This is a personalized edit to a story that was in the paper a couple weeks ago, and God gets all the glory! Check out what He has done in my life!
Graduation was getting closer every day and Anna was excited about receiving her associate’s degree. She looked forward to launching her career as a nurse and wondered where God would send her to fulfill the calling He had placed on her heart.
There were times when Anna’s path to purpose was covered in storms of pain. Through strong faith and with the help of a therapy center she has found peace at last.
Energetic and even playful by nature Anna was jumping on a trampoline one day in April 2015 when something went wrong “I was jumping from an 8′ platform” Anna recalls “but there was no give in the trampoline.”
Anna’s foot slammed into the surface. Her ankle twisted and her leg broke, the bone piercing through her skin. After surgery to place a rod and screws in her leg Anna had to finish school at home. 3 weeks later she suffered a blood clot.
Determined that nothing was going to keep her from her calling, Anna kept pushing forward. With treatment and some physical therapy she felt she was ready to achieve her goal.
Anna went on to receive her bachelor’s degree in nursing and started working in June 2017 after graduating in May.
Her work was rewarding but she spent long hours on her feet and gradually began to find herself in a storm of pain again.
“I started getting weaker and weaker and in more and more pain to the point where I didn’t know if I was going to be able to keep working they are” Anna says” I could barely walk. I was lumping all the time.”
Piercing nerve pain shot from her foot and ankle into her shin and at times she felt like her foot was on fire. The pain kept her awake at night but she couldn’t even get out of bed to get her own medicine. “That’s when I decided OK something’s got to change.”
She went to see her doctor for a referral to a surgeon who removed the screws in her ankle. “I told them I really needed to get back into therapy, and that I needed help strengthening my leg.”
Her physical therapists guided Anna through exercises to strengthen her gate and strengthen the muscles in the lower half of her body. They also gave her a personalized exercise regimen she could do on her own at home or at the gym. Following the expert advice of her physical therapist, Anna became stronger and her pain began to fade away.
Today she can work without worry and she’s also free to play. “I feel like I can finally go on a hike if I want to go on a hike and I can dance if I want to dance around and be silly. Those things seem so minuscule but for someone like me it was really important to my quality of life.”
When she looks back on the past few years Anna doesn’t see just a storm. She sees a blessing and God’s purpose fulfilled. She quotes a favorite scripture that says “the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in their trouble”
I knew I was going to be a nurse but I had no idea I was going to end up in a rehab facility” Anna says. LIttle did I know that God was preparing me for the kind of patients I see today. I can definitely relate to what they’re going through. I can empathize with what they’re going through and offer them advice beyond their hospital stay because I’ve been there. Only God could take a dark part of my life and bring me full circle to being able to help my patients and families not only cope, but find hope and meaning in what they are going through. I’m a better nurse because of what God allowed in my life.”
Anna continues to take a mild medication for nerve pain and works out for strength, balance, and mobility. She is ecstatic to share that she’s practically pain free and getting around a lot better! “I feel like a normal 24 year old,” Anna laughs “I got my life back!”
Anspiration 