Lakisha, the Author

October 7 – Trigeminal Neuralgia Awareness Day

I can probably guess that a number of you have never heard of Trigeminal Neuralgia. Well, that changes today.

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.

They are exactly right, it causes EXCRUCIATING PAIN! How do I know? I’ve watched my sister battle this disease for the last 2 years. When she was first diagnosed, in March 2013, it was unbearable to watch. She lost over 50 pounds because she couldn’t eat or drink anything. She could only sip enough water to swallow pain medicine that didn’t work. Yet today, she is a living testimony. Yes, she is still living with this horrible disease but she is LIVING!

There is no cure for this disease but there is HOPE and HELP. Her help come 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 her MVD surgery that has since given her 85-90% relief. She is back working and has resumed her day-to-day functions. Praise the Lord.

Yes, she still has numbness on her right side, some pain that she lives with daily but she will tell anybody that she is 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 that 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! Be informed.

I am grateful everyday that my sister is still here with me 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.

Trigeminal Neuralgia is known as the suicide disease but it doesn’t have to be for your loved one! Support them! Help them! Love on them! Get them to somebody who can give them some relief! It’s available. Don’t allow anyone to tell you otherwise!

–I am my sister’s keeper!
Be blessed y’all
Lakisha

Daily Devotional – 10/7/15 “You have to tell!”

Everybody isn’t privy to your problems, stop acting like it. Just because you’re having issues at home, stop going to work taking them out on folk. How are they supposed to know you didn’t get any sleep last night? It isn’t their fault. Maybe you should have called in and taken you a day to yourself. Stop getting upset because you expect folk to know that you’re temporarily out of funds. Lower your pride and ask somebody for things you need instead of being without. Stop having an attitude when folk don’t offer to help you, if they don’t know you need help. Everybody isn’t in the know of your issues. Stop getting mad at pastor because he or she didn’t call or visit when you were sick when no one told them you were. Oh, I know you thought, as being friends, pastors, coworkers, etc., we could read your mind but we can’t. All I am saying is this … check yourself sometime! You cannot expect folk to automatically know what’s going on with you and then fix it, if you don’t open your mouth to tell them. When you go into the doctor’s office, the first thing he or she says when they walk into the room is, “Tell me what brings you here today,” because if they worked by guesses, a lot of us would probably be dead before our time. You have to tell!

Yea, as hard as it may seem, you have to tell folk. No, I don’t mean blasting your business on social media, I simply mean share with family and friends, if you desire help. Lose the attitude, it doesn’t suit you. Lose the frown on your face; it doesn’t mesh well with your skin. Lose the disrespectful tone in your voice; it doesn’t fit with your personality. Stop acting like folk owe you something because you’re the one going through; right now. If the truth shall be told, we are all dealing with some things. You may just be going through worse and I may just be in a place in mine to help you however, you can’t expect it if you’ve yet to ask. Stop getting upset thinking that no one is in your corner. Make sure folk know where your corner is first. I can’t support you if I’m not invited. I can’t come unless you call. You have to tell.

Daily Devotional – 10/6/15 “Using the wrong aid!”

You’re wondering why you can’t heal from what ails you … maybe it’s because you’re using the wrong aid! I mean, think about it; would you reuse a dirty band-aid? Wouldn’t you be mad if you had surgery and the doctor reused thread to stitch you up or reused gauze to dress your wounds? Wouldn’t you be mad if you found out the dentist was reusing water to clean out your mouth? Then why are you still trying to reuse the same old stuff to heal? You’re crying about a broken heart yet you’re crying to the one who broke it. How can you heal when they keep taking a piece of you every time they leave and you keep letting them? You keep saying you want to be healed from your addiction but you’re still hanging around those who feed said addiction. How can you break your addiction to weed, if you’re best friends with the weed man? How can you get over your addiction to alcohol when you got the key to the liquor store? You say you want to be healed spiritually yet you keep letting folk talk you out of church. “Girl, you know they just want your money,” “Why you going to that church, they only got a few members?” “Why you drive all the way there for church?” “Man, don’t you know football is on?” Baby, you’d better pull off that used stuff so you can heal.

It’s time now that you stopped looking for aid in stuff and folk and start looking for the aid that never goes wrong, never gets old and never hurts. At some point in your life, you need to change from crying out in hurt, why me, to now crying out in prayer like Jeremiah 17:14, “Heal me, LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.” For the bible says in Psalm 147:3, “He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.” At some point and time beloved, you need to realize the pain you’re experiencing is self-inflicted and it can stop if you want it too. Yes, accept their apology, forgive and forget but don’t keep going back to the same hurt if they aren’t willing to change because then the apology becomes like that band-aid; old, worn out and useless for healing. Continuing to accept hurt and apologies from someone who repeatedly hurts you is like trying to fix glass that has been shattered. You’ll probably end up with more cuts and more band aids and in the end, it and you will still be broken. Throw it out (along with the glass). You can’t heal because you’re using the wrong aid!

Daily Devotional – 10/5/15 “The enemy doesn’t play fair!”

It’s Monday and the enemy wants you to think you aren’t the miracle that you are. He’s in your ear, all up in your grill; telling you to look at all the bad things going on but I can guarantee that if you count the good, they’ll outweigh every time. Yes, I get the fact that you got more bills than money, more sickness than health insurance, more problems than solutions, more tiredness than sleep, more folk asking than you got it to give, more things to do than time, more complaining Christians than shouting Saints and it seems, more faults than faith but baby that’s just the enemy trying to get you. Stay in your lane. See, if he gets you to swerve in his lane, he has a chance of hitting your car (you) and once that happens, you have to get out and come face to face with him. And you know what happens when you come face to face with a charming enemy when your faith is at its lowest point? You give in to the first thing he has to offer you. You forget all about resisting because his offer sounds better. You forget all about God, for the moment, because here the enemy is offering to fix what’s broken in your life at a time you need it most and you can’t wait.

Now, you’ve allowed him to take your car (this is me figuratively speaking because I really mean your spirit) to a cheap repair shop to patch up the holes, paint over the scratches, fix the dents and now you’re happy again. That is until you start seeing the paint chipping and you realize he isn’t who he said he was. Oh, now you start really looking at yourself, I mean your car and you see that all the places the enemy supposedly fixed are starting to wear out again and you, I mean your car just got out the shop. You try to call him on the number he gave you and you find out, it’s been disconnected. You go back to the repair shop and it’s closed. You’re back where you began but this time you’re in worse shape. The enemy used you up and now he’s gone and you’re back where you started from but with more holes, scratches and dents in your spirit crying out to God to repair you! Baby, God hadn’t left you and you need to remember that. The enemy only does what we allow. Stop listening, stop responding, stop playing with him/her, stop going and stop entertaining the foolishness. Get your faith up! Stay in your lane and if the enemy happens to bump into you, get out swinging because he doesn’t play fair!

Daily Devotional – 10/2/15 “Don’t miss your help!”

It’s Friday and someone is still trying to figure this thang out. Yea, you thought about staging your own intervention on Wednesday but then the enemy stepped in with his blessings and you started smiling again. Oh but when you rolled over this morning, quickly realizing that you’re right back where you were; you needing to save yourself. Isn’t it something how you feel bad after the mistake but not during it? Isn’t it something how you say you’ll never do it again until it calls? Isn’t it amazing how you say you aren’t angry until you realize you’re yelling and your fists are balled up? Isn’t it something to realize you need help but it’s only after you’re by yourself? But why does it take that? Why does it take us, Saints of God, to hit the bottom before we ask for help? Why do we have to wait until we are about to pass out from starvation to accept the meal someone is offering? Why is it that as men and women of God, we are afraid to ask for the help we so desperately need?

Baby, if you have to worry about the folk around you talking about you, in your time of need; you need some more folk to hang around. If you can’t call on some folk to pray you out of some stuff, you need to reevaluate your circle. If you are concerned with how you’ll look if you happen to need encouragement instead of being the encourager, you may want to check the folk you call friends. Let me explain it this way … When you go to rehab, you are sent to a place with other folk who are trying to overcome an addiction just like you. This is because it helps to have folk around who are going through what you are or they’ve been through what you’re going through in order for you all to help one another. What the sense of going to get help from someone who don’t know about your circumstance? This is the same for somebody reading this. Stop trying to get help from folk who don’t understand your dilemma, they can’t help you. You need to be around some folk who understand and it doesn’t matter who you are or what your title is because to them you’re just friend. Don’t miss your help!

“The LORD hears his people when they call to him for help. He rescues them from all their troubles. Psalm 34:17”