I noticed under my arm was getting very tender, like my skin was hyper sensitive. I thought maybe it was a pinched nerve in my neck or shoulders but stretching it out didn’t help. In fact, I now also had an intense pain between my shoulder blades. Going to the chiropractor didn’t help either.

I decided to try a lidocaine patch, a local anesthetic, to see if it would help with the pain. Without reading the directions, i put one on my back and left it there for 24 hours. When I pulled it off, I noticed that a few bumps had developed under it so i decided to read the directions to see if the bumps might be a side effect. Oops, I was only supposed to leave the patch on for 12 hours. The bumps must be a reaction to the patch. The painful bumps, though, began to spread. Maybe I had gotten some of the lidocaine on my clothes and caused the bumps to spread across my back. Then the bumps spread down my arm. OK, so maybe the patch had touched my arm too. But when the bumps began to spread all the way around my body to the middle of my chest, I figured I might have an issue.

I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with shingles. At one time I counted a hundred blisters on my chest alone. I never actually counted them all, but I figured I had probably a total of 300 extremely painful bumps that made me cry at night in between times I could take medication or put cream on them.

One day at work, when the pain of the now big, angry bumps was at its worst, two of my coworkers noticed I was less than my bubbly self and asked what was wrong. After telling them my story, they asked what they could do to help. I told them “just keep me in your prayers, please.”

Now these two work friends are very vivacious and animated people in general and especially when talking about our Lord. When I mentioned prayers, they said, “Girl, come on!” and taking my arm, led me into the lady’s restroom. We stood together, holding hands, and they said the most powerful prayers over me. I’ve never experienced anything like it. It brought tears to my eyes then, and continues to bring tears to my eyes every time I think about it.

That night, I woke up to use the bathroom and noticed I felt better. I raised my arm and looked in the mirror – and all those big, angry, red bumps were now small, dried up, and scabbed over! All of them!

I broke down in tears, thanking Jesus, and feeling so amazed, shocked, grateful, and blessed that I kept pacing the bathroom, hands in the air, and praising God.

I still had some nerve pain, but the blisters were better and I knew I was well on the road of recovery. Nobody will ever be able to convince me that God does not hear our prayers!

Deb