During the past few years I have been more or less in ill health, my chief trouble being chronic constipation, which finally terminated in a complication of female disorders from which I suffered to such an extent that I was persuaded early in November of last year to enter a sanitarium in Fresno, where, after an examination I was told that an operation was necessary in order to save my life. Consequently I was put under the influence of chloroform for two hours, an incision was made in the abdomen and one of the organs was removed, also a tumor of some kind. I was kept very quietly at the sanitarium for nearly two months when I was allowed to return home. During the next two months I suffered constant pain, some days feeling a trifle better, but most of the time very miserable. The wound in the abdomen refused to heal and would frequently discharge. Then the physician, after another examination, informed me that the operation was not a success and would have to be done over again, otherwise, I would be a cripple the remainder of my life.
I walked, or rather crept about, doubled up like a feeble old woman. I would never be able to straighten up again, he said, unless I would submit to another operation. I went home completely discouraged. I could not bear the thought of the cruel knife again, especially as the old wound had not yet healed. I said to a friend who was staying with me, "Now what must I do? If I go on the table again it will kill me." She replied, "Why, I would certainly try Christian Science; you have given the doctors a trial and they have failed." She told me of a practitioner in San Francisco. I had heard of Christian Science before, and always thought it a grand humbug; but, it was that or the operating knife, so I went to San Francisco and saw the healer.
I went prepared to doubt everything, and came away more than half convinced that there might be something in it.
