Lakisha, the Author

October 7 – Trigeminal Neuralgia Awareness Day

What is Trigeminal Neuralgia? I had no clue until I was forced to know of it by way of my twin sister who was suffering terribly with it. It started out with pain in her face, she thought it was dental related. It wasn’t. She went to chiropractors, neurologists, dentists and other professionals but no one could find out where this pain was coming from.

Not until an amazing dentist, Dr. Christina Rosenthal, did her own research. SHE was the one who found out what my sister had. See, according to the Mayo Clinic’s website, Trigeminal Neuralgia is a chronic pain condition that affects the trigeminal nerve, which carries sensation from your face to your brain. If you have trigeminal neuralgia, even mild stimulation of your face — such as from brushing your teeth or putting on makeup — may trigger a jolt of excruciating pain.

And yep, they are absolutely right because it most definitely causes EXCRUCIATING PAIN! I know this because I watched my sister battle this disease for 9 months with NO relief. When she was first diagnosed, in March 2013, it was unbearable to watch. I would take her to the ER and they couldn’t do anything. They’d pump her full of pain medicine that wouldn’t even put her to sleep and then look at me with pity while saying, “there’s nothing else we can do.” My family and I called different doctors and they didn’t know. It wasn’t because of lack of their skills but it was because they lacked the knowledge to deal with this disease.

So while my sister suffered; she couldn’t eat, could barely drink (she got used to taking medicine with no water), couldn’t leave the house for fear of a pain attack and she couldn’t sing. She lost over 50 pounds and with each doctor visit her medicine dosage increased but it didn’t help. They switched from giving her pain pills to pain liquid and even it didn’t help. I would watch her take a mixture of pills that I knew should have killed her yet God sustained. I watched her moan and groan in the floor from the pain, a pain most have committed suicide over yet God sustained. I watched my sister and I trusted God.

One doctor told her to file for disability, God said no. One said we can kill the nerve but then you’d be left with paralysis on the right side of your face, God said no. They said this but God said, wait on me. She, we did and God sustained! You see, there is no cure for this disease but there is HOPE and HELP. Her help came in the form of God, faith, prayer, family and friends and a doctor by the name of Dr. Robert Mericle in Nashville, TN. On December 17, 2013, he performed a surgery called, Microvascular Decompression or MVD (Click the link or Google it). This surgery has given her 85-90% relief and her life back. She is back working and has resumed her day-to-day functions. Isn’t God worthy?

Yes, there are some complications like, a scar but she wears it well. Some numbness on her right side but you can’t tell and some pain that she lives with daily but she’ll proudly proclaim she’s still fighting. (It’s evident by the tattoo on her arm).

Trigeminal Neuralgia is a silent disease and a person who suffers with it doesn’t look sick but that doesn’t negate the fact they are. This is a horrible disease and if your child, spouse, friend or family member is suffering with it; SUPPORT THEM. Don’t look at them with pity, pray! Don’t tell them there is nothing wrong, there is. Don’t act like they are overreacting, they need too. This disease affects the nerve and although the doctors are quick to prescribe pain meds, they can’t stop nerve pain. Research for yourself! Before you are ignorant with your reply to what they are feeling, become informed. This disease is real and there are too many people dying because of it. Too many taking their own lives because somebody said it was in their mind. Too many killing themselves because there is no relief and/or support.

Educate yourself. This is real! You don’t have to believe me, research it. Trigeminal Neuralgia is known as the suicide disease but it doesn’t have to be for the person you love! Support them! Help them! Love on them! And get them to somebody who can help them because it’s available. Don’t allow anyone to tell you otherwise!

I am grateful everyday that my sister is still here with and I will go to the ends of the earth to get her the help she needs. If you know someone who is suffering with this disease, help them. Become aware today. Research and become involved. Speak for them when they can’t speak for themselves.

You may not have known Trigeminal Neuralgia before but you do now.

Be blessed y’all
Lakisha

Daily Devotional – 10/7/16 “Sober up!”

It’s not God’s fault. Yea, I know as much as you need to blame somebody, anybody; blame yourself. See, you’re still falling for the same old tricks even though they didn’t work last time. You fell for the, ‘I was just calling to check on you’ until he/she got your stuff and now won’t answer. You got caught up by the ‘hey’ text and now you’ve been hurt again, starting the healing process all over. Yea, you fell for it and got set up but it’s nobody’s fault but yours. Take ownership of it and then get over it. Look beloved, you’ve got to stop falling for the same, tired tricks by the same tired trick (the enemy). You’ve got to open your eyes and understand that if he/she was that way yesterday, there’s a pretty good chance they are the same today. Haven’t you heard the story of the woman who nursed a snake back to health and he thanked her by biting her? Why? Well because his true nature is a snake. He only did what he knows to do. It’s like a habitual criminal, it’s their habit. Having an addiction, it’s their habit. An abuser, it’s their habit. This is why you can’t change someone. A person has to be willing, ready and able to change themselves. You can’t do it for them. And please believe me when I tell you this, they will talk a good game but be unable to play one.

1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Sober, here, doesn’t mean from drinking but this particular use of the word sober means serious in demeanor. Simply stating be serious so that you can be alert and watchful of your surroundings and see what’s going on because when you do this, you’ll be able to “Stand firm against him (the enemy), and be strong in your faith. (1 Peter 5:9)” Are you sober or are you sleep? If you get nothing else out of this, take this nugget … The enemy doesn’t change. He may dress up, buy you nice gifts, whisper sweet nothings in your ear, rub you in all the right places and even make you temporarily feel good but when the lights come on, he’ll still be the same enemy with the same tricks. So stop falling for it. Be sober minded and stand up! You have to make it up in your mind that today, the enemy no longer has access to your stuff. Hell, make him work so hard for it that by the time he gets close enough, he’ll no longer want it. All it takes is you getting tired of being in the same place. All it’ll take is you becoming fed up with reaping the same pitiful harvest. Because it’s when you’re tired, fed up and pissed off at self that you’ll march into enemy territory to get your stuff back. You don’t have to believe me. Get tired of crying, fighting and being without and you’ll see. Sober up and fight!

Daily Devotional – 10/6/16 “What’s your reality?”

Why do we spend so much time trying to prove our happiness to people, who probably don’t care anyway, yet we spend no time building a foundation of hope in God. Why do we work so hard to show devotion to people, who will let you down but has yet to be devoted to the God of infinite chances? Why do we have to put up a front just to be accepted yet we won’t fight for the Father? I’m only asking because I’m curious to know. Think about it. We get so wrapped up in what people think of us that we’ll spend the majority of our time ensuring we ‘post’ better than how we actually live. A person will spend time taking thirty selfies just to get the right one to share. You’ll portray to the world your happiness but in the confines of your home you can’t eat for drinking tears. Always smiling yet dying spiritually. Consistently posting your happy life when it’s far from the truth. In reality, you’re living with a monster but you don’t want the world to know you messed up in YOUR choosing. In reality, you’re one missed check from being homeless but you put up a bold front to keep up with ‘them.’ In reality, your pillow is actually a sponge, soaking up the many nights of tears you’ve cried just to go to sleep. In reality, if your walls could talk. In reality, if the inside of your car could tell the truth. In reality, you’re one pill away from suicide because depression has depressed your faith. Scared to really live because then you’d have to own up to who you really are. Scared to step out of the shadow of your momma because it may break her heart. Scared to live in your truth because somebody may not be able to accept it.

But baby, how’s that working for you? When will you come out of that prison of bondage? When will you take off the mask in order for us to meet the real you? When will you own your truth? Yes, it’s hard but aren’t you tired of running, hiding and being a fraud? Aren’t you tired of painting the picture morning after morning only to have to remove it night after night? Ask yourself this question and then answer it truthfully. What is your reality? In my reality, I am who I am because I know whose I am. I’m a preacher who isn’t accepted by everybody (that doesn’t bother me), a wife whose marriage wasn’t always good, a mother with children who disappoint me occasionally, an adult who took years to build decent credit, from a large dysfunctional family that’ll fight and then eat together in the same hour, a girl who still sometimes curse but will shut down when mad, one whose feelings get hurt easily but you wouldn’t know it, I have tattoos (and want more), I love shoes but don’t like to shop, I’ll give you my last without wanting anything in return, I’m a thick, confident chic though some say it’s cockiness and I love the Lord with my whole heart and I’ll tell a dying world. Yes, I have flaws, plenty of them but they don’t determine who I am. I have a past yet it doesn’t stop who I am now. This is my reality, what’s yours?

Daily Devotional – 10/5/16 “Period, not a comma!”

Beloved, you should have gotten up this morning thanking God for placing a period where you would have placed a comma. See, a comma means to pause before continuing on however, a period means to stop in order to start something new. Doesn’t that put a shaking in your spirit? Imagine it like this … you’re in the middle of a relationship that’s not working. You say you need some space to think things over only to come back together and continue on with the same foolishness as before – That’s placing a comma. But when you finally wise up and gather the strength to tell that no good piece of so and so that ‘I am better than this,’ pack your stuff and leave; meaning it this time – That’s placing a period. Don’t you understand that when you place a period, you’re ending it? Don’t you place a period at the end of the previous sentence before you can begin a new one? Well, why are you placing commas where periods should be when it comes to relationships and such? Why are you trying to add something else to the sentence when it has run on for far too long as is? Why are you still trying to make it work when you know good and well it doesn’t even sound right nor does it fit?

I don’t know about you but we ought to thank God for stopping some stuff we didn’t have the strength to do. I don’t know about you but we should thank God for cutting off some relationships we were too emotionally invested in to quit. I don’t know about you but we must thank God for closing some doors we would have still walked through, knowing they were harmful to our harvest. Baby, rejoice to God for stopping some stuff! I’ve now come to realize that in order for Him to give us something new, He has to first cut off the old. In order for us to grow correctly, He has to stop that which is stunting our growth. You do know that a plant has to be pruned of the old before it can produce anything new, right? This is why God has to step in and place periods in places we thought were for our good. Yes, I know you grew up in that church but it’s time for you to go, place a period. Yea, I know you’ve been dating for twelve years but you know it’s not working, put a period there. Yea, I know you love that house but it’d draining you; place a period and move on. If you don’t, you’ll wind up being a run on sentence that didn’t make sense to nobody, including you.

“The LORD directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.” – Psalm 37:23

Daily Devotional – 10/4/16 “Are you willing to get up and go?”

You’re sitting around waiting for stuff to happen instead of getting up making it happen and then got the nerve to get mad when it don’t. You’re wanting stuff to just magically drop in your lap but baby this isn’t TV and we aren’t in magic land. Don’t you understand that YOU have to get up and go? Haven’t you realized yet that YOU have a part to play in this? Yes, God is in the blessing business but you have to put forth an effort to get the blessing. It’s like you going to church on Sunday just to see if God will drop off what you prayed for on Saturday but where is your real devotion? I mean, when was the last time you spent intimate time with Him in prayer? When was the last time you simply thanked Him instead of begging Him? When was the last time you trusted Him to do what a title loan can’t? When was the last time you waited for Him to move instead of depending on men? When will you get up and release the things holding you down? When will you get up and let go of that woman’s husband, that man’s wife, that car or house you can’t afford, that abusive spouse, that stressful job, that child that’s sucking you dry or that woe is me attitude? When?

You have to decide but in the meantime, while you sit there in your self-made prison of pity; don’t put your mouth on me. While you’re trying to figure out if you should trust God, don’t lie on me because I do. While you lay there on your bed of bitterness, don’t try to block my blessing. While you’re walking the wrong way, don’t try to trip me on my way to destiny. Baby, you can be mad at me for moving on, if you want but wish me well in passing. You can roll your eyes when I pass through but just wish me well. Don’t blame me because you’re still in the same place since ’92 when the only difference between you and me is I chose to get up! What will you do? Today, what will you do? Will you get up or will you stay stuck? Are you going to stay where you are or are you willing to let some stuff and people go? I’m only asking because there’s some things with your name on it that God is ready to release but you’ve yet to get up and ask. So today, get up and dry your tears and go get your stuff! Yea, get up and go get your healing, your blessing, your tears dried, your bank account increased, your territory enlarged, your heart mended, your mind regulated, your situation changed, your obstacles moved, your husband or your wife, your career, your home, your car, your happiness and your sleep back! Get up, grab your faith and go!