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By: Yvonne Lai

 Back in 1981 when, after many doctors had checked to see what was wrong inside me, the department head of the medical clinic in Ottawa General Hospital told me after several visits that I might be suffering from post partum depression which would explain the pains I was experiencing throughout my body.   His suggestion for treatment based on this diagnosis would be to prescribe medication for depression.  I came home from that visit and asked my husband whether or not I seemed to be depressed.  But deep down, I knew that something was wrong with my body.  At first my middle finger was swollen and painful.  Then some mornings I woke up unable to walk.  My ankle was painful and noticeably warm.   From there the pains progressed from one joint to the next throughout my whole body until I became affected to a point that I was unable to move.

Later in 1981 a rheumatologist in Ottawa diagnosed me as having rheumatoid arthritis.  Sitting in his office with my husband, he was very solemn and serious as he announced to us that this disease would be with me for the rest of my life.  He took the time (about 1 hour) to explain what it meant to have rheumatoid arthritis by using very plain language: “You will be suffering all your life and no one can really help you.”   My first response to him was:  “Oh yes, He cares.  I could pray to my Lord, the Almighty God, and He would help.”  The doctor laughed and said: “You can pray a hundred times or a thousand times in vain but you won’t get better, Pussycat.”  I asked him why he called me “Pussycat” and what it meant.   He answered: “You are being too naïve.”   The world may see this trust in the Lord as ‘naïve’, but I know He cares and that’s why He asks us to come to Him just like a small child would trust a loving father – it may seem ‘naïve’ in the eyes of those who do not know Him, but oh yes, He cares!