Almost three years ago my mom was rushed to the hospital with symptoms of a heart attack. She lives about two hours away from me so I wasn't able to rush up there right away. I spent lots of time on the phone with her as they did this test and that test and everything came back normal.
She happened to mention to me that she was still having chest pain and her oxygen saturation was in the 80s. They did have her on oxygen at the time. Now as a nurse, it concerned me that they hadn't done any test to rule out a pulmonary embolus (blood clot to the lung). This is a serious and life-threatening problem. So I encouraged them to do a CT scan of her lungs to rule that out. Luckily the scan came back clear for a PE, but it did show a mass on her thyroid.
Over the next month she went in for many tests and a biopsy which revealed that she had thyroid cancer. Thyroid cancer is usually called the "good cancer to have", as the prognosis is usually wonderful. Try believing that when it's your mom who just got that news. We were shocked. So, she had her thyroid removed, had some radiation, started on synthetic thyroid hormone and all was to be well.
Except the next year when she went for her scan it was back - that stupid cancer. So in she went for more tests and more radiation (which meant isolation) and the battle began all over again. Not to mention that there were times when she wasn't able to work during all of this.
So about a month ago she went back for yet another scan. We were so confident that everything would be fine. I mean, no way could the cancer be back again for a THIRD time.
Boy were we wrong!
So the tests confirmed that there was still thyroid cancer cells in her neck. She was referred to specialists in two states who were scratching their heads as to what to do. A couple of days waiting to hear back from the doctors about what to do turned into a week and then a month. And we were talking about heading down to MD Anderson for a third opinion and calling up an old physician friend in another state who specializes in oncology.
I don't know what happened but just a couple of weeks ago, I watched mom's nervousness and fear turn into peace and comfort. She told me very matter-of-fact one day, " I am not worried. I have talked to God about this and I am claiming victory over this cancer". Well, I thought to myself, you just go ahead with your peace because I am worrying enough for the both of us. I felt like climbing a ladder right up to my Heavenly Father and having a chat with Him about what "we" could do to fix this. (OK, you know you've been there - thinking you know more than God!). Well, my amazing God surely put me in my place.
Today, mom went in for more testing to determine exactly where the cancer was so they could decide how to kill it.
Except that it was gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As in , there was cancer there and now it's not!!!!!!!!!!!! And let me just say that I am pretty sure I know who is responsible for this.
And I am talking to Him about it tonight....
(My God, you are amazing and I love you more than life itself).
~Paige
She happened to mention to me that she was still having chest pain and her oxygen saturation was in the 80s. They did have her on oxygen at the time. Now as a nurse, it concerned me that they hadn't done any test to rule out a pulmonary embolus (blood clot to the lung). This is a serious and life-threatening problem. So I encouraged them to do a CT scan of her lungs to rule that out. Luckily the scan came back clear for a PE, but it did show a mass on her thyroid.
Over the next month she went in for many tests and a biopsy which revealed that she had thyroid cancer. Thyroid cancer is usually called the "good cancer to have", as the prognosis is usually wonderful. Try believing that when it's your mom who just got that news. We were shocked. So, she had her thyroid removed, had some radiation, started on synthetic thyroid hormone and all was to be well.
Except the next year when she went for her scan it was back - that stupid cancer. So in she went for more tests and more radiation (which meant isolation) and the battle began all over again. Not to mention that there were times when she wasn't able to work during all of this.
So about a month ago she went back for yet another scan. We were so confident that everything would be fine. I mean, no way could the cancer be back again for a THIRD time.
Boy were we wrong!
So the tests confirmed that there was still thyroid cancer cells in her neck. She was referred to specialists in two states who were scratching their heads as to what to do. A couple of days waiting to hear back from the doctors about what to do turned into a week and then a month. And we were talking about heading down to MD Anderson for a third opinion and calling up an old physician friend in another state who specializes in oncology.
I don't know what happened but just a couple of weeks ago, I watched mom's nervousness and fear turn into peace and comfort. She told me very matter-of-fact one day, " I am not worried. I have talked to God about this and I am claiming victory over this cancer". Well, I thought to myself, you just go ahead with your peace because I am worrying enough for the both of us. I felt like climbing a ladder right up to my Heavenly Father and having a chat with Him about what "we" could do to fix this. (OK, you know you've been there - thinking you know more than God!). Well, my amazing God surely put me in my place.
Today, mom went in for more testing to determine exactly where the cancer was so they could decide how to kill it.
Except that it was gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As in , there was cancer there and now it's not!!!!!!!!!!!! And let me just say that I am pretty sure I know who is responsible for this.
And I am talking to Him about it tonight....
(My God, you are amazing and I love you more than life itself).
~Paige
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Jennifer
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