Deliverance from Illness

[In the last month Roger Fellows has known a deliverance from serious illness by a remarkable providence. He has shared what happened to his circle of friends writing as follows:]

I did not make any attempt to let people know generally that I have experienced heart problems recently (neither did I make any effort to hide it), but word got around anyway, and a good number of friends have written or phoned expressing concern and promising to pray. I thought therefore that I should send out a general email just giving an update.

I have always had excellent health, and have sought to keep active and maintain a healthy lifestyle and diet. It was a surprise therefore to experience chest pains from about the beginning of January. They first occured while walking the dog and began after just a couple of minutes. I saw my family doctor who in turn arranged an appointment with a local cardiologist. He ran an ECG and stress test, said I had angina and prescribed nitroglycerine for whenever I had the pains or even to use preventatively before any strenuous activity. In the providence of God my son-in-law is a medical sales rep, dealing with cardiologists, but also a personal fitness trainer for a number of professional people.

One man he knows in both capacities is one of the top cardiologists in Toronto. When Steve described my symptoms and treatment to him, he was horrified and suggested that the local cardiologist didn’t realise how serious things were. He phoned me and arranged for me to see one of his colleagues in Streetsville. This doctor told me there was a 90% chance of a heart attack without quick treatment. He arranged to do an angiogram (heart catheterization) within a few days at Toronto Western Hospital. That revealed several quite badly blocked coronary arteries, so he set up an angioplasty eight days after that. They put in two stents (metal mesh cylinders that are blown up to stretch the arteries permanently), and, where the arteries were too narrow for stents, stretched them with balloons. The doctor told me that things went even better that he expected.

I am home now, feeling fine, and apart from having to be on several medications for the rest of my life, can resume a normal lifestyle within a few days.

It was less than four weeks from the doctor first contacting me to the work being completed. In a day when many have to wait months to see specialists and get this kind of treatment, we are amazed at the goodness of God and the way in which he can use all kinds of people as instruments for accomplishing his purposes.

Thank you for your concern and prayers.

In our Lord Jesus Christ,

Roger Fellows is one of the leading Reformed Baptist pastors in Ontario Canada