Amazing Drs. Visit & Two Godincidences (YES TWO!)

Hello friends and family!
Yesterday I had an INCREDIBLE trip to a doctor's office that I wanted to share. This doctor is a Radiation Oncologist who might be responsible for my radiation in the fall once I've finished chemo and surgery.

First of all let me say that neither he nor I could find my biggest nodule during the physical exam. We looked all around my biopsy scar. They say a tumor that is less than 1 cm cannot be felt. A month ago my biggest tumor was 1.3 cm and easy to feel. Yesterday we couldn't feel it which I assume means it has shrunk at least .3+ cms. Isn't that an AMAZING answer to prayer already y'all?! A real Godincidence I'd say!! PRAISE GOD!!!

The other AMAZING part of the visit yesterday was what this doctor said to me. I had been told before by another medical oncologist that I was "a perfect candidate for chemo." I remember at the time being a little irked. "Was this a compliment?" I wondered. I knew deep down how the doctor meant it and today it is now crystal clear to me. He meant that I am healthy enough for chemo, so healthy in fact that my chances of pulling through it well are very high. The doctor yesterday explained that when people have a lot of other risk factors like smoking, obesity, alcohol abuse, etc. it makes his job much harder. For example a woman who is 400 lbs on the radiation table has a breast that is harder to aim the radiation beams more precisely into because of its size. With me he can avoid hitting the heart and lungs, but not so with this other woman. To her the treatment can also, years down the line, become the danger. The doctor talked about the women who pioneered this treatment in the early 1900's. Apparently two college students started it in their dorm room way back when. Those pioneering subjects would defeat their cancer through radiation only to die 10 years later from heart attack because of the overexposure. How lucky am I, he said, that I am not one of those pioneering women. That I am healthy enough to tackle chemo and radiation. Kind of puts things into perspective, doesn't it?

The doctor also talked about the Aids epidemic he witnessed in Philadelphia in the early 1980's. He was talking about how biochemistry is so miraculous. How God has made us so well that he has given us those white blood cells that fight off the cancer and good old lymph nodes like Sponge Bob that soak it up. These Aids patients would come to his office with throat cancer one day, a month later pancreatic cancer and still a month later some other cancer because their white cells were powerless to stop the spreading cancer. I knew Aids was so very awful but this really brought home to me just how awful. So are you thankful today for those white blood cells? Boy I sure am. If you ever had any doubt that you are "beautifully and wonderfully made" here is your proof.

I started to have a little pity party asking why I was so young getting this disease. The doctor couldn't explain it but again said how lucky we are in today's society to live as long as we do. Many women 100 years ago didn't survive childbirth, let alone live long enough to get breast cancer. It is a new way to look at it, isn't it? Anyway, I am now so thankful, so thankful that all I have is breast cancer. My prognosis is good. Recently praying my Dad had a vision about me being a grandmom some day and I feel in my heart it is true. I can't wait for what lies ahead.

As I close out today, I would like to share another Godincidence. This one concerns my webmaster (and the dear friend who started this blog for me) Melony. It was her idea to send one of our GOD IS SO MUCH BIGGER than cancer shirts to Isabelle (the little girl now at St Jude's with brain cancer). Here is an email I got from Melony yesterday. Maggie and Molly are Melony's daughters ages 7 and 4.

Kerry,
I have to share my God moment with you today. A few weeks ago, I went to the store and gathered a few things to send to Isabelle in a care package. As I was packing everything up, Maggie was determined to put this silly little stuffed elephant that we had left over from Molly's party in the envelope. I did everything I could to convince her to not put it in there, but she insisted....Fast forward to today.. I received a thank you note from Isabelle's mom and the one thing she talked about the most was how symbolic that elephant is at St. Judes. She said that elephants live in herds and the whole herd loves, protects and raises the baby elephants and that is what life is like there. A "herd" of different families caring for each other's children. WOW!! I was instantly in tears because I knew in that instant while I was reading that note that God had used Maggie to send them a token of love and I tried to interfere!!

Isn't that AMAZING? Who would have thought what an impact a little stuffed animal would make? But Maggie knew. A child knew. How cool is that? Have a blessed day, y'all. Lots of love,
Kerry