GOD WHISPERS IN OUR THOUGHTS

GOD WHISPERS IN OUR THOUGHTS

     Major surgery was scheduled to be performed on my husband on July 12th, 2010. In fact, it was the second one in a two month period. Events leading up to that particular surgery were filled with God-incidences, not the coincidences that strange events are often called.

     A hernia in his left abdominal area was noticed by my husband in February, many months before the first surgery of June 9th. Also a strange hard nodule had appeared in his left groin area. His urologist in a large city advised not to have anything done about them unless they started being a bother to him because they were not serious. That seemed like good news. Little did we know what was going on inside my husband's body.

     The area around the nodule did become bothersome, so my husband asked his primary care doctor at his yearly checkup if he should have it checked further. That doctor set up an appointment with a surgeon for a consult, just in case the hernia needed to be repaired immediately.
     I went to the appointment with my husband at the surgeon's office. After my husband told the surgeon about the history of the two bothersome areas, the surgeon said he needed to palpate the two areas, which he did. It took all of two minutes.

     The surgeon commented, "I'm setting you up for an appointment for a CT scan in the morning. Is that convenient?"

     That was shocking news since we had been led to believe that the two areas were not any problem unless they became painful.

     At the followup meeting with the surgeon after the CT scan we heard more shocking news, that being that my husband had a nonfunctioning kidney and he needed to have surgery to remove a tumor on his testicle, as well as the hernia repaired. The surgeon said my husband needed to see a urologist and suggested a particular one for whom he had great respect.

     After an informative meeting with the urologist, the first surgery was scheduled. That surgery resulted in repairing the hernia and removing the left testicle because of the presence of a carcinoma. More surgery was scheduled later to remove the left kidney, the ureter tube leading from the kidney to the bladder and any other suspicious looking lesions.

     During the second surgery on July 12th, which was anticipated to take an hour and a half, well into the third hour a nurse came to the surgery waiting room, called me into a conference room and said the urologist who was assisting the surgeon wanted to talk to me. They had discovered multiple cancers in the left abdominal area.

     I was expecting to hear that the surgery was over, but the urologist came into the room with perspiration pouring from his forehead and began our conversation by asking me if I knew why the surgeon ordered a CT scan at the initial exam. I was clueless. The urologist said he was just curious.

     Then he proceeded to tell me that he had removed the cancerous kidney, the ureter and its large tumor, also a small part of the bladder. He said he had also removed multiple tumors from the adrenal gland and multiple tumors from the abdominal area. He asked again if I had any idea why the surgeon had initially ordered the CT scan after just a routine palpation of the hernia and the nodule. I became curious also.
     Then the urologist told me that he had to return to surgery since the surgeon was probably finished with his exploratory exam of the affected area. He informed me that the surgeon would be out of surgery to consult with me in a few hours.

     I was shocked at the extent of the cancer, but the urologist assured me that he and the surgeon had done a thorough job of removing all of the cancer; that, in fact, the surgeon was also removing a portion of the bowel because of a tumor on it.

     After another few hours the surgeon came to the surgery waiting room, sat down beside me and told me in detail everything he had done in the extensive surgery, telling me that the "mother" of the cancer seemed to be in the spermatic cord, which he had removed.

     I took the bull by the horns and asked the surgeon the same question the urologist had asked me, why did he order a CT scan at the first office visit?

     The surgeon began telling me his reasoning. He said that when he palpated the two areas at the initial exam that a thought came to his mind about his favorite professor in medical school, one who taught oncology. The surgeon commented that the professor was a tall, athletic, robust man like my husband. He related that the professor began to feel listless and weak, so he ordered a CT scan which showed that he had multiple cancers in his liver. The quick remembrance of that professor is what led my husband's surgeon to order the CT scan rather than just passing off the two areas of concern as normal problems for a man the age of my husband.
     The act of ordering the CT scan saved my husband's life. It showed the areas of major concern, the nonfunctioning kidney, the blocked ureter and the tumor on the testicle.

     I know for a fact that God is the one who whispered the memory about the professor in the mind of the surgeon. Then the surgeon acted upon the suggestive thought that my husband's problems might be more extensive than it seemed. Indeed they were.

     If the CT scan had not been ordered, the cancers would have grown until it was too late for my husband to recover from any treatment.

     As it turned out, my husband recovered from the extensive surgery quickly. Both doctors referred to my husband as amazing, a marvel and the strongest man they've ever seen because of his rapid recovery.
     The pathology report identified the type of cancer as a rare sarcoma of which only two hundred people are diagnosed a year. The surgeon ordered a consult with MD Anderson doctors. The oncologist at that hospital recommended traditional strong chemotherapy, no radiation, and said that the chemo will cure any remaining small cancers. Then he told my husband that he will not die of cancer.

     We know that the conclusion would have been different and it would have been devastating if the CT scan had not been ordered by the surgeon. It was the first step toward saving my husband's life. The second step was the extensive surgery performed by the urologist and the surgeon, being cautious to remove all visible tumors. The third step is coming up, which will be chemotherapy. The chemo which will do the final sweep of killing any remaining microscopic tumors.

     My husband owes his life to God's divine intervention in the matter. God whispered the memory of the professor into the mind of the surgeon. The two doctors assisted in saving his life with their diligence.

     Thank you God for your wise whisperings in the mind of the surgeon.

     Thank you Dr. Robison and Dr. Daniels for taking the time to remove all the tumors, thus saving the life of my husband.

     We can even thank the chemotherapy for being the final gift of God in completing the life saving activities.