Demons under the Radar

My patient came back from the shower with a booming laughter and smile. "OOO it feels good to be clean!" My African American patient had a wonderful booming voice and a hearty belly laugh. You know, that kind where they throw their head back... It made the whole unit smile.

Then, just 30 minutes or so later, she was having chest pain and was having a hard time breathing and her eyes were all glazed looking. She was freaking out. She had just come back from a nuclear stress test that was normal. Her cardiac enzymes, negative. ECG, normal. She called for me to come in and was telling me about the pain and asking for something for it. You see, all of the reports from her history and physical says she's been in the hospital hundreds of times for drug seeking. She has all of the risk factors for heart disease. In leu of her factors, she could have a heart attack at any time. She needs to have those tests every time. But all of her tests keep coming back negative, just like this time.

During our training in Michigan we learned about Spiritualism. And in other countries it seems so prevalent. Spirits actually manifest themselves in obvious ways in other parts of the world. We don't see that as much over here in the states. Not like that anyway. Instead we just choose not to believe in those sort of ghost stories. We'll just go to the doctor instead. In fact we'll go to the doctor over and over and over. Finally someone decides that the issue is psychological. A consult is ordered and medications get ordered. The diagnosis? Bipolar. Sczitsophrenia. Depression. Just medicate them. All of the "frequent flyers", you know, the crazy ones?

Earlier that day this patient of mine told me about God and how He had saved her life, and how he had been there for her mother and father. She loves the Lord. So when she started to freak out I grabbed her hand and wanted to try to calm her down. "Look at me." I said, "Look at me and breath with me. Breath in through your nose and out of you mouth." I administered Ativan IV and asked her some questions and she wasn't really talking, just kind of glazed over and very anxious.... So I told her I was going to pray for her. She slightly nodded her head. I prayed that the Holy Spirit be with her right now and that heavenly angels would come surround her and help bring her peace. I asked that if there was any negative influence of the devil that by the power of Jesus Christ she be freed and protected. I prayed for her family. She had mentioned them earlier and how the whole situation was really making her depressed. 

Praying didn't seem to stop anything right away, neither did the Ativan. But eventually she calmed back down and was relaxed. I'm in the medical field and am a believer in modern health science. But should that always be our first resort? It seems like we really don't believe enough to pray first thing, or at all. We talked about this in training and now that I'm back at work, I see it. There are so many people wanting to be made well. But too many people don't believe that God or Satan have anything to do with it. Isn't that exactly the lie Satan has used here? Ok, so maybe we're too "smart" and "educated" for the actual spirit manifestations like in other countries, but how about making us believe that they don't exist at all! That way it's all undercover. And to add to that, the medications "quiet" down the symptoms. Even more under the radar. 

Do we really believe that all authority in Heaven and on Earth belongs to Christ? And that nothing is impossible with God? It seems like we've gotten impatient with Him somehow and that we've taken things into our own hands instead. Wouldn't it be amazing what would happen in the Psyche wards and on the streets and in the Hospitals if we went to God first? And if we truly had the faith that God wants to give us, so that we can have the power of the Holy Spirit casting out hidden demons of depression and bipolar disorder? 

I am very new at this. I know that I just gave Ativan to her before I prayed. But I am going to believe that Ativan won't work nearly as well unless the power of the Holy Spirit and the name of Jesus Christ aren't on board first.