God Almighty Was With Us All Through the Storm

My wife was born with sickle cell anaemia. The condition is often managed with regular blood transfusions, and for some, bone marrow transplant can offer a more permanent solution. In her own case she could not tolerate blood transfusions. Her body rejects it, and she reacts violently to it, creating new multiple anti-bodies each time they try, making it harder the more they try. Since she could not tolerate transfusions, the only treatments available to her for this painful condition is a medication called hydroxy carbamide, and injections called Epo. Other than that – pain killers.

However, God has been good, and we have constantly encountered the hand of God over her in many miraculous situations. There were many many episodes when she became seriously ill and her situation would become very dire, often a matter of life or death. To the glory of God Almighty every time her life had literally been on the line, God would intervene.

There was one time her haemoglobin levels dropped to 2.8. Normal is 13 to 15. Minimum is between 4 and 7 to sustain life. The doctors attempted a transfusion. Her body rejected it as usual. The doctors stopped the transfusion and said, “there’s nothing more we can do”, and screened her off i.e. pulled the curtains around her bed, and said I could stay with her overnight, thinking she would die.

But God being so good, sent an angel to help. This angel came as a woman – an African nurse, wearing blue nurses’ uniform. She came in the night and passed a remark to my brother-in-law who was outside the ward: She said:

“Your father helped me in Nigeria 25 years ago.”

She was a total stranger, we’d never met. She entered the ward and touched and adjusted the equipment. The transfusion went through immediately without reaction, and her life was spared. The next morning, when I went to ask after this nurse in order to thank her, I was told we do not have any black nurses here. This was in the UK, so you can understand that response.

There was another time she suffered a stroke and needed an exchange transfusion, and to the glory of God, she tolerated it just enough to get her out of danger. In that instance, the doctors got greedy. They thought “Yes! She can now tolerate transfusions!” and proceeded with more transfusion. She rejected it so ferociously, and it caused some damage to one of her organs.

There was another time when the sickle caused heart failure, and her body retained water, and ballooned to almost about twice her size. She looked like the Michelin Man. I had to rush to buy her large-size clothes. The consultants at our local hospital didn’t know what to do. Yet again, they called me in for end-of-life talks. In the middle of the night, I just could not sleep, and it dropped in my heart to do a search online. From that search, God directed us to a hospital in London where they had specialist help. Thanks to God Almighty, they administered treatment and she recovered.

Around 2022/23 the doctors said:

“There is this new drug that has been approved in America. It has been seen to help. Would you like to go on it?”

We said yes. So, she went on the drug. It seemed to help and her blood count increased.
Sometime in 2023 & 24, she developed severe spasms and pains in her abdomen. It was not the typical sickle pain, but still so much pain in the muscles and abdomen that it warranted hospital admissions. Normal painkillers did not help. On that occasion a dose of Buscopan helped and after an overnight stay she was sent home.

A few weeks later, she had another bout of serious pains in the abdomen, back and muscles. This time the Buscopan did not work. She was in pain for about two days straight in hospital and was put on a PCA (Patient Controlled Analgesia). I was now wondering where all this was coming from. She had enough on her plate all ready. I suspected the new drug could be the cause as it was the only new thing in her regime. However, the consultants and my wife herself were full of praise for it.

About that time – I do not recall the circumstance – they did an imaging of the head. We were told that the scan had detected an aneurysm deep in her head, and it was dangerous, she would require brain surgery. Detecting the aneurysm itself was a miracle. It was God that led them to do that scan because many people have died from aneurysms that would burst in the brain because they went undetected. The surgery was very risky because of where the aneurysm was located, which was behind the eye, and complicated by the sickle cell it was super risky. Since, my wife already suffered from very low haemoglobin levels they determined it was necessary for her to have an exchange transfusion before even considering the operation.

Further, aneurysm patients could bleed during the surgery, so there had to be transfusions on standby. The doctors had a dilemma: leave the aneurysm and it could burst and she could die or do surgery. But to do surgery they required blood and here was a patient that did not readily tolerate blood. They proceeded to list all the things that could go wrong: blindness as the aneurysm was right behind the eye; strokes, seizures, death. They left the decision to us. We decided we had to go ahead with the surgery.

To prepare for brain surgery the doctors decided to do an IG (immunoglobulin) infusion to stop her body from rejecting the transfused blood. They had tried this before, and we reminded them that she reacted adversely the last time. They said this was a different type, and they had done more matching. They infused. She reacted within minutes. Worse, it triggered the new drug, and she started to have severe muscular cramps and pain. She was in severe crying pain for almost 48 hours round the clock. In order to control the pain, she was given PCA. By the 3rd day she became unresponsive. They took her to Intensive care. I was like she was in a coma. I vowed to God that if He got us out of this, I would give a testimony. This is the testimony.

In this same period, I lost my job. But this was God’s doing, I believe. God had seen ahead and He knew my wife would be on long term hospitalization. I could take care of her as needed, and we did not lack. So, this was a blessing and not a curse.

Worse, the enemy chose to take advantage. While in Intensive care, something began obstructing her airways and she was finding it difficult to breathe. She seemed to keep trying to clear something from her throat. It was revealed in a dream that she was being throttled – likely by forces unseen. I prayed. The next day, she started to cough up brownish things like twiglets tainted with blood. This went on for about three days. Eventually, she was placed on dialysis, and that helped clean out her bloodstream. She spent 10 days in intensive care before she recovered. Thank God. But this was just a side show, not the main event. The aneurysm was still there.

By now, I was convinced these painful spasms that contributed to this were the result of this new drug and urged her to stop taking it. She was still of the opinion it helped, and unrelated to the spasms. Even the consultants didn’t look in that direction. It was about then that it was discovered that patients on the drug around the world were dying, and some had developed more painful crises. The drug manufacturers recalled the drug, and they instructed us to stop taking it. Thank God that He kept her alive even when we did not know what was happening. Many died. Since then, the painful spasms have stopped.

The aneurysm was still a problem, and they could not afford for it to burst. In order to proceed with the surgery, they needed her transfused. They finally decided that they had to try another thing called Rituximab, used for chemotherapy. That itself had to be administered slowly over 4 weeks. It would lower the body’s white cells so it would not readily reject the transfused blood but on the other hand her immunity to diseases will be low and she could catch infections really easily.

To God’s glory, she tolerated it, and there was not even a single incident of her catching the common cold or any disease or infections during that period. Afterwards, they managed to source some pretty rare blood that had been screened to ensure that chances of her rejecting the blood would be minimal, and then they attempted a carefully choreographed transfusion. It was also done slowly over a few weeks, and to the glory of God, she tolerated that. They could only manage a partial transfusion, however. They then scheduled the aneurysm operation.

But three weeks before the operation, she developed a bad chest infection and was hospitalised all that time prior to her planned surgery. By the time the surgery came round, there was now a dilemma: could she go through surgery whilst she had not fully recovered from the chest infection? The anaesthetist did not want to proceed. The haematologists thought to go ahead. They argued that if the Rituximab wore off, it would be another wait of months in which time, the worst could happen. They left the final decision to us. We prayed and decided the operation should go ahead, and to God’s glory it was successful with hardly any blood loss. No complication. Nothing. From the theatre she was sent to intensive care. Three days later, she was sent to the main ward.

Again, the enemy had other plans. In the main ward, one of the attendants brought her food. After a few mouthfuls, she went into a seizure. She deteriorated and was taken back to intensive care. By now, we knew we were in a battle. So, we were in prayer battle mode. It is a long story, but God pulled her out of it, and she was sent back to the main ward.

Back in the main ward, she developed yet another chest infection. Her health took a downturn yet again, and she began to become unresponsive. So, it was back to Intensive care for the 3rd time in one month making it the 4th time in 6 months. God was with her, and again she came out of it.

After a few more days she was discharged. All glory to God, she survived everything, and she is here with us. We give thanks to God Almighty who was with us all through the storm and without whom she would not be here.

God Bless
Dapo S
Essex UK