Perseverance

Greetings Friends and Family,

I’m finally home and recovering from a luxurious 4 night stay at Duke University Hospital due to complications primarily related to Covid19 which spilled over to my ongoing lupus and chronic kidney disease.

Yesterday, for the first time in nearly two weeks I woke up not thinking I was going to die. The ailments which caused me to seek medical assistance have subsided. No fever, no coughing, no chest pressure, no vomiting, I began tasting food regaining an appetite, and my kidney function remains high enough that I still do not need dialysis.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds. Because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything.

Many of you are disgruntled by a rough 2020 and have condemned anything associated therein, eagerly waiting for 2021 to begin as if there is some magic switch on the calendar.

Well, it’s been a rough 2.5 years for me, but I’ve gained many friends and grown personally in ways I wouldn’t have if not for these hardships and my perseverance. I don’t think next week will be dramatically different simply because we turn the page on the calendar.

I believe my prosperity is a derivative of my ability to extrapolate positive energy from any situation. What depths of despair must you reach before you realize the circumstances you currently complain about could at a blink of an eye be much worse?

Hardships come in many forms and certainly I don’t pretend to celebrate them myself. But life will be much easier and rewarding if you identify that which has been undeservingly given to you and rejoice in what blessings you do have.

I never thought I would rejoice in merely having to worry about lupus flares and chronically worsening kidney disease. But today, and every day from what I can recall..aside from the last two weeks has been a walk in the park.

I didn’t think that I needed a reminder, to be thankful. But I’m thankful for the chance to share it as such with you. As many others, even amidst the walls I laid a few days ago, will not have this chance.

Rescheduling the kidney transplant is on the horizon but timing is unknown. The tough part will be determining when my body is strong enough to endure not only the procedure but the heavy immunosuppressants necessary to prevent my body from rejecting the new kidney once inserted.

My silver lining here is that I contracted Covid just days before my scheduled transplant procedure, and not after. For if I contracted Covid shortly after my procedure I would have been under these heavy immunosuppressants without any defense system whatsoever to defend the virus.

So, I want to thank you for your prayers, concerns, verbal, physical and monetary support and implore you not to take pity in my plight but be thankful. Be thankful every day, not just a week next November and remember that you’ve made it through 2020 and you can persevere through 2021 also, whatever it shall bring.

Be encouraged

Aaron D. Sims

P.S. This photo is of me from Robben Island looking back at Cape Town. It is for me, the epitome of perseverance.

Aaron SimsDecember 31, 2020Comment