I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in March ’99. After the diagnosis it was difficult for me to keep a teaching job due to concerns & discrimination by employers but as a single mom of 3 I needed to stay employed! In 2000 I finally accepted a job in Seguin 40 miles from my house. Although at the time I wasn’t even using a cane, I had to deal with spasticity of the muscles in my legs so the doctor kept giving me different medications to try to see if they would help. She had me taking these at bedtime so the muscles would relax overnight and hopefully be calm during the school day.
In early spring of 2001 I called the doctor for more advice to get relief. She suggested I add 1 mg in the morning. She said we could ‘play’ with the dose because the maximum dose was 32 mg and I was only adding to the 1 mg at bed time. The next day I took it when I awoke and as I rushed to get on the road for my 45 minute drive to Seguin I vaguely recall a moment of problems with my equilibrium but I kept going. Next I remember driving down 1604 (about 12 miles from home) and at a red light, right before I reached IH10, I bumped into the car in front of me. The man got out of his car to look at his car. I got out and apologized but he didn’t even look at me, just got back in his car and kept going.
The next thing I remember was walking into my classroom. The 2 teachers whose rooms were on each side of mine were standing in the doorway and I remember being aware that I was late and talking briefly to them and going to the blackboard and writing a morning journal topic for the students and asking them to start their journal writing. Then the principal came in and told me that I needed to get someone to come pick me up because I needed to go home! This didn’t even concern me! It just made sense to me! I sat down at my desk and realized I didn’t have my cell phone so I asked one of my students to go and get it out of my car. When she brought it to me I called my son, John, who was alarmed saying they had been calling and calling me! I just asked him to call my father in Boerne and ask him to come pick me up! Obviously, I was so ‘out of it’ that none of these things seemed the least bit out of the ordinary and my disoriented state caused the other teacher to immediately contact the principal to come to my room! : (
It seemed like just a few minutes before my dad and my stepmother, Janette, arrived. I got in the car with my dad and Janette got in my car to drive it home. I became aware that I had a reaction to the medication and I got on the phone and tried to reach my doctor to find out what to do, but I was told she was unavailable and the on-call doctor just advised me to stop taking the medication! Duh! After we got to my house I found out that my kids had all been afraid to go to school because evidently I was so late that the school had called looking for me! I found out later that a 45 minute drive had taken me 80 minutes! Plus I have no memory of the drive on that busy interstate usually full of 18 wheelers!!! Out of that 80 minute trip my only memory was of bumping into that car!!!
It was about 36 hrs before I could stay awake for any length of time. I found out most of the details from a phone call the next evening from one of the teachers concerned about me. It was 4 days (including a weekend thankfully!) before I was clear enough to return to work!
The day I returned I went to the office and was talking to the principal and secretary telling them the doctor had said I had experienced a reaction to the medication that caused me to have transient consciousness. I made the comment that Jesus must have driven my car so that neither I nor anyone else were hurt on that dangerously busy highway!!! Right after I said that, the secretary remembered she had my school picture. She pulled it out and when she looked at the picture she said, “Oh My God!” There was my picture with the “Glowing Cross”! I've asked several photographers about it and no one could explain it! To me it's clear that the Lord was telling me He definitely was there with me during that trip!!!
It wasn't about me, it was the Power of His Love Shining Through and No Doubt This Story Is Meant to Be Shared to His Glory!!!!
