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.
My sister-in-law, who lives in San Francisco and who is a staunch Christian Scientist, took me in with her family during my stay in the city. My treatment began immediately, and the improvement was rapid for a week or more, then all my old beliefs manifested themselves, my wound discharged more copiously than ever, and one day a stitch came to light, and, later on another, which the surgeons had left to hold one of the organs in position. I continued in this way for nearly a month, sometimes suffering a great deal of pain, then feeling much better, and all the time gaining strength slowly but surely.
One night I made the startling discovery that the bowels were performing their functions through the aperture in the abdomen. This so frightened me that I alarmed the household, and my brother-in-law, who had retired, arose and went to my healer who lived two miles distant to inform him. A surgeon would surely have said, "Well, that proves that her bowels are perforated, and of course I can do nothing more for her." My healer said, "Tell her to fear nothing, there is no condition of mortal belief but can be met and overcome by divine Love." This state of affairs continued for over two weeks, when one day after suffering excruciating pain, there passed from me a piece of cloth a yard long and nearly ten inches wide. This cloth is called a surgeon's sponge and is used during an operation to absorb any moisture which may accumulate in the abdominal cavity, and had been carelessly overlooked by the surgeons five months previously. Said operation was witnessed by four physicians and three nurses, and yet the incision was sewed up leaving the sponge inside. It had forced itself into the bowels from the abdominal cavity and made its way to the rectal extremity and passed off in that manner.
After this my improvement was very rapid, my back was straightened up, the old wound has entirely healed. I can "run, and not be weary; ... walk, and not faint." I can work in my garden, and could do a week's washing if necessary. More than all this, I fully realize that nothing but the power of the Great Physician, Divine Intelligence, God, could perform such works.
When I returned to Fresno I called upon my doctors, told them what had happened to me, and showed them the cloth which I had kept. They were completely astounded. One of them said, "I would never have believed you had you not brought the sponge, which I recognize." He said he had heard of a similar case which happened to a woman who died in three days in awful agony. The other said, "I am very sorry, Mrs. Scott, that it happened so, and the only thing we can do now is to congratulate you that you are alive."
When they were told that it was to Christian Science that I owed my deliverance, they were silent. I feel that my pen is inadequate to express my thankfulness to Christian Science for what it has done for me.
I trust that this may meet the eye of some afflicted fellow-woman and save her from the surgeon's knife.
Fresno, Cal.
