Title: My Battle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Author: Beckie Butcher
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 978-1-4697-7378-0
Pages: 52
Genre: Autobiographical, Memoir, Faith & Healing
Reviewed by: Beth Adams
Pacific Book Review
Beckie Butcher was by all definition an ordinary and healthy person, that is, until she began to feel tired. Gradually but rather quickly symptoms of intense fatigue began to overtake her ability to cope with everyday living. She came down with a devastating condition known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. There is not much known about this disease, but it is believed to be a virus such as herpes which is the root cause for mononucleosis, and often linked to cancer. In Beckie’s case, she lost so much energy making it impossible for her to function any semblance of a normal life. At one point, I was taken by her telling the story how she was so tired she couldn’t get out of bed one day, only when needed to attend to herself in the bathroom, even then she had to crawl on the floor to get there.
This fatigue continued to a point when she simply thought she was going to die. Many improper diagnoses were made, offering her no relief. A disease without any known cure, all she could do was pray to God to heal her. This was a major turning point in her life, as she reached deeper and deeper in faith and prayer as the only resort to sustain her life. It came down to her belief God IS there for her. He’s the reason I’m still here, she prayed to herself.
Although there wasn’t a medical breakthrough, it was determined that Beckie had a misaligned vertebrae at the top of her neck, C-1. Chiropractic manipulation of her vertebrae seemed to slowly have a positive effect on her. Eventually she was able to regain much of her energy. However not to minimize the power of prayer and the wisdom gained when she surrendered herself to God’s faith.
Beckie concludes in My Battle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, thoughts of how she learned to cope. I found them all interesting but in particular she says to let go of past hurts and anger. “Negative emotions are stresses on the body, and stress does not help the healing process.” Aside from that psychological change, physical activities including yoga, meditation and eating healthy and exercising all were good – but deepening your faith in God was paramount to her healing.
This book is a brief reaffirmation of how the strength of prayer and God’s love is fundamentally a healing process, when cases where modern medicine is still ineffective. It is a lesson many have learned. Forgetting past negative instances, letting go of anger, is another lesson in which everybody can benefit from.
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