The Power of Prayer in a Doctor's Visit

Yes, I would love to share a story of, actually recently, just a few months ago at the end of my residency training, I’d been following a patient all through my 3 years of internal medicine in our continuity clinic. So we like to see them so we can build that relationship. And the first time I saw this patient, it was a mid-30s year old female. And when I saw her on my roster, I was excited because it’s like, she’s mid-30s, there can’t be much wrong.

This is going to be an easy wellness check. And I walked in there, and immediately I got the feeling just looking at her, this is not going to be a quick wellness check. And as I began to talk to her and take her history, nothing was coming forth of anything that I needed to actually treat. She had no past medical history, she was on any medications, her baseline labs had looked normal, and I just kept trying to figure out why does she not look well?

I can’t put my finger on it. And the visit was coming to a close. And the Holy Spirit impressed me to ask her, is there anything else going on in your life that I can help you with? And normally, when I’m getting to the end of a visit, I’m trying to wrap it up so that I don’t get too behind for the next patient.

But this 1, I think the Holy Spirit was just talking to me, give her extra time. And you know, when I asked that question, her eyes welled up with tears and she started crying and she said, Dr.

Bailey, for the last year I’ve been struggling. I don’t know what it is. I don’t want to get out of bed, I don’t feel like hanging out with my kids, I don’t enjoy doing the things I used to do, my parents are moved in with me and they’re currently in the middle of a separation. They both live in the house, but they’re fighting all the time.

And Those words obviously trigger in our minds depression. And immediately I just, I reached for her hand and I said, you know, tell me more what’s going on. And she hadn’t been to see a behavioral health therapist and she hadn’t really had any help in this area, not even from church. And I asked her, do you have a spiritual support system?

She said, my family used to be spiritual, but since the separation, they’ve stopped going to church. And she felt like the separation was her fault, and she needed to bring her parents back together, even though it wasn’t related to her. Anyway, I held her hands and I said, you know what, I don’t have a medication. I don’t have a physical maneuver to fix this for you, but I do have the power of prayer, and I’d love to pray with you.

And she grabbed my hands and we prayed together. And she seemed encouraged, but she still had the flat affect and some concerning symptoms that I definitely wanted to keep close eye on her.

So I had her come back sooner to the visit to the clinic. And I saw her again and again throughout a few years. And this was right before COVID.

So you can imagine during COVID, her symptoms just really spiraled. And she was speaking to a behavioral health therapist. She had tried medications. We had talked about lifestyle and changing those items.

And she had, and she wasn’t getting better. She’s like I just cannot get over this hump and she’s like my parents are still angry, they’re fighting and I feel like that’s just ruining the environment in my home. So near the end of my residency, we prayed every visit. We’d cried together, we’d talked to the chaplain together.

Near the end of my residency, she came in for another visit and I began to tell all my patients at that point, you know what, I’m finishing residency, I’ll be completing, so your care is going to be passed on. But I want you to know that I will continue praying for you.

And so I had planned to say that to her. But I knew it was going to be hard, because we had formed such a bond.

I walked into that room, and her affect was completely different. She was smiling. She greeted me like, hi Dr. Bailey, how are you?

And I was so taken aback. I was like, this is not the patient I’ve been seeing for the last 3 years. And I asked her, I was like, what is different? You look so happy, this is wonderful.

She said, you know, none of the medications worked. I talked to therapists, and while that helped a little bit, it really didn’t change anything in my life. And she said, the biggest thing that worked was your praying with me each visit, and your encouraging me to pray every day for my parents. And I said, Wow, what a testimony.

And she said, just a couple weeks ago, my mom finally reached out to the pastor of her church, and they started therapy. They’re both back in church. There’s joy in our house again. They’re going to try to work on their marriage.

And I’m finally enjoying getting out of bed, going to church with my family, playing with my kids. And she said it’s all due because I was praying every day for them. And there was someone in clinic that encouraged her to do that. And that was 100% the Holy Spirit, nothing of my doing.

But I think that was so beautiful and portrayed in the lesson today in Matthew, the 2 verses where it talks about Christ going to Galilee and all the cities where he would teach and preach and heal, And he paired healing with teaching. He didn’t just go to heal them. He also went to heal their souls and their hearts. That’s something we have to carry into our practices every day, even if you think it’s gonna be a quick well visit.