It was so real.

Like, I would try to reach for them.

One one of the days, it was my own kids through, like, this glass, and I could see that they were struggling and suffering, but I couldn't do anything.

And I feel like the thing that has always been the.

The saddest or most horrifying thing to me, I guess, about life on earth is, like, the suffering of innocent children or innocent people.

And so it was almost like the worst things I could imagine were being brought in front of me in a way that I couldn't shut out.

So, anyway, all of this is happening, thankfully.

Go ahead.

I was just.

Is your husband, like, reaching out?

Like, are you.

Is anyone in contact with your doctor back home?

Do you not even have a doctor back home at this point that you're.

Like, I have one now.

I did not have a primary care.

My husband, we.

We didn't know how sick I was.

I think I thought that the hallucinations were from the medicine they were giving me.

But when I looked back over the medicine, I realized now it was a symptom of sepsis because I was on Tylenol.

Was it.

Oh, my gosh.

I think that was part of it.

We were like.

And I knew I was not well enough to fly, so I think we had this, like, paralyzed mindset of, like, they would not let me on a plane.

Right now.

I cannot go up to a plane and be.

I was still getting sick, even though I hadn't eaten in days.

So I knew, like, logically, I was like, they're not going to let me get on a commercial airline now.

There are many things where, like, we would have called, probably the embassy, I think, is what you can do, it turns out, especially if the care is as horrifying like, they were breaking IVs in my arms.

I was getting, like, swelling, so the medicine wasn't even going anywhere.

And they.

I was completely dehydrated.

They would give you, like, a water bottle once a day.

It was like a jailish POW situation.

I shouldn't say that because I realized POWs have it much worse.

But it.

It was bizarrely neglectful, considering the cost of what we were paying every day.

And it was clean, I would say.

I will say it was clean.

But beyond that, the care was deplorable.

And you would try to communicate, and I don't know if they were told to not try to use.

We would try to use Google Translate.

I don't know if they have rules like we have here in the US where they're like, sorry, it doesn't give an accurate description, so we can't do that.

They were very unwilling to communicate with us other than the people who came in every night with our list of expenses that we were just, oh, they could communicate.

They could.

And a couple times, my husband was like, can't we.

Can you come in and help us communicate here?

And they were like, no, that's.

We're not trained to do that.

They were just trained to say, $4,000.

Thanks.

Wow.

Yeah, so we did.

We were talking to my parents a little bit, but also, we didn't want to alarm everyone.

Like, there was not a lot that we could do other than wait.

What we thought was wait for the swelling to go down so I could be well enough to travel.

So there are lots of other details I don't want to drag out.

But we ended up on Friday afternoon.

The internist was like, you're starting.

Your leg is starting to calm down.

Like, the infection is no longer spreading, but you can't travel until you have been on antibiotics for at least 20, 24 hours.

Like, legally.

And your first.

Your Wednesday, Thursday don't count because they were not effective for your body.

They were just causing you problems.

So legally, I think the first time I could have considered leaving the hospital was Saturday night.

Our flight was on Sunday at noon.

And so I think we tried to look for a Saturday flight, but all of them were long layovers.

The flight to the Dominican into Dulles is only just under four hours.

So we were like, if we keep our direct flight on Sunday, I will.

It'll give me a whole nother dose of antibiotics, and I should be good to go.

So that was, like, our.

How we felt.

We felt that was the wisest thing to do, and it made sense of what we already had.

Our friends on Saturday night brought us our luggage.

They had offered multiple times to come see us.

He's a.

Her husband, my friend Amy.

Her husband, Josh, is a firefighter and a paramedic.

And when he came, he was like, you have to get out of Here, you have to go.

Like, I think he knew that I was septic, but I think he didn't want to scare me, but he was like, you have to go.

So they brought us our luggage.

We never went back to the hotel once we had left on Wednesday morning after my golf cart ride.

So they bring us our luggage.

Thankfully, that saved us a ton in the way the next morning was orchestrated.

I felt the whole time I was in the Dominican, in the hospital, my husband never left me the whole time.

He stayed in the same clothes.

He didn't eat for a week.

I'm sure Jonathan would do the same thing.

A loving husband.

Yeah, I have always.

My husband has always been loyal and loving, but I don't know that I have ever felt so stood by by him than I felt this week that.

That week he.

So in the morning, oh, I was saying.

I was starting to say I never had a sense of dread while I was there, even though I knew that I was very sick and I knew that there was a possibility that I could die.

Like I said, I feel like I was confronted with that possibility the moment we landed.

I was confronted with that possibility.

And I feel like I had the peace that passes understanding of knowing.

Of course I have.

I have five young children.

My oldest is 13, my youngest is six.

There was no part of me that was like, oh, I'm fine if I just die because of them.

I did have the peace of knowing if I die, I know what happens to me and I'm trusting the sovereignty of God's plan for my children's lives, that people will step up for them and he will be faithful to care for them as they continue to grow.

And hopefully, obviously I'm thankful I don't have to think past that because I'm here and I'm back and I'm well.

But I did.

I did not have any sense of dread, even though what was happening was dreadful.

And I know that that is the comfort of the Lord.

I know that's what that is.

I don't know what else it could or would be because I'm not okay with being like, oh, I'm 41 and I died with all my young kids.

I'm not okay with that.

In the moment when I was confronted with that possibility, I had the peace of knowing if this is what happens as the Lord leads, like, if this is his will, this is what's going to happen.

So anyway.

But it didn't.

That's not.

Like, I do not want to sound at all like, if I die I die.

That's not how I feel about my life.

But it's important to say that God.

God intervenes in those moments, and he gives you that PC, promises that it's in the Bible.

And I think until you've been in a situation like that, you can't even fathom what that means.

But you're confronted with this very real and very scary, you know, situation where it really could be your fate that you're going to die.

I mean, I.

Very similarly, but also very different.

Like, just in waiting for my surgery to happen and having all this time to think about, like, what if I die?

Like, he said to me, you're not going to die.

But, like, I mean, you're cut.

You're sawing open my chest and working on my heart, like, anything could happen.

And of course, all you think about is your children.

But somehow in there, I would go to bed at night and feel like Jesus was literally.

I was sleeping in his arms and I had full peace.

It's.

It's.

It's.

It's incredible.

Yeah.

It is amazing to experience that.

I have said sometimes in my life, like I said at the beginning of this podcast, I don't.

I am not a person who deals with a lot of anxiety.

And I have sometimes asked myself, is that because I don't have things to be anxious about?

And I would say, after this experience, I did experience the supernatural power of the peace of the Lord in those days, for sure.

Not to say that, like, oh, I don't worry about anything now.

But of course, in the.

In those moments, it was definitely like, no, this is real.

This is.

This is what it's like to have the hand of God covering your situation.

Um, so Sunday was one of those days where you see Sunday morning, I would say the very specific direction of God, where we saw this in our lives.

Um, we knew we had to go.

Like, we woke up, the sun was shining as it was every day, beautiful.

Out the window.

We're overlooking this jungle, and the doctor comes in and we're, like, pumped.

Like, we have our stuff.

We had our first shower.

They didn't change my clothes the whole time I was there.

I was in my own personal clothing for seven days, six days with this fever.

It was so bad.

Anyway, I have to keep talking about that, but my.

We're ready to go.

The doctor comes in and he looks at my leg, and he looks at my husband, and he goes, you'll kill her if you get her on a plane like this.

He was like, her, my leg, my Calf was three times.

I also had it in my elbow.

And my elbow was like, the size of, like, a Bradford pear.

Like, picture, like a lump.

And then my shin.

It was.

It's what it looked.

It was like, even the color.

Yeah, it was like red and yellowish.

Anyway, my shin is twice the size.

Three times, I would say three times.

We have pictures of it.

Three times the size of my other one.

And he's like, if you put.

He looks right at my husband.

Super clear communication.

If you put her on a plane like this, you will kill her.

She will have deep vein thrombosis.

She could throw a clot.

She could have compartment syndrome and lose her leg.

He was like, so many things can go wrong on that plane.

You should not leave here until this swelling is down.

My husband said it could be days.

And he was like, yeah, it could.

And so he leaves the room.

This is like 8:45 in the morning.

I have an IV in my arm.

I'm still getting an.

I'm supposed to be getting one more dose, which was making us feel better about traveling, right?

So he.

My husband sits down on the bed next to me, and he takes his hands in mine.

And I have seen my husband cry.

We've been together since 2006, so 19 years.

I have seen him cry one time, and he had tears streaming down his face.

And he sat down next to me and he held my hand, and he.

We bowed our heads together.

And he said, we need guidance.

We don't know what to do.

Lord, show us what to do.

And we looked up from praying.

I also, in that time, had probably seen him get a Bible notification the same number of times.

And he had.

It was the ding at.

He doesn't even keep it.

His phone's always on silent.

His phone dings, and he looks at it.

And I said, who is that?

And it was Psalm 90, verses 1 and 2, which are.

He who dwells in the shelter of the most high will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say to the Lord, my refuge, my fortress, my God in whom I trust.

And to me, that Psalm 90 has always been a verse, a chapter of flying, because you just picture, like, the wings.

And the Lord's described like an eagle so often.

And so we both looked at each other, and the peace came over us.

We looked at each other and we said, let's go.

At this point, it's almost 10am I took out my own IV because they were like, you can't leave.

Obviously, it's not a.

It's.

It's not a prison.

But we signed what would be in.

In the US An AMA saying.

We hear you saying, this could kill me.

We're going anyway.

We paid another $4,000 and we called a cab.

We were.

This is.

We are.

10:00am I'm in a hospital bed.

Our flight, an international flight, is taking off at noon.

I hadn't walked in four days.

I walked out of that hospital perfectly well, pushing my own suitcase, leaning on it, but pushing it.

And we got through the airport.

I cannot even begin to describe this series of perfectly miraculous timing.

Our friends got us baby aspirin, which helps with blood thinning to help prevent the clotting.

And I've told people, I'm like, It was literally like a movie.

They walked past and passed it to us, like, high five.

My friend Amy, like, squeezed my shoulders and she was like, I'm praying for you.

I'm.

We are here with you.

You know, just.

And the.

The presence of other believers is such a strength producing truth like the church as a whole.

Our church was praying for us.

My parents church was praying for us.

My brother's churches up in New England were praying for us.

I'm like.

And my father in law, they live out in new.

In Arizona in this time of year.

They.

They are there through the winter.

And their church in Arizona was praying for us.

I'm like.

We had thousands of believers praying that I would make it back safely.

And you feel that like, you feel and know that's there because I just.

We were like, we've been told in the face by a medical professional, you'll die if you do this.

Like, very, very high chance you will die if you do this.

I'm unaware that I'm septic at this time.

I just think I have to have this infection.

We get on the plane.

I was.

This plane ride was very uncomfortable, but I was much.

I felt better than I had on the way I got off the plane at.

At Dulles.

I had a wheelchair.

I got myself to our car and I did not walk for a month and a half after that without crutches.

So, like, the fact that I was able, like I said, the.

The strength of the prayers of believing people have power.

And I know that, that the.

That is what got us safely through the airport on time to each and every one of these things, these wickets that you have to make through customs, through this, through that I got.

My husband took me.

We live in Manassas right around the corner from the hospital.

And my husband took me straight to Prince William.

I Had been like, maybe I should go home and see the kids.

And then I was like, it's not a good idea.

We were going straight to the hospital.

And when I got to the hospital, I could no longer walk and they couldn't.

I was so dehydrated, they couldn't even find a vein to get.

They were trying to get a draw for mrsa.

They were trying to do all these things.

Every single person I encountered in that hospital could not have been more competent and interested in finding out what went wrong and how do we get you better?

Such great care.

I know people go back and forth about different hospitals and different places, but every single person that cared for me in that hospital was absolutely directly concerned with exactly what was happening and how they could help me.

I did.

It was terrifying.

I heard a girl in the ER say, what's our policy on drawing from feet here?

And I was like, I'll just die here.

Rather than draw blood from my gosh.

So it was the dehydration though.

And they had, like I said the.

In the doctor, they had broken so many veins just with a pretty cute careless attempts at IVs and blood draws and stuff.

So anyway, I ended up spending five days there.

And on Thursday morning I heard, you know, it's a.

There was a nurse there who was practicing reciting charts and stuff.

And she was telling.

She.

She was a.

A student and she was reading my chart and she was like, she arrived septic on Sunday night.

And just me thinking about, like hearing that being said about myself, of my deepest dread.

Yes.

And fear, like affirmed and confirmed in that moment was very like surreal to be like I arrived on the brink of death.

And the next day, Friday, I went home prior to Praise God, like for his faithfulness, for his healing.

I could barely walk.

I couldn't.

It was hard for me.

There's one step from our garage into our family room, which is how I was getting into the house.

I'm not kidding you when I tell you I could barely do it.

It took everything I had to get myself.

Cause I have this, this my arm and my, my right arm and my left leg.

I was like trying to figure out how do I take a single step into my home?

Wow.

And this dramatically from the week before, my 75 pound luggage, like rolling out.

Here we go.

Let's have a great time.

Two weeks, Two weeks before.

Because it was basically a week in each hospital.

Right.

But anyway, just.

And now I'm back at the gym, like, yeah, it's amazing.

It's so Amazing how much we take for granted how quickly we can go downhill.

And the power of the Lord, I think, to touch and heal our bodies.

And actually, the day I went back to the gym was April 25.

I came home from the hospital the very last week of March, so it was almost a month.

And it was hard.

It was.

I felt weak.

Expectedly, I expected that, but I felt weak.

I felt sad when I left.

I'm sure you can relate on many more levels with what you have been through.

And you knew it was coming, so you had time to dread it.

I had this two months on my couch, completely out of the blue, literally sitting there with my leg up.

Can't even make my family dinner.

And thank God we had so many friends who brought us meals, sent us doordash.

My parents, my husband's parents, you know, we.

We had a lot of love and support, which.

And the gym, too, sent us a door like doordash.

Just able to.

Felt so cared for by people who care about us.

But the inability to do all these things.

I went to the gym and I.

I was discouraged, for sure.

Yeah.

And verse of the day comes to me at 7:14.

I go to the 6am class.

That's usually right about when I'm getting in my car and leaving.

I very rarely look at it because I'm driving.

I happen to be sitting at a light.

And it was Psalm 34, 19.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him from them all.

I'm not saying I consider myself righteous, but righteousness is seeking the Lord, right?

We.

We are to seek the Lord as believers.

And like I said, I don't.

I don't consider myself righteous, but I do think I.

I am trying to follow what the Lord would have for me.

And I was like, I do feel like these afflictions are many.

Why?

You know, just being like, okay with that.

Like, it was basically saying, yeah, it's hard.

You think it's hard?

It's hard.

It's hard because it's hard.

Like that.

It was such a.

An affirmation of like, yeah, it's not.

You're not promised an easy road.

If anything, you're promised.

Exactly.

And that's the.

Your promise.

Trials and tribulations on this earth.

Like, wow.

So that was.

That was like.

I would say like the April 25, though, was like, a good day to be like, all right.

Yeah.

Like, people were.

People were like, oh, are you back, like 70%?

And I'm like, I'm like 0% of where I was.

But I am 100% in that I am redeveloping the expectations of myself to be getting back into routines and habits that rebuild.

And Caleb at the gym, such, such an encouragement.

I was like, I'm so discouraged.

And he was like, this work you did beforehand got you through this.

Like the.

He was like, you build that muscle, so when your body needs that source of energy while you're healing, it's there already.

And even I've even talked about that a little bit.

Like, I.

I had, as I mentioned, I had had all those kids close together.

I hadn't spent a lot of time on my own physical health and wellness.

And around 39, I was like, yeah, I got to do something.

Things are going to go downhill.

So it's like, even this year and a half before this trip, I feel is preparation for challenges.

And it doesn't matter if a horrifying challenge doesn't come.

There's still challenges every day.

Like, you're still a better person for taking care of the body that God has given you.

So anyway, that was.

Caleb was very encouraging in that, in being like, you can't be upset that you went through a hard thing and it cost you something.

I'm sure you've had similar conversations.

So many.

He has talked me off the ledge so many times and reminded me how fortunate I am that I have put the time and effort and energy into my health and fitness, whether it's what I'm eating or how I'm working out my body and building muscle, because it's what.

It's why I recovered so quickly.

I truly believe that that's true.

I believe that I would not have come back so quickly and it would have been a much more difficult recovery had I not put that, you know, intention into taking care of myself before.

So that's a great, Honestly, a great thing for people to hear.

Like, it's so, so important not to wait until the thing happens for you to start taking care of yourself.

Yeah.

Wow, what a story.

So now obviously, hindsight 20 20, like, what would you have.

I know probably everything, but I guess you probably just wouldn't have.

You would have gotten straight back on a plane and gone home because, I mean, you were fine getting on the plane.

I was okay getting on the plane.

I was pretty ill.

I think I would have felt very dramatic doing that.

Like I said, without knowing.

Yes, exactly.

I.

I'm like, even though I feel.

I don't think anybody would do that.

Yes, I don't think anybody would do that.

You're like, oh, I'll go have, like, one rough day.

And then you're like, I'll be fine.

We have a whole week.

Yes.

Our friends made reservations for us on Thursday.

They were like.

They were like, we're gonna make them for Friday and hope that we can all be there.

Like, And I think even on Wednesday, Thursday, I was like, there's a chance.

Like, I didn't think I wasn't going to be there.

I did not have a good concept going into it of what was happening.

And of course, like, there is no going back.

I feel like this is also, like, God's.

God's plan in our lives.

If you believe God planned anything, he planned everything.

Like, you can't pick it apart and let it.

You know, obviously, there are bad choices that we make.

I'm not saying, like, oh, it's God's fault that I've taken myself down this road.

But things like this, that it was just pure.

It got.

They.

I've.

I actually had my last, I think, appointment with infectious disease tomorrow.

They've been just following up, and they think it got in through eczema, which I have very.

Okay, that's what I wanted to ask.

Yeah.

Okay.

Interesting.

Wow.

I wear.

I wear socks and shoes pretty much all winter.

Like, there's nowhere out in public that my feet would have been sure.

And it came in through my foot.

On my left foot, there's like a tiny cut that's actually disturbingly in the pictures when we were doing it, to see the size of my leg from.

Compared from before and after the flight, you can see this little red.

It's like, it's tiny.

So that is what, though, the infectious disease doctor once she.

I saw like, five or six different ones, and they all were like, yeah, this is a vulnerability point.

They were like, you need to take better care of that.

But there's.

There's not a lot you can do.

Um, I.

They don't know where it came from.

They're like, it could have been from chicken that you were cooking in your kitchen.

It could be from anywhere.

So that is.

I'm like, this is another thing, though.

I'm like, I am not going to borrow anxiety.

I'm not going to worry, like, oh, this could happen again.

Anything could happen to anyone at any time.

My husband's in law enforcement.

I feel like that has, like, helped me to be, like, stressing about it is only going to make today worse.

And I mean, we're told that each day has enough trouble of its own.

Like, it is scriptural.

It's not that you don't care.

It's that if you're dwelling on all the things that could happen, like, you're not going to live a very full or healthy life.

So they don't.

They're like, you can't really prevent it.

There's a few things.

Taking better care of my eczema would.

Would be helpful because it creates a very vulnerable area, and you have to use your hands so that you know that.

And they did say, like, wear gloves.

Stupid things.

Wear gloves when you do the dishes, because it's just protecting you from the water.

And also possible bacteria that could be in the water.

There's so many things, so many possibilities, but that was the general consensus.

I even had this, like, horrifying realization.

I was like, did I.

Like, when I was putting hydrocortisone on here and on my foot, like, did I give this to myself?

And she was like.

She was like, no, that's not how it works.

But she might have been lying to me to make me feel better.

I don't know how else it got there.

Exactly.

That's.

That's crazy.

So are you, like, more prone to it happening.

Happening again now that it's happened to you, or.

No?

Yes and no.

Okay.

She.

They said.

They were like.

They said this could happen again, but they were like, this could happen to anyone.

So I think they, like, have to tell you that.

I guess they did.

Multiple people said they were very, like, befuddled at the doctor.

They were like, you are not the patient for this.

Usually it's someone who's regularly hospitalized.

Super unhealthy, because that makes you more vulnerable.

There are several other markers that they were like, you don't have any.

You have no reason this should have happened to you.

One thing that is, like, a little disturbing is they were, like, cabin pressure could have been the trigger for the sudden spread.

So if I hadn't gotten on that plane, it's possible.

However, I had.

The day before I mentioned, we had gone to tea around town, downtown to celebrate my daughter's birthday.

And the girls and I, as we often are, we're about 10 minutes late.

So we were, like, running.

And I had on.

I had on, like, booties.

And as I was running the pounding, I was like, I feel like a horrible, hard pain in my shin that felt like a bruise, like.

And I stepped over a rower at the gym and bumped it on Friday.

And I thought that's what it was.

It was the right spot.

No scrape.

No, it was not the Entry point.

But so it was already there.

There's a possibility.

Who knows.

Again, like we said, like you can't go back and second guess all these things.

I believe the Lord led me to everywhere I was for very specific reasons.

And I don't know that I will always understand what all those reasons were on this, this side of eternity.

I know.

I.

We.

We talked very briefly about.

My daughter was.

My 12 year old was diagnosed with diabetes this winter and it had made me particularly.

We are having to wake up at 2am to check her numbers still because she's.

She's so newly diagnosed.

I know you have a son who has T1D so selfishly, I was so looking forward to this trip to take a break from 2am alarms which also makes it hard to get up at 5:30 to go to the gym because you have broken sleep every night.

But also it's what we have to do right now.

The, the shift in percept per perspective.

Thank you.

Perception is all I had.

Perspective.

When you're like, oh, what a pain.

I have to get up at 2.

Yes.

Yes.

To being like I am alive.

I am well.

I have five children who, who I get to see and care for and love in different ways.

And my husband as well.

Of course I'm gonna leave him out of this.

But like realizing the things you could have lost.

Yes.

What an absolute blessing it is to have a 2am alarm to check on my daughter.

Absolutely.

That I can wake up and go get like my husband.

Yes.

All that because I was like me and my crutches.

It was, it was a situation like every time I put my leg down, I was breathless from the pressure of the blood rush.

So, so grateful for him being so faithful in that.

But what a perspective shift of like, oh, I can't wait for five days to just do nothing.

To not have to worry about that.

Exactly.

Being brought back from the brink of death.

Yes.

I mean that is, that is an incredible story.

And I mean, I think my favorite part of it is just the confirmation that God gave you guys when the doctor was looking at you in the eye saying especially to your husband because he had to just be such a leader in that moment and be like, I have to make this decision for our family and it's life or death.

And thank God he came in with that confirmation.

And then your husband just listened to what the Lord said, you know, because that is such a scary decision to have to make.

Like I am ne.

I am not one to call in an emergency.

You never want me to be the person you're dealing with.

I just don't know what to do.

Like, I just panic.

So that is just so amazing that God just showed up right in that second, literally.

He said, here's your answer.

Yeah.

When they said, oh, sorry.

They said, when we got to Prince William, when they, they, they ran all the numbers, like all my blood tests, some of my, like my potassium was like in the, it's supposed to be like around a four.

It was like in the decimals.

They, There was other things.

They were like, you were going to die if you.

They were not tracking any of these things.

They were just waiting for infection to go down.

Like, it was not a question of like, oh, why do we, you know, would it have happened?

They were like, you were on your way to death just by your own body not being able.

I was shutting down.

Right.

And so what happened?

What would happen to you, Lauren, if you guys were unable to pay that bill one of those days?

Like what?

That is kind of funny because.

Yeah.

They're telling you you can't leave.

I don't, I don't know.

I, I think they would have sent us out.

So one, one thing we did learn early in our marriage is to always have like financially to have a cushion and to be ready for things like that.

And so I'm so grateful that we have practiced disciplines to be prepared for those things.

We also did learn, side note that if it is an emergency like that, generally your health insurance will pay it.

That's wondering.

Okay.

They pay back most of it, which is great.

But it was interesting.

We weren't sure, but they were like.

Because you had.

It's not like if you're like, oh, I don't feel good, I'm going to go get an IV infusion.

That they would pay for that.

But because it was life, life saving care, it was mostly covered.

I think they calculated in like a co pay which the same as it would have been here if it was hospital care, which that's fair.

But I did not know that we have Blue Cross, that everyone has different policies.

But I would be something I would say I would never travel without affirming now beforehand because it would have taken some of the stress off of being like, wow, we are really getting cleaned out here.

Right?

Yes.

That, that just that in itself that on top of the everything else you're going through, I guess you kind of just have to compartmentalize at that point and be like, let's keep her alive and not worry about all of this.

I know that when.

When I found out I needed heart surgery, we had a trip planned in January and we didn't know kind of the timeline of things.

And Jonathan was like, well, we have this trip.

Is it safe for her to fly?

Her son is getting married as well.

Like, you know, and he said, you can go to Mexico.

He said, just make sure you get air ambulance insurance.

And I thought, yeah, we're not going to Mexico.

If I have to, if I need that, then we're not going there.

But just, you know, the idea of that, like, you just never think something like that's gonna happen to you.

I mean, there's no way to really be prepared.

So I feel like.

I mean, having a faith in God and trusting his plan and, I mean, I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know what else you do.

I mean, I think you did everything you could possibly do.

You prayed, you listened to what they were saying, but you also, you know, discerned that.

Ok, I think maybe now this is what we need to do.

And, I mean, thank God he worked it all out the way he did.

What a story.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Again, like I said, the power and protection of.

I think the.

The prayers of.

They say the prayers of a righteous man do not go unheard.

And so knowing like, all these people were supporting us, I think that is significant.

I know you talked earlier about people having, like, favorite verses that they like to share.

I feel like I am not.

I.

I always hate.

I tell people this too.

With kids.

I'm like, favorite questions are stressful because it feels like, oh, it has to be, like, the best.

In my defense, that's why I said it earlier instead of asking you on the spot.

But it doesn't have to be the best.

Sometimes.

Sometimes, you know, someone's favorite verse might be really unassuming and something that, you know, most people wouldn't think of or they haven't heard that verse.

Or maybe it's John 3:16 and that's okay, too.

Yes.

Well, the favorites.

I just always feel like favorites is like you have to leave so many other out superlatives.

It makes other people feel bad.

But no, seriously, the one of my favorites that I often put on our Christmas card because I feel like it's almost like a blessing of Hope is Romans 15:13.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And I think I love it because it doesn't rely on Any power that we have within ourselves to have that hope and that peace and that joy, we don't have those things.

We are given those things.

Those are fruits of the spirit.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.

Each of those things we don't have within ourselves.

And I find.

I would find it so discouraging to be looking within myself for answers, because what I find there is lacking, but what I find in the Holy Spirit is joy and peace as we trust.

And it makes even these types of situations.

It doesn't make sense why I went through this.

It doesn't make sense why this happened.

Doctors were like, I don't know.

But the Lord knows and he already knew.

And even if it's just for me to learn to truly say, like, I do cast all my cares on him.

Even if that's it.

That's it, you know?

Right.

If that was the lesson, if that was the thing.

I know, I just.

I can't imagine what eternity is like or what heaven is like when we can actually get the full picture, you know?

Yeah.

Like, he works it all out for good.

And it's just like, man, you know, you see so many situations in this life that you can't imagine how God could be using that for good, but somehow he is.

Yeah.

And I think we have to be so careful with how we express some of these things.

Like, obviously, in my situation, the Lord brought us home safely.

You never want people to feel like the right person wasn't praying or things don't go that way or.

So many times we see children who get sick and aren't healed here on Earth and never wanting people to feel like, oh, well, there must be something going on.

They didn't pray.

Right.

They didn't believe Right.

They didn't have enough faith.

Like, obviously eternal, Eternal healing isn't the same as earthly healing.

And I'm so grateful to have more time on this earth with friends and family and to grow and learn and change.

But to never, you know, to never have someone else feel like, oh, well, yeah, the Lord heard my prayer.

Sometimes he does hear our prayer, and he doesn't answer it in the way that we would expect.

I'm so grateful for you just being here and, you know, powering through that with me.

I appreciate you and I'm not bad.

Thank you so much for being here.

And, guys, I just hope that that story just inspired you and gave you hope and, you know, just.

I don't know how people get through things without faith.

And so if that's something that you, you know, have questions about or something that's not a part of your life.

I.

I would love for you to reach out to me and I would love to just chat with you about that.

But again, Lauren, thank you.

I'm so grateful that Lauren was willing to come on and share her story with us.

Before you go, I want to remind you of our memory verse for June, which is actually two verses, Galatians 5, 22 and 23.

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.

There is no law against these things.

I would encourage you to write out your memory verse and read and meditate upon it daily.

I can't wait to see you next week.

Thank you for being here.

Later.

If this podcast blessed you, please share it with a friend and hit the subscribe button so you never miss an episode.

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Ed by the Fruit.

I'd love to connect with you there.

And most importantly, I'll see you right here next week.

Come hungry, get fed.

Sam.