Faith can still move mountains
Published:Saturday | March 1, 2014 | 12:00 AM
Launtia Cuff, Gleaner Writer
People OFTEN murmur and complain about their circumstances and say how hard they have life. Twenty-one-year-old, Mischah Hamilton has had to overcome a number of medical complications which all started when she was born with sickle cell disease and the doctors told her mother that at five years old, she would die.
However, she has found a way to keep praising God through every challenge, and her life is proof that faith can still move mountains.
"(In) August 2008, I started having pain in my right hip and I was a bit worried because I have the sickle cell disease and I never had pain in my hip before. My mom wasn't as worried as me. She was the one strengthening me by praying and giving me words of encouragement. However, one day, the pain started to get worse and she decided that she was going to take me to the doctor," Hamilton said.
At first, the problem was believed to be a liver or kidney problem, but tests showed she had an infection. After some time in the hospital, she was sent home with medication but continued to feel the pain.
She returned and additional tests were run, and it was discovered that the pain was caused by a condition called avascular necrosis.
Avascular necrosis of the hip is mostly caused by sickle cell disease. It results in chronic pain and significant physical impairment. Very often, the condition progresses, requiring hip-replacement surgery.
"In the back of my mind, I knew that God was there because He had brought me so far because I should have died from I was five years old, but He is always there despite how terrible the situation or [how] painful it may be.
"In 2010, I was supposed to go back to school in September, but I ended up going in January because of the problem. I was at school with crutches. Before that, I was in [a] wheelchair, but I knew that God is my strength and He would take me through.
"After a while, I went back to the doctors and they told me I didn't have to use the crutches, and they were the same doctors who told me in 2008 that in two years' time I wouldn't be able to walk any at all. I was off the crutches, still feeling pain, but still giving God thanks," she said.
But that would not be the end of her ordeal as Hamilton again became ill in 2011. This time, she started feeling pains in her right hand. Again, she had to spend time in hospital, which was a challenge as she was then preparing for her external examinations. However, on the day of her first exam, she was released. Although missing an entire term, she was successful in five of the six subjects she attempted.
In 2012, pain again struck, this time in her left hip, and when she went back to the doctors, she was told that there was little they could do as the hip had collapsed. She was told that she would need hip replacement surgey. She said she opted not to, but instead, decided to leave it all in God's hands.
Now, more than a year later, although she walks with a limp and feels a little pain occasionally, Hamilton says she is still able to get around without the aid of crutches or a wheelchair.
"My left hip [has] reached a further stage than the right hip, and I'm not on any crutches or in any wheelchair. The last time I went to the doctor, they said it is totally collapsed, but I'm still walking despite all that the doctors said. In 2008, they said I was not going to walk [in] the next two years, and now it's been about five years," Hamilton told Rural Xpress.
Hamilton, who hails from Kingston, says in everything God has a plan and although human minds many not be able to fathom His workings, it is her hope that through her testimony and her witness of what God has been doing in her life, others may realise just how truly wonderful and awesome God is and that He is worthy to be praised regardless of the situation.