Well, here I am. Sitting in an adjustable hospital bed. Not unpleasant, just not where I expected to be.Before you get all worried, please know that I continue to trust God. I’ll try to delicately tell you about it without all the references to my bodily functions. At the end of June (2022), I had my entire girlie parts removed because of uterine cancer. I was clear with no signs of anything leftover. I was unafraid then and I am unafraid now. The beginning of November I began to have pain in my “nether regions”. The doc said it was probably just constipation (I can’t believe I just wrote that word…) Without going into detail, she was right…. Sorta. After 2 months of constant pain and being in bed (THAT is not my jam!) I finally got a doc that really explored what was going on. *Quick note: If you know me very well, you know that going to doctors are not my thing. I would rather find out the root of the problem and take care of it as naturally as possible… but God had another plan. * The CT scans, the MRI and the biopsy showed that there is a 6.2 cm mass above my vaginal cuff. (I’ll bet you didn’t even know you have a cuff there did you? Me neither.) That mass is bulging into the bowel/rectum (I can’t believe I am using these nasty words…) thereby create a pretty serious stoppage. What got me to the emergency room is a suspicion of sepsis. (spoiler alert….it was not that….) The biopsy done on the mass showed cancer. So I have surgery scheduled for Tuesday at 1:00-ish. Now the fun part – I just trust God…. And you can’t change my mind. Psalm 31 says: “Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.This I declare about the Lord:He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him. “ __________________
Soooo, here I sit in room# 126 in Tucson Medical Center being grateful that God allows me to trust him! - Scared? Nope
- Pain? Yep! Lots…
- Do I know the plan? Yep! “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jer. 29:11.
And that, my friends, is ALL I need to know.
- Scared? Nope
- Pain? Yep! Lots…
- Do I know the plan? Yep! “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jer. 29:11.
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Gratitude for years….. I’ve been trying to figure out why it is that I feel so much gratitude for this past year’s introduction to and living with cancer. I have always felt that if I just said the word “cancer” that would bring it on and jinx me somehow. Here is the story: On May 5th, I discovered some random bleeding from my girlie bits. Since it didn’t stop, I went to the doc and they discovered it was uterine (aka: endometrial) cancer. The solution was to rid me of my girlie bits and hope it worked! Well, June 28th, I did just that and the follow-up biopsy confirmed the cancer was gone! The whole time leading up to that, I was unafraid and at complete peace no matter what. I didn’t conjure it up, it just was. God gave that peace to me. In fact, I felt it was important to start thinking more about what I leave behind on this earth. I had (and still have) a lot of things that mean much to me but absolutely NOTHING to anyone else in this world. I still have a ways to go but the purging has started. After that, for the next four months, I was almost back to normal. I say almost because at my age, my body didn’t want to “bounce” back the way I had imagined it would… but overall, I felt pretty great. In November, I started getting all clogged up. The oncologist that did the June surgery said I was just constipated. So I went to work getting UN-constipated! November through mid-January saw me in bed, in pain most of the time. Finally, on Monday, January 9th, my friend Lisa, took me to ER at TMC. After two doctors had called them to pre-admit me and they would not, I painfully waited in the waiting room for 6 hours to get a bed! They said it was too crowded. (There were VERY few people when I came in, but after awhile, there were so many waiting.) As I was finally being wheeled to a room, there were dozens of empty beds. I finally was settled into the TMC Women’s Center for the next week until they finally decided that they needed to remove the cancerous mass (see above for details.) So, January 24th, I was released to figure things out.
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Always loved, always in our prayers. God be with you - whether you feel spunky or weak, whether you can think of something funny or life feels sad, whether its a good day or just one to live through .... when I couldn't pray, I desperately read the prayers of others, including William Bennet's Puritan prayers in "The Valley of Vision". Don't know if you have have it.
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I hear your heart’s expression, Cindy, because you are such a beautiful writer. At one time you and I had a shared grief of infertility, so I understand much of what you shared. Then you had the blessing of knowing birth motherhood, and our “connection” seemed to me, at the time, gone, and I still had to walk that path all the way to menopause, God, however, worked the most precious eternal gift in me through all of that: complete surrender to His sovereignty!! That changed my whole walk with God into the most incredible freedom from all the things that weigh us down and try to tie us to this earth. Obviously, that day was the beginning of my new path in my sanctification process, but the level of maturity to which Holy Spirit has brought me today—that is what reconnects me to your heart, Cindy!! I know what you are expressing even though I don’t have cancer. I understand because God, the Holy Spirit connects us above the earthly situation, and we can see the eternity preparation process! I hope that this helps you because I truly love you in my heart. - Becky Benne
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