First, on Tuesday, my friend and co-worker, Jill told me she has a cancerous tumor on her thyroid. And as they were working on diagnosing that, they found lymphoma in a neighboring lymph node. She has surgery on Wed, Oct 19 and while they remove her thyroid and tumor, they are going to remove and biopsy her lymph node to see what type it is. She said she would share with our team on our staff meeting on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Travis told me that Stephanie’s throat cancer is back. Stephanie is Chuck’s wife (Travis’s childhood best friend) and she beat it a couple of years ago and it is back with a vengeance. Surgery isn’t an option so she’s going to do radiation and chemo and pray she beats it. She may lose her voice, she may be on a feeding tube the rest of her life…its bad. She is pretty scared, understandably so.
Then on Thursday, Kristie sent me a text that said,”I need some huge prayers. Drew thought he broke ribs in rugby. Went for-rays and they found a mass in his thyroid big enough to displace his trachea. Ultrasound shows 2 nodules, with the biggest 3”x2”x3”. They ordered a biopsy so hopefully will have answers soon.” After conversing about that, I asked for prayers back. That during our staff meeting I would be strong and supportive and not fall apart.
Fast forward to my staff meeting. It is my boss, Kirt, and the four of us gals (Jill, Veronica, Donna and I). We’ve been on the same team for over two years and know each other well. After Jill tells us all, not a dry eye on that video call, Kirt says, “Would you all mind if I lead you in an ‘Our Father’”? We all emphatically agreed. He started the Lord’s Prayer and we all joined in. I am still reeling from the impact of that moment. I am so impressed with the courage and discernment that a prayer is exactly what we all needed.
Yesterday was a tough day. Everyone was tired, M&M are looking to move into a smaller house, so they are stressed about that, and my mom was having an especially rough day and cancelled plans. She was very upset, thinking she was disappointing us (she wasn’t) and went home early feeling very sick from chemo on Wednesday. I called her from the airport and told her to drink - that she’s dehydrated and she’d feel better if she was hydrated. She drank a Gatorade. Then proceeded to vomit up everything. Ugh. I felt horrible - I was the one who gave her the advice to get liquids in her quick. She’s feeling better today, thank goodness.
It’s just all so heavy. I give my heart’s cry to the Lord. I ready Psalm 143 this morning and it helped. I just have to keep focused on Him, and not dwell on the bad stuff. And pray. For all to be healed. For all involved to not worry or be afraid.
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