This morning I decided to sit on the front porch swing, drink coffee, and enjoy the beautiful creation surrounding me. As I was arranging the pillows on the swing, I noticed movement. I quickly glanced again and saw one of those green tree frogs firmly attached to my pillow. I picked up the pillow only to have it jump on to the swing. The more I coerced it to flee, the more possessive of my swing it became. I’d like to say I won the battle, but I gave it the swing and I settled down in my Cracker Barrel rocking chair on the other end of the porch—I decided it was a day to be nice and share the porch.
I wanted to be outside because I believe my front porch is my new favorite room in our house. It’s peaceful (when said frog is not around) and we have beautiful trees surrounding it. I wanted to be outside and in a good peaceful place because I had to make some phone calls that I didn’t really want to make. It’s never fun being the messenger of news that you would rather not be true.
So let me just dive in and explain what the doctor told us yesterday.
As we were being dismissed from the hospital, the doctor told me of the results of a typical test that they do when they take biopsies. He said that one of the tests they normally run is a perinatal wash. Basically, they put sterile saline solution into my pelvic area, take a sample, let stuff settle (that is my translation), and then they screen the stuff that settled at the bottom. He let us know that the stuff that settled was positive for microscopic cancer cells. I asked him to explain what that means. He said he honestly did not know what that meant for us. He did say that this combination of positive wash but negative biopsies was not common. He let me know that he would be taking this to the Tumor Board at Mayo next Wednesday, August 1st. We go for a follow up visit on August 3rdto get staples out and find out what the Tumor Board thinks. I told them to think hard and way outside of the box because I do not plan to repeat the chemo process. My sweet oncologist called last night to talk about the findings, she agreed with our gynecologist oncologist that this is not a normal case. She said, “You’ve got us with our head in our hands.”
And yall—that is all we know—which basically means we know nothing!
But guess what? I Know the one who does know. I Know the one who spoke the world into being. I Know the one who created my body with a redundant sigmoid colon. I Know the one who knows my name. I Know the one who orchestrated my surgery at this exact time to find these microscopic cancer cells. I Know Him. I Know Jesus.
Our family certainly wasn’t expecting that news, but we still trust in Him to guide our days. This morning one of the verses I found in my Bible study was Psalm 9:10 “Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you. Because we do know Him, we trust Him no matter what news we receive.”
One of the last things my doctor told me was to celebrate the good. Yall—that is what we are doing. I am home from a very difficult surgery and recovering without a bag! My body is slowing learning how to function. I’m not in the hospital—I’m with family. The Lord is watching out for us!
Ways that you can specifically pray:
- That God would help the doctors to think way outside the box.
- That God would get the glory in this.
- That my immunity would be strong enough to kill these microscopic cells.
- That our girls will settle into this new school year and learn what God wants them to learn. (Hannah starts 8th grade at Martha Puckett Middle School on August 2nd. Leighanne starts at South Georgia College on August 10th. Sara begins her new semester at College Pines on August 20th.)
- That our focus will be on enjoying everday we have together.
We love you all!
In Him whom is able,
