When Cancer Strikes

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you:
and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned.”
Isaiah 43:1-3

I never thought cancer would cross my door.  I’ve felt vulnerable in my life to other diseases, to growing old, to accidents…but, cancer…that just somehow seemed far removed.  Just yesterday, however, it didn’t even knock, but bolted right in, acting haughty and entitled.

I felt an indescribable blow to my head and heart when the doctor announced that tests showed my husband had bladder cancer.  My husband who eats the model diet, exercises daily, doesn’t smoke or drink…he has bladder cancer??

I asked him to repeat what he said…surely I’d misunderstood. He repeated the same words, this time also reading from the test report.  Time stood still.  I fell back in my chair.  My husband just nodded grimly.

“We need to do an exam,” the doctor said.  My husband laid flat on the table and the doctor used a long probe with a light to travel inside him till reaching his bladder.  Suddenly, there on the monitor was an ugly, misshapen and bloody mass about half an inch in size erupting from otherwise healthy, pink bladder tissue.

“That’s the tumor,” the doctor said. “Can you see it?”

“Yes,” I whispered, breathing faster and feeling a sense of outrage at this hideous blob that threatened our future.

We’ve scheduled the operation for next week.  We won’t know till then if there are other affected areas.  If we’ve caught it in the early stages, it’s treatable, the doctor says.  If it’s spread, we’ll face a different set of options.

Our minds have been swirling about what food, stress or environmental factors could have caused this.  We have several theories.

Are you or someone you know battling cancer?  Are you a cancer survivor?  Please share your story here and any lessons learned.

Meantime, here are links full of remarkable resources that family and friends have been sharing — their prayers being the most precious of all.

God bless you in your journey.

RELATED LINKS

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/bladder-cancer/DS00177

http://fibromyalgia-irritable-bowel-candida-support.com/anti-fungal-diet.aspx

http://www.vci.org/

http://biocarehospital.com/

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20120602/LIFESTYLE/120539876?tc=ar

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