The Lord really gave me the words for this e-mail I sent out to family and friends regarding my mom's cancer update, so I'm just going to post it here. It best describes what has happened this week. The oncologist visit was on Wednesday the 3rd.
'My mom met with her oncologist today, and my dad, Sarah & I once again went with her. I am so happy to say that the brain MRI was negative for cancer (but, of course – positive for a brain :) ). This puts my mom’s cancer at stage 1. From the beginning of this journey, my whole family has seen God’s hand at work. I know some of you might be saying to yourself, “How can you say you see God’s hand at work in something as awful as your mom having cancer?” First of all, because we totally trust my mom’s life to the Lord. Every breath she has is a gift from Him, and He will cause the breath that is to be her last to escape from her – there is nothing any of us can do about that. Second, there are many small details that have shown us His sovereignty through all of this. I told you before that she wouldn’t have even gone to the doctor herself for this cough; the only reason she went to the doctor was to get established and just happened to mention this cough she has. I myself go to the same doctor and saw her about 2 weeks ago; she said she was sorry to hear about my mom. She said her gut was telling her not to do a chest X-ray, but “something” (I will add that we know it was Someone) told her to do it anyway. I will not bore you with repeating the tests that then took place; however, I will say that every single doctor involved in this process has commented – multiple times – at how fast this process has taken place for her. Apparently, the speed at which her appointments and treatment options have been presented to her is quite unusual. That, my friends, has been a huge answer to prayer. The thoracic surgeon told my mom that he would be praying throughout the lymph node biopsy that there would be no cancer. How sweet is that?! Today, at the oncology appointment, God literally took my breath away. Dr. B. walked into the room saying, “Congratulations.” My mom has a condition called sarcoidosis in her lymph nodes. It’s a type of autoimmune disease that can lay dormant for many years. This condition can, apparently, flare up sometimes when someone gets cancer. Sarcoidosis is most likely what was causing my mom’s cough – not the tumor. And, if she hadn’t been coughing, she wouldn’t have mentioned any health problems to the doctor, and the cancer would not have been detected as soon as it was. Dr. Buaman then said that the last time she met with my mom that she was very confident (unfortunately confident) that my mom had cancer in her lymph nodes and that it was stage 3 cancer. She said that although she’s been “fooled before,” it’s only happened one other time before. She said this is something that is “talked about a lot” in cancer education, but that it happens less than 1% of the time. God is so good. All the time, He is good. Please do not misunderstand me; if the results had been different, if she had stage 3 cancer, I fully believe that God has still been revealing Himself to us throughout this process. He is teaching us that He is the Great Physician; He is in control; He can do the impossible; He gives us strength. Just today, my mom said she picked out a necklace awhile ago and never knew how much she would cling to the verse inscribed on it: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” This is what God is teaching us – that in the midst of trial, suffering, tribulation, fear and uncertainty, HE IS HERE.
My mom goes in for her surgery to have 1/3 of the left lower lobe of her lung removed on Monday. The doctor is also going to remove the lymph nodes in the pathway of the lobe. Once the surgery is complete, Dr. B. (the oncologist) will look at the tumor and the nodes under a microscope to first determine if there is any microscopic cancer in the nodes and, depending on those results, give the cancer a final staging. If there was microscopic cancer in these lymph nodes, the final staging would be stage 2, and at that point she would need some chemotherapy. We would greatly appreciate your continued prayer for the following:
- Wisdom, steady hands for the doctor performing the surgery on Monday; peace for my mom, quick recovery and minimal pain.
- The surgery to remove all traces of cancer and God would continue to prevent it from spreading.
- Final staging of stage 1.
- Continued protection from spiritual opposition and continued peace and strengthening of faith for our family."
No comments:
Post a Comment