The Lewis County Herald - 1/2/24
One of my best friends, a college roommate, brought a matter to my attention on Christmas Eve.
Christmas Eve was on Sunday. At some point a few years ago we got into the routine of making contact just about every Sunday.
He reminded me that one year earlier, at 12:40 p.m., I “called with the awesome and praising God news – no cancer!”
I hadn’t realized it had been a year since Tammy and I talked with my oncologist who reviewed the results of a blood test I had taken a few weeks earlier.
The doctor had given us the news we (and so many others) had prayed we would receive:
“I think at this point, the surgery alone should be sufficient and this should hopefully be cured with that alone, based on what we’re seeing.”
Three months before that, on September 27, 2022, I had surgery to remove my entire colon and a couple dozen lymph nodes.
When we received that news, just before Christmas 2022, I had a loop ileostomy and was still healing from the surgery. We had been expecting the call from the oncologist.
On the day before Christmas 2023, I wasn’t wondering about test results. I wasn’t expecting a call from an 859 area code.
My ileostomy had been reversed 10 months earlier, and as a bonus to that Valentine’s Day procedure, the surgeon discovered and removed a mass the “size of a mango.” The mass wasn’t cancerous. Just some scar tissue from the original surgery.
Follow-ups with the surgeon, oncologist, and my local doctor all culminated in our receiving great news. My incisions had healed and it no longer hurt to get up from a sitting position.
I was doing what most men typically do on the day before Christmas. I was wondering if I still had time to order a gift and have it delivered.
The simple reminder from my friend triggered a flood of memories since my cancer diagnosis on my birthday in 2022.
I am glad that Tammy and I decided almost immediately after my diagnosis to share the details of my journey. We didn’t know what roads we would travel or where they would lead us.
I am thankful for the responses we have received. As thankful as for the prayers that have been answered.
Each time someone tells us they have taken a cancer screening because of my story it assures us we made the right decision to tell it.
As we begin a new year, I ask that you review the recommendations for being screened, and resolve to follow them.
My cancer was discovered during a routine screening. I wasn’t experiencing any of the symptoms. I had no family history.
Visit cancer.org/getscreened for cancer screening FAQs, including information about how to schedule a screening test, how to afford screening with our without insurance, and more.
May each gift we receive remind us of the eternal gift that God gave when he sent his son. (John 3:16)
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