When Yvonne Kong-Ho doubled over in agony one evening while on the train, she thought it was the worst pain she would ever feel. She was wrong.

The torment she had experienced then was the result of a ruptured fibroid in her womb. She ended up having a hysterectomy. (Read her story here.)

But a little over two weeks after the procedure, she was back at the accident and emergency department, in pain far more intense than before.

“The pain was so bad, I wasn’t thinking straight. I cried out, ‘God, where are You?’” recounted the 40-year-old.

She would spend the next 24 days in hospital, more than half of it in unbearable pain.

An unexpected complication

The pain had started after lunch. At first, Yvonne thought it might have been indigestion, or worse, food poisoning.

Yvonne works in a university specialising in workforce development.

“By 7pm, I couldn’t stand straight, I was curled up in bed. I took probiotics, charcoal pills. By 10pm, I did a tele-consult and the medicine arrived at midnight. I ate it and I could sleep.  

“But by 2am, I woke up. I couldn’t sleep. At 6am, I told my husband, ‘Can you please send me to the hospital? I cannot take this pain anymore.’”

That was when they found out what was wrong.

While healing from the hysterectomy, scar adhesions had developed. These bands of scar tissue typically develop between abdominal tissues and organs, causing the organs to stick together. Typically, they pose no great problem.

In Yvonne’s case, however, the scarring had caused her intestines to become twisted, resulting in small bowel obstruction.  

“Because it was obstructed, nothing was going down. My intestines were all swollen. My stomach became more distended and that caused more spasms. Those were the symptoms I was feeling.”

The long, painful wait

So began her extended stay in hospital, where treatment proved to be almost unbearable.

A nasogastric tube was inserted into her stomach through her nose to remove all the bile that had accumulated there.

“It was terrible. Having this tube placed into me while I was awake was a traumatic experience, one I’m sure I’ll remember for as long as I live,” said Yvonne. 

Over the years, Yvonne’s work has opened doors for her to speak at events and participate in panel discussions.

“The nurse kept asking me to swallow. I hated the feeling of the tube in my throat. So I started crying. Then I stopped crying because it is even more painful when you cry. I was telling God, ‘Cry also cannot, is it?’”

Doctors could not administer anything more powerful than over-the-counter painkillers because stronger medication would cause Yvonne’s intestines to stop functioning. They needed her bowels to continue moving as part of the treatment.

Then came the vomiting. Each time she retched, the motion pulled at the hysterectomy wound that was still healing, intensifying the pain.

She also had to be put on an intravenous drip. Every few days, the needle had to be changed. That meant the nurse had to find a new place on her hand to insert the new needle.

“After a while, my hand was swollen and they had to change hands. Then they ran out of space.”

They then had her fitted with a peripherally inserted central catheter to deliver medication and nutrition to her. For 17 days, she was not allowed food or fluids to avoid aggravating her intestinal system.

She remained nauseated throughout and “the pain never stopped”. Her constant companions were abdominal spasms, stomach bloating and distention, and bouts of vomiting. 

She could only sleep for 20 minutes at a time.

“Every day I’d wait and cry out, ‘God, where are You?’”

“I thought I could do anything”

This helplessness was new to Yvonne. This was a woman who once ran 10 half-marathons in a year when she was 29 and still recovering from a Caesarean delivery.

Until she ran her first half-marathon, Yvonne had only regularly run a few kilometres. After she won her first medal, she signed up for her next half-marathon that very afternoon. “I was addicted to the crossing of the finish line,” she said.

This was also a woman who enjoyed long hikes, weekly runs, high intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts and near-daily weights training.

While working and raising a young family – her children were three and five at the time – without a helper, she embarked on her her Master’s degree. Then she went on to pursue a Doctorate while working.

“I was living on little sleep, lots of coffee and lots of supplements. I thought I could do anything.”

Weights training has always been part of Yvonne’s workout routine.

For someone who thought she had mastered both her body and life, the medical emergency felt like a betrayal. But the enforced pause to the mad rush of activities gave Yvonne time to re-think her life. 

“I was like, ‘Never give up. No pain no gain.’ But I realised there is a cost to pain. Everything is permissible but is it beneficial?”

God’s sweet reply

As the days of her treatment turned into weeks, Yvonne despaired. By the end of the second week, she was close to giving up hope.

Church friends continued to visit her to pray for her and sing worship songs. Her husband was constantly by her side. But her energy was ebbing.

She who once read a book a week for a whole year found she no longer had the strength required to read. Instead, she coloured and painted, and listened to worship music on YouTube.

On Day 17 of her treatment, as she was colouring, the Mandarin worship song 數不盡 (Grace Beyond All Measure) started playing on YouTube.

Called Glory of God, this watercolour painting done with watercolour pencils is one of many Yvonne did while hospitalised. By the time she was discharged, she had filled an entire sketchbook with her paintings.

“It was a YouTube mix of songs, meaning I had no control over the choice of songs. When I heard it, I said, ‘God, this is for me. God, You know.’

“No one was there and I was tearing. Then God started to speak and we had a 45-minute discussion.”

In their talk, God told her that “God is your Surgeon”. What human doctors could not do, He could.

He also gave her the word ‘restoration’. “He wanted to restore my relationship with Him,” said Yvonne.

Since becoming a Christian at 17, Yvonne had always sought to honour and obey God in all that she did.  She read the Bible, prayed and served as a worship leader. But while she knew God loved her, it was head knowledge that never quite reached her heart.

When Yvonne turned 40, God had told her: “Why don’t you love Me and let Me love you?”

At that point, she did not understand what He meant.

But that day in hospital, He told her in Mandarin, the language she worships in: “你是有爸爸养的 (You have a Father who takes care of you).”

Said Yvonne: “That totally got me because for many years, I always felt I had to fend for myself.

At her first Sundown Marathon, Yvonne was so sleepy she wanted to stop to rest. Instead, she told herself: “Right foot, left foot. Don’t think. So long as you don’t stop, you will get there.” She finished the race.

“In my heart, I knew I have a Father God. I am not a child all alone in the world fending for myself. My Father is my Heavenly Father. I could really rest in Someone who knew me.

“That day, His presence was very sweet. I wanted to linger in it for a very long time.

“Psalm 27:4 came to me: One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.”

Living with a loving Father 

After that encounter, Yvonne “suddenly felt normal”.

“I was touching my own tummy. It was flat, not distended, no more funny sounds coming from it. I came out of the bed and was walking around. I felt normal.”

When the doctor came in the evening, he declared she was indeed better. Though her intestines had yet to become untangled, she was well enough to have the nasogastric tube removed. That night, she slept without painkillers.

In the next week, though she still had to be warded, Yvonne found a renewed vigour to read the Bible. During her 45-minute conversation with God, He had encouraged her to “rest and find delight in My words”.

“He told me, ‘圣经是黄金 (God’s Word is gold)’. I was mind-blown.

“In the past when I read the Bible, I read it to gain strength, to get something. But after that day, the Word was really for me to know my Father, to know His will.

“My attitude to the Word became very different. God became very real.”

After her medical emergencies, Yvonne has sought to make every single day count and to live purposefully for God.

Recently at a prayer meeting in church, God helped Yvonne to see the purpose behind her pain.

“I was always very healthy. He used my health to bring me to a place where He could speak to me.

“He helped me to see myself at that angle (of an outsider). I saw myself when my husband and mother left, going to the toilet while holding up the nasogastric tube. God said this to me, ‘I was there. I never left you.’

“He was there throughout everything – when they put in the tube, during sleepless painful nights.

“I really thank God. I gained something so precious. Can you imagine living to 80 and never knowing 我是爸爸养的 (I have a Father who takes care of me)? It was very, very painful but I am glad it happened, that restoration.”

Yvonne believes that the restoration is not merely for personal gain.

“I felt it was to restore me for the next 40 years and more, God willing, so that I can serve Him truly out of His love and grace for me and not out of my own striving.”

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