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My Story
As some of you may already know, I was diagnosed with cancer just after the end of the 2005 peach crop. Cancer was not something I ever thought I would deal with. Suddenly it was something I was dealing with. I will try to share this briefly. At the end of August 2005 I was still not feeling well after the birth of our third baby. I went to find out why. I was running a low-grade fever most of the time, sweating at night, had chills, and some lumps in my groin that hurt. Those lumps turned out to be lymph nodes and CT scans revealed that they were not only swollen there, they were swollen everywhere. I had a biopsy done of nodes swollen in my neck. The results came back in September. Non-Hodgkin's anaplastic T-cell lymphoma. I was in stage 3. Although I was diagnosed in Abilene, we decided to do treatment with MD Anderson in Houston. It was hard making the 8 hr drive with 3 little kids and living in a motel while we were down there. But it what we felt we should do. We definitely learned a lot being down there. :-) I took a round of CHOPS chemotherapy every 21 days for a total of 6
rounds. I took the first round the first part of December. It made me feel sick,
and so strange. After Christmas we left to do the second round. After 3 days in
a motel that are just a blur, we headed home. I felt really drained and wired at
the same time. We didn't know that our house was burning on our way home.
Somehow when we got to Gorman God gave me the strength to handle everything I needed to. David left me and the kids at our pastor's house and headed on to Carbon to see what damage the fire had done. While he was gone, Gorman authorities said that Gorman needed to be ready to evacuate. I helped our pastor's wife get her kids ready and the belongings they would need. David came back as soon as he could and took us to his parent's house. When we got there, again, God gave me strength the next day to be able to help manage the house and fix meals. Thankfully, I had my sister-in-law to help me also. I would have never made it without her help. I learned to wear a bandana after my hair fell out. MD Anderson also gave me a wig, so I got to try out a new hairstyle. (I also found out that being bald is much more economical- my shampoo usage dropped way down! :-)) I had 2 more rounds of chemo after the fire and then they tested me to see
how I was doing. The tests came back with no cancer activity and no lymph nodes
swollen abnormally. I then had to do 2 more rounds. Then in April 2006 I did
tests that again confirmed that I was indeed cancer free.
I thank God for my healing. He is the one that gets the glory. I believe that He led us to go to MD Anderson and so it is only through His doing that I am healed. I have learned a lot during all this and am sure that I have a lot left to learn. And I have a desire to learn more. One thing I have learned is how much I did not know. There was a lot I did
not know about nutrition, and a lot that I still do not know. But I am learning.
Cancer will continue to be a growing problem in America until we are willing to
learn the truth on the issue. I do not know the answer, but have learned enough
to know that there is not one yet.
Another thing that battling cancer has done for me is made me realize my total dependence on God and helped me to see that He really is there for me, always. I have seen things that I would have never seen in my life. I have seen Him take care of me in ways that I would have never seen. I have seen Him bring me through things that I thought would crushed me. They would have without His help. The trials were not easy, but He got me through. I am thankful that no matter what happens to me or what disaster comes my way, my God is always with me. He truly will never leave or forsake us.
*Update!* I have continued to do follow up testing and have continued to receive an all clear report. We are pleased to say that I am now expecting our 4th child in Nov 2008! We are very happy and very excited. God is faithful, no matter what.
This song is Blessed Be Your NameThis song really ministered to me during my battle with cancer.To view the lyrics for this song, click here.Thanks to mgcpa for this song and the lyricsSpecial thanks to hypergurl.com for the player code
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The
latest follow up tests in Jan 2008 have again shown that I am still cancer free.
