Healing: Faith and Medicine: A Medical Professional’S Memoir of Healing and Dealing with Illness

By Mark Davis DDS and Russell Wiesner MD

Have you ever wondered why a friend or loved one died? Did you pray for healing but the person died? God used to heal people. The Bible is full of divine healings. Is God still in the healing business today? If so, why didnt he heal our loved one? Does believing for a divine healing mean we should just pray and wait? Or should we seek medical help also? Does God want to heal everyone? Or is it like roulette and you pray your number comes up?

Building on the premise that God is good and his Word is true, Healing: Faith and Medicine chronicles, the life of a medical professional as he navigates insurmountable illnesses. Healing: Faith and Medicine may not give you all the answers you want, but it will reveal how much God loves us, how God works in our lives, and what is required of us.

Whether you believe in God or not, Healing: Faith and Medicine will ask questions that demand an answer. You may realize that coincidence could have another name: the hand of Almighty God who is moving in our lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 13, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512799354

Mark Davis DDS

As a practicing dentist, Dr. Davis has helped thousands of patients with their dental health and monitored their medical health as it changed. For the last 45 years he has dealt with his own serious medical issues and has defied the odds of survival. The outcome has been thanks to a combination of very good medical treatment paired with the movement of the supernatural hand of God. As a student Dr. Davis attended Oral Roberts University and learned that God wanted to heal His people. Today Mark believes that is still true, having not just seen or heard incredible stories of healing, but having lived a life only made possible through healing. This is the story he believes God wants him to share. Dr Davis and his wife Carrie currently reside in Central California where he continues to practice dentistry, is involved in church, bible studies and in spreading the word of God's love and power. Carrie is presently studying and sitting for the CPA exams. They spend their free time with their three college age kids either in the mountains or at the Central Coast.

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About the Cover

The cover is original artwork that the author’s daughter Adrian did as a Christmas present. It did not start out with the intent of being used as the book cover, but it seemed to fit. The cross formed of prescription labels is symbolic of the Christian cross, and the labels are a copy of the labels used by the drugstore that the family was involved in for many years. The horizontal label prescribes faith in unlimited or infinite amounts and is dated the day the author knew something was definitely wrong. (Just how wrong, he had no idea!) The vertical label is for cyclosporine, an organ anti-rejection drug that the author has taken for thirty years, the drug that brought transplants into their own. The vial, syringe, and pills represent all the other medications, surgeries, and medical interventions that have kept the author going to this very day. To finish it off, the gold ribbon in the background represents the royalty and power of Christ, who watches over all things.

About the Artist

Adrian Davis besides being an artist is an aspiring writer herself. She graduated from Biola University with a Bachelor’s degree in psychology and a minor in Biblical Studies, and is currently studying research psychology at San Jose State University. Adrian lives in Santa Cruz, California.

Healing: Faith and Medicine

A Medical Professional’s Memoir of Healing and Dealing with Illness

Mark Davis DDS

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Copyright © 2017 Mark Davis DDS.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

WestBow Press

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.

Used by permission. All rights reserved.

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-9936-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-9937-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-9935-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017912266

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/10/2017

CONTENTS

Foreword

Preface Why I Really Wrote Healing: Faith and Medicine

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1   July 19, 2014—Not Just Another Monday

2   The Beginning—You Can’t Do Much without One

3   High School—Let the Good Times Roll

4   College—Slow Down Next Time

5   The Big One—With My Luck, I Should Have Gone to Vegas

6   Dental School—A Step of Faith, or Just Plain Stupid?

7   New Parts—Liver Transplant

8   Getting on with Life—Into the Fire

9   Dental Practice—Life in the Ranchos

10 How Can This Be?—Not Again

11 Another Scare—How Many Times Can One Snake Bite You?

12 Life Is Rolling Along—in the Fast Lane

13 The Really Big One—as if All the Others Were Not Big Enough

14 Confronting Our Fears—No Humor in This One

15 Praying and Seeing— Blown Away by God

16 What to Do Now—Hey, Let Me Out of This Place

17 Groundhog Day—the Open-Door Prison

18 You Have to Take Time for It

19 Home at Last—Don’t Get Too Relaxed

20 The Process—a Spoonful of Sugar Does Not Help the Medicine Go Down

21 The Spiritual Process— the Important Stuff

22 Testing/Healing—Now I Glow for More Than One Reason

23 The Hip—an Unmanifest Healing, but Not for Long

24 Mayo Clinic Revisited: July 28, 2015

25 Staying the Course

26 A Final Word

Verses to Consider

Experiencing God

Reader’s Guide: Discussion Questions

Afterword A Powerful Prophetic Word

Dedication

Carrie, as my wife of twenty-five years and the mother of our three wonderful children, you have my heart. You are my best friend, having affected every aspect of my life with your infectious love for people and the Lord. Life with you has been an immeasurable blessing, as you have stood beside me in business, sickness, and health.

Healing: Faith and Medicine is dedicated to you.

FOREWORD

By Dr. Russell Wiesner, Professor of Medicine, Former Director of the Liver Transplant Program at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota

I have taken care of many patients with liver disease and liver transplant recipients for the past thirty-seven years. A patient of mine, Mark Davis, tells his amazing story of how he suffered from a devastating liver disease, suffering multiple life-threatening complications, but through an unfaltering faith in God and the Holy Spirit and an amazing support of life, he was able to conquer this fatal condition.

Mark was diagnosed with chronic ulcerative colitis when he was in sixth grade, which lessened his quality of life and limited his ability to play and compete in sports. Then after finishing college and about to enter dentist school, he was dealt a diagnosis of primary sclerosing cholangitis, a disease of the bile ducts, which slowly progresses to liver failure and premature death, for which there is no effective therapy. Mark experienced severe fatigue, jaundice, intense itching, and recurrent episodes of life-threatening sepsis. The disease eventually led to his liver failing, for which Mark underwent a lifesaving liver transplantation. Mark received only the thirty-sixth liver transplant performed at the Mayo Clinic; thus the procedure was still considered experimental at the time, and long-term outcomes were unknown.

Mark did recover from liver transplantation and did quite well for the next nineteen years. The story does not, however, end there, as Mark experienced recurrence of primary sclerosing cholangitis in his hepatic allograft, which led to the symptoms he had previously experienced. In the meantime, Mark developed a polyp-type lesion of his colon, which required partial colectomy to prevent cancer formation. After developing recurrence of primary sclerosing cholangitis, Mark developed cholangiocarcinoma, a cancer of the bile ducts, which eventually spread to his bones and is considered a fatal condition, generally leading to death within four to six months. Mark and his wife were told of his poor prognosis, and at one point it was suggested that he seek hospice care. Mark, with his strong Christian faith, did ask questions. How could God let this happen to me? Why do bad things happen to good people? This latter is an issue I remember being addressed by Robert Kushner in his best-selling book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People (Random House, 1981). Through prayer and faith in God, Mark concluded that the years on earth are preparation for a future greater life to come, which is eternal life in heaven with God. While Mark suffered innumerable setbacks during the course of his disease and was given a dismal prognosis, he always kept faith in God and medicine, and knew that God would not turn his back on him.

Mark did go through radiation and chemotherapy, along with his pain and suffering, and he did undergo a hip replacement surgery related to the spreading of his bile duct cancer to his hip. To the amazement of our entire medical team at the Mayo Clinic, Mark has eventually become tumor-free and has returned to work, with his PET scan showing no evidence of active tumor at his last evaluation. His improvement has brought to light the Bible verse, If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes (Mark 9:23). This is a Bible verse that has much more meaning for me after having participated in Mark’s care as a primary witness of the power of God. It is clear that miracles happen today. I believe Mark Davis is an example of this.

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PREFACE

Why I Really Wrote Healing: Faith and Medicine

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.

—Romans 5:19 NKJV

One day in December 2014, I took my typical shower, which means that I stayed in the shower until the hot water was gone. For me the shower has evolved into my prayer closet. In addition to being a time for cleaning my body, it is a time of prayer, praise, reflection, listening and inner cleansing.

As I finished my shower, a thought popped into my head. Mark, you need to write a book about your struggles with health and healing, your interactions with God, and what is going on in your life now.

My response to that was, "That’s a crazy idea. I hate any type of writing, let alone a book. Lord, is this some kind of ego-driven thought that I have concocted? If it is, then let it go away as fast as it came. On the other hand, if it is from You, then I need rock solid verification, because writing a book is not a simple task or something to be taken lightly, especially for a guy who dislikes writing as much as I do."

After dressing warmly, given that it was a cool winter day and I seemed to be cold all the time, I went into the kitchen to have lunch with the kids, who were all home from college for Christmas break. As we sat around our elliptical oak table, I talked with our son Loren, who was on my right; with our oldest daughter Adrian, who was on my left; and with my wife, Carrie, and our youngest daughter Erika, who completed our circle.

After a few minutes of conversation, Carrie said, Mark, Adrian has something to tell you that just came to her. She smiled encouragingly at our oldest daughter.

I turned to Adrian. What is it, Adrianna?

She swallowed a bite of her sandwich and glanced at her mother before speaking. Mom and I have been talking … and I think you should write a book about your life and what’s been going on. And I want to help you write it.

I thought for a second before speaking. That’s a nice idea, sweetie. We should look more into that sometime. You know I don’t like writing and am terrible at it. Besides, a book would be a big commitment.

But I could help. She leaned over the table and pierced me with her intense blue-eyed gaze. I’m writing a book right now, and I’ve gotten pretty good at it.

Adrian had shown me some of her manuscript, and I agreed that her skills seemed to be quite good. However, still somewhat nervous about writing my own book, I responded, Let’s talk about it later, attempting to change the topic of the conversation to something more pleasant and interesting. I could tell she was a little put out with me, but I didn’t want to get boxed in on this one.

Later in the day, Carrie pulled me aside and told me that Adrian had come up with this idea while in the other shower down the hallway, about the same time I was in my shower. Coincidence or God?

Adrian thought it would be a good project, in addition to being a good father– daughter bonding exercise—that is, if we didn’t kill each other over it. Adrian is currently enrolled in a master’s degree program in experimental psychology at San Jose State University.

The next day, it was shower and prayer time again. Little did I know that things were going to be different that day!

With the click of the shower door, a thought flashed before me. Mark, the last time you were here, you asked Me for rock solid verification about whether you should write a book or not. Do you remember that? Well, what just happened in the last twenty-four hours? Weren’t Adrian’s actions verification enough? What more do you need, a personally signed letter from Me?

My immediate reaction was, Ouch, where has my head been? I asked and received, all in the space of an hour, and I didn’t see it! Despite still feeling a small amount of fear and trepidation, I knew what I had to do. After all, I couldn’t very well get away with disobeying a direct order from the Head of Operations—God—at least not without consequences. Lord, I guess this means I’m supposed to write a book!

Despite surrendering to my destiny, I procrastinated a few days and tried to avoid Adrian’s direct questions about starting the book. We decided