You’ll learn the reason for the title later on in this blog.  My first thought was to use the word “cancer” but that was too much of a “shock” word and really isn’t the topic of this blog.  The topic of this blog is once again another example of God working in my life unbeknownst to me.  If you’re tired of those topics from me, you better skip this one as well.  As a matter of fact, if you haven’t noticed, my blogs all sound the same and all have the same theme.  I’m not much of a writer.  Just a guy who seems to go through the same challenges.  Probably for the same reason … that being that God knows I need help in the same area(s) of life.  That is always trusting Him.

On Friday, February 22, 2019 I started experiencing severe abdominal pain.  Like nothing I have ever felt before.  Arlyn was having a girls weekend trip to St. Louis(don’t I have great timing).  I tried eating, not eating, sleeping in every position available, not sleeping, sitting, whatever, to get the pain to stop.  Finally, about 11:10 p.m. I called my dad, asked him and mom to come out so mom could watch Benjamin and dad could take me to the ER.  Not ideal for many reasons, but this was unusual pain and I wanted it stopped.  After an entire night of tests and CT scans, it was determined I had a diaphragmatic hernia(the terms you learn in the hospital.  Even my phone has now memorized that phrase(among others)).  My colon had worked a big part of itself up into my chest cavity and was pressing itself against my diaphragm.  Needless to say Saturday morning, I had emergency surgery that lasted 3 hours.  While the two doctors that worked on me told me it was a very difficult surgery, it was successful.  They were able to put a piece of synthetic tissue back in my diaphragmatic wall so I will never have that problem again.  Oh … and by the way … one of the doctors on call that weekend who helped in the surgery just “happened” to be the same doctor who performed my heart valve surgery.  “Lucky”, huh??  I call it God.  I came home Thursday(more on that later) and hope to slowly get back to work tomorrow.

So, why the word “cancer” mentioned?  Glad you asked.  That CT scan they took early Saturday morning?  It also revealed that I have spots on my pancreas and my liver.  They did a biopsy the Monday after my surgery and determined it was cancer.  However; it is the slowest moving cancer type there is.  It is called Neuroendocrine Cancer(another new term my phone now knows).  As my two doctors mentioned along with the cancer dr I spoke with, “if there is a good cancer to have, this is it.”  It moves very slow and is very treatable.  As a matter of fact, a procedure was developed about 5 years ago specifically for this type of cancer.  So, what’s the next step?  Glad you asked.  I go to the doctor for a complete followup and more training as to this type of cancer.  Then about every 10-12 weeks, they will run a series of tests to monitor the growth.  The growth rate will dictate the treatment.  The most important question I wanted to know was life time frame.  With typical pancreatic or liver cancer it can be days/weeks/months.  With this type, we are talking in multiple decades.  A large percentage of patients with this type caught this early on live 15-20-30 years.

Don’t we serve an amazing God?  A year and a half ago, a bump on my head led to the discovery of a failing heart valve.  A year and a half later, a diaphragmatic hernia led to the discovery of cancer.  Without this CT scan, who knows when the cancer would have been found. It humbles me over and over how much He oversees every step of our lives.  How dare I(we) try to control our lives ourselves.

All I can say is I’m so blessed by God to have what I have; to have been where I have been; and to be saved by such a gentle, loving God.  I have no idea what God has in store for me over the rest of my life;  I really don’t.  But it doesn’t matter.  I’m going to just keep doing my best to serve Him, trust Him, speak His name and share God’s provision with those I have that chance.

Oh … and the title?  I was supposed to be released Wednesday night.  The doctor told me that.  Her nurse told me that.  I was unhooked by everything and ready to go.  But somehow the release orders fell out and they had to keep me there one more night.  I wasn’t happy.  Don’t tell me I can go, then come back and tell me there’s no paperwork reflecting that.  I ended up spending one more night(no use fighting the system).  The next morning I had doctors and nurses all apologizing to me for their error.  I left at 8:30 a.m.  I have no idea why I couldn’t go home.   God never revealed the reason to me.  However, He has dictated every step of my life.  Maybe He needed to teach me patience.  I wanted out of there.  But, if God has other plans, I need to be patient and wait on His timing.  I probably won’t ever know the reason.  God doesn’t ever promise us the reasons he enacts things in our lives.  He doesn’t have an obligation to us.  He loves us and has given us so much.  We just need to TRUST HIS WORD and TRUST HIS LEADING.

I don’t know what you’re going through.  I don’t have to know what you’re going through.  All I can tell you is He knows exactly what you’re going through, and He will take you through it.  All the Way.  Step by Step. His hand in Yours.  We have nothing to fear.  He is an amazing God.

Enjoy your week!