Early in 2020 my oncologist at the University of Michigan’s Sarcoma Center called to tell me that the results of the latest CT scan showed 8 tumors: 4 in my lungs ( they had been treated by radiation, but were still there), two in my liver, one in my pancreas, and one in my spine, The number and location of the tumors made surgery and radiation impractical, leaving only chemo as the means of treatment. To logistically plan from that point forward I asked him how much time chemo would buy me and he said, “about 6 months.”
Well, I do not need to state the obvious here, but it is hard to see room for this news to be anything but bad. However, almost immediately I got some good news about the treatment regimen for these tumors.
The only treatment I could get that would influence all these sites was chemotherapy. But I could get the chemo infusions done in South Bend, IN, only a 35-minute drive instead of the one way 2.5-hour drive to U of M! This was terrific news, and I set about arranging for this to happen. As you know, everything, and I mean everything, is more difficult to do in a pandemic (Covid-19 was raging during this time), but Praise God, He paved a way to make this happen, and I began chemo treatments for the second time in this journey in April of 2020. I now had a whole new group of fellow patients and healthcare workers to serve in any way I was guided to by the Holy Spirit in providing small acts of kindness.
When we selflessly do these deeds, big or small, and we express gratitude for being recruited to faithfully act in God’s behalf, we are “coming near to God,” knowing that He will “come near to us” (James 4:8). The more we do these things, the more grateful we are, the more grateful we are the more we trust Him to be with us through the good and bad in our own lives, which increases our faith and makes us more grateful. Jesus is the “author of our faith” and knows exactly what we need to experience for our faith to mature and grow strong, and a mature and strong faith is what we need to get through the most difficult trials we face on this side of eternity.
