I HAD the misfortune to inherit what is called a delicate constitution, with consumptive tendencies. My early life was greatly marred by tedious attacks of sickness, and when about eighteen years years old I had the measles, which resulted in a long spell of sickness. When I did finally recover I was left with a serious trouble of the eyes. I consulted an oculist, who fitted me with glasses, saying that I would always have to wear them, and that the trouble, which seemed to be a weakness and inflammation of the eyelids, would never be any better. A few years later I married a physician and moved to the West. My health did not improve with the change of climate, as we had hoped it would, and the trouble of the eyes became worse. I spent much of my time in a darkened room with my eyes bandaged. We consulted a prominent oculist, who said there was positively no help for me. About this time, February, 1898, I returned to Fort Wayne, Indiana, my former home, and while there contracted a very severe cold, which resulted in a serious illness. My husband secured the best medical attendance in the city. After weeks of suffering they decided that the only hope of relief was a surgical operation, and I was taken to a hospital and placed under the care of a doctor who was considered a very fine surgeon. He diagnosed the case as tuberculosis of the bladder. I underwent an operation which lasted three and a half hours. There were five physicians present and all decided that there was no hope of my recovery. In a week or so after the operation, the right knee began to swell, and the physicians said the joints were filling with pus. Soon the whole limb was swollen and very painful, then the entire body was affected, and I became helpless. The physician put the limb in a plaster-of-paris cast and the body in rubber bandages. After four months of suffering at the hospital, my case was pronounced hopeless, and I was removed to the home of my sister to await the inevitable. Then, when life was slowly ebbing away, a great sorrow came to me,—so great that I longed for death, which I then thought would relieve me of heavy burdens.
At this time friends came to me and spoke of Christian Science, urging me to try it; but I would not listen, for I felt that I had nothing to live for and wished to die. They were persistent, however, and in sheer desperation I consented to let them call a practitioner. To the surprise of all, as well as myself, I was soon on the road to recovery. First of all was the complete healing of the eyes, with which I had been troubled for fifteen years. I laid off the glasses and my eyes are now normal in every sense. The tubercular and consumptive condition soon began to disappear, and in less than one year from the time I first began treatment in this Science, I was perfectly well. I had been under medical treatment all my life, and had always been sick. A few months' treatment in Christian Science,—and for the first time in my life I could say, I am well. I have had excellent health in every particular since my healing six years ago, and for the past five years I have supported myself and daughter.
Words cannot express my gratitude for the health and happiness and prosperity that have come to us through the understanding of Christian Science.
