In this episode of Vegan Jesus Followers podcast, we tell how our world unravels after Carol receives a medical diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis.
As a pastor’s wife living in a small community far from our extended family, Carol often felt unseen and alone. Yet there were expectations placed on her of what she was supposed to do. We also lived in a climate that was cloudy and rainy most of the year. It affected her mood. She was diagnosed with S.A.D. – Seasonal Affective Disorder. When we left that church and moved back to our home church and served bivocationally again, there were also many expectations placed on her as the assistant pastor’s wife.
We experienced more pain and ended up leaving the ministry. We started back in counseling, and a lot of our emotional pain started coming out of us. One of the results of counseling was that Carol ended up going to cosmetology school. Then she started experiencing so many physical issues, like hearing loss, muscle weakness, and pain in her arms & legs After many doctor visits and tests, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. In this episode, Carol shares how she continued experiencing pain, loss and disappointment.
As we went from one painful experience to another, we never dealt with the cause of our pain. But we needed to. This episode sets the stage for what we learned and experienced when we finally peeled back the levels of pain and addressed our brokenness and found healing, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. But that’s next time.