This morning I decided to sit on the front porch swing,
drink coffee, and enjoy the beautiful creation surrounding me. As I was arranging the pillows on the swing,
I noticed movement. I quickly glanced
again and saw one of those green tree frogs firmly attached to my pillow. I picked up the pillow only to have it jump
on to the swing. The more I coerced it
to flee, the more possessive of my swing it became. I’d like to say I won the battle, but I gave
it the swing and I settled down in my Cracker Barrel rocking chair on the other
end of the porch—I decided it was a day to be nice and share the porch.
I wanted to be outside because I believe my front porch is
my new favorite room in our house. It’s
peaceful (when said frog is not around) and we have beautiful trees surrounding
it. I wanted to be outside and in a good
peaceful place because I had to make some phone calls that I didn’t really want
to make. It’s never fun being the
messenger of news that you would rather not be true.
So let me just dive in and explain what the doctor told us
yesterday.
As we were being dismissed from the hospital, the doctor
told me of the results of a typical test that they do when they take
biopsies. He said that one of the tests
they normally run is a perinatal wash.
Basically, they put sterile saline solution into my pelvic area, take a
sample, let stuff settle (that is my translation), and then they screen
the stuff that settled at the bottom. He
let us know that the stuff that settled was positive for microscopic cancer
cells. I asked him to explain what that
means. He said he honestly did not know
what that meant for us. He did say that
this combination of positive wash but negative biopsies was not common. He let me know that he would be taking this
to the Tumor Board at Mayo next Wednesday, August 1st. We go for a follow up visit on August 3rd
to get staples out and find out what the Tumor Board thinks. I told them to think hard and way outside of
the box because I do not plan to repeat the chemo process. My sweet oncologist called last night to talk
about the findings, she agreed with our gynecologist oncologist that this is
not a normal case. She said, “You’ve got
us with our head in our hands.”
And yall—that is all we know—which basically means we know
nothing!
But guess what? I Know
the one who does know. I Know the one
who spoke the world into being. I Know
the one who created my body with a redundant sigmoid colon. I Know the one who
knows my name. I Know the one who orchestrated my surgery at this exact time to
find these microscopic cancer cells. I Know Him. I Know Jesus.
Our family certainly wasn’t expecting that news, but we
still trust in Him to guide our days. This
morning one of the verses I found in my Bible study was Psalm 9:10 “Those who know your name trust
in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you. Because we do know Him, we trust Him no
matter what news we receive.”
One of the last things my doctor told me was to celebrate
the good. Yall—that is what we are
doing. I am home from a very difficult
surgery and recovering without a bag! My
body is slowing learning how to function.
I’m not in the hospital—I’m with family.
The Lord is watching out for us!
Ways that you can specifically pray:
1-That God would help the doctors to think way outside the
box.
2- That God would get the glory in this.
3- That my immunity would
be strong enough to kill these microscopic cells.
4- That our girls will settle into this new school year and
learn what God wants them to learn.
(Hannah starts 8th grade at Martha Puckett Middle School on
August 2nd. Leighanne starts
at South Georgia College on August 10th. Sara begins her new semester at College Pines
on August 20th.)
5- That our focus will be on enjoying everday we have
together.
We love you all!
In Him whom is able,
Julie
