My Wake-up Call

My family and I super celebrated New Year's Eve on December 31, 2014!  After all, it had been such a different year.  Prior to 2014, whenever a doctor would inquire about my past medical history, I would boast six childbirths and nothing more. By the end of 2014, I had a multipage medical rap sheet. To the world, my life had seemed fine, but I had known for quite some time that I was in trouble. My body began to rebel. During my annual physical in January, my doctor asked if I ever had a colonoscopy, I shamefully replied I had a barium test about ten years ago. Of course, he and I agreed a colon screening was probably at least ten years overdue.  To this day, I think I still would not have followed through on his suggestion unless I had developed gallbladder problems in February. Gallbladder surgery followed in early Spring. The screening colonoscopy followed my recovery from that surgery.

The lifelong stress I thought I'd been handling so well had weakened my immune system, allowing a large (6cm) growth to develop along my colon wall. Surgery was unavoidable.  Then an even more horrific thing happened. I began to believe I was nearing the end of my life, However, when the results of all the secondary tests of other vital organs arrived, my awesome surgeon set me back on a positive track with these words, "If this was something to be more concerned about, your other organs would already have been damaged. Since your organs, x-rays, and blood work are exceptionally good, I'm choosing to believe everything is going to be fine. I am not even going to send you to an oncologist, unless you so desire." Emotionally, I replied, "I am choosing to believe as you do." However, even with my doctor's optimism and the support of my friends and family, the month between the discovery and the colon re-section was indeed a lonesome walk,. That particular part of the story is quite complex, and warrants far more attention in a later blog. What I want to share here is that when my surgeon read the pathology report stating, "there is no evidence of and no reason to ever believe this situation will be anything other than benign,"  I realized God isn't finished with me yet...