My mommy was diagnosed with melanoma, a very serious skin cancer in early July and had surgery at MD Anderson to remove it. It has been a rough past couple of months, but God works in amazing ways even through our darkest periods. Our church, FBC Bryan, is in the middle of the 7 miracles of Jesus and asked for any stories from the congregation on miracles that we have seen in our own lives. Here is the story she wrote to our church:
My story starts with and is much about my son as it is me. Tate was born on January 31st of this year and is our first child. You see, he was diagnosed with severe acid reflux when he was a month old. Since that time, he has been in and out of doctor's offices with many trips to a pediatric gastrointerologist in Dallas. All of this while I was trying to go back to work full time at the Athletic Department and my husband, Patrick, was out most of the time with work. In June, he came down with the croup and RSV; we were seeing the doctor every day, had him on a nebulizer, and even made a trip to the emergency room due to his breathing difficulties. During this time, my husband went to work for a start-up company and I discovered a spot on my leg. We took him to the emergency room on a Sunday in July and I found out the following Tuesday morning from a phone call from my dermatologist that I had melanoma. 30 years old, healthy, with a sick 6 month old, and now I had cancer.
My dermatologist was shocked that it came back melanoma, and she said that she was glad I noticed it and asked about it. It looked nothing like melanoma usually does. We were immediately sent to MD Anderson for consultation and treatment. Word spread through my friends, family, both of our co-workers, neighbors, college groups, church members, daycare staff, students (I work with student-athletes at Texas A&M full time), and even poeple who did not know us surrounded us with prayer and support. I even had 3 people call me that had heard about me and wanted to share their cancer stories and pray for me. My husband's cousin, who is a missionary at NYU, had every missionary on college campuses praying for us as well. We felt so humbled by all the concern and prayers. The Sunday before my appointment on that Tuesday, Brother David talked about the miracle of the Royal official's son and the faith that he had that his son would be healed. Wow! It seemed like he was talking directly to me and is what I needed to hear most at that time. My parents came in to go with my husband and me to the first appointment, while my father-in-law and mother-in-law came in to watch Tate since he could not go to MD Anderson with us. Many people who I had not seen in years or spoken to, such as my high school teachers and classmates, contacted me and told me their stories. It turns out a lot more people have had melanoma than I knew and are doing well.
We met with Dr Ross, who everyone assured me was THE top melanoma surgeon, and he decided since the biopsy was so thin, to follow the protocol for a deep melanoma and also decided to do a sentinel lymph node biopsy. I was very scared about the unknown and the upcoming surgery, but I wanted to get it done as soon as possible. I had surgery on July 29th to remove the melanoma and the lymph node. I was told that I would find out 7-10 days whether everything was gone or if I needed further treatment. I also was told that I could not lift or pick up anything until I got my stitches out, which was 3 weeks from surgery. This meant that I could not pick up or hold my sweet baby for 3 weeks, and taking care of him without daycare would be impossible for me. During all this time, Tate was still out of daycare, so my parents and Patrick's parents took turns helping us out. I got a call a week and a half after the surgery and was told the margins were all clear and my lymph node did not show any cancer in it at all (Praise God!!!)!!! As I write this, I head back to MD Anderson tomorrow to get my stitches out and to be put on a follow up program.
The miracles are many in my story, and they happened in ways that I never expected. 1. The first miracle was that the surgeon was able to remove all of it, with no additional treatment necessary at this point-this is the most obvious miracle. 2. Another miracle was that the day before I found out I had cancer, my boss approached me about going to part time to help me with Tate's ongoing health problems...little did we know this would be even more wonderful due to the news I was about to receive. 3. My students and former students supported and loved on me in droves and talked openly of God's healing power, faith, and how they were praying for me. A few of them had never even given God much more than a passing thought. I had so many text messages and phone calls from them throughout this whole process. 4. My neighbor has pancreatic cancer, and this gave me an opportunity to reach out to her and talk with her about the surgical process at MD Anderson to ease her mind, and she in return was able to relate and comfort me because she understood. 5. Our old Sunday school teachers and classmates (Nearly-Newlyweds) made us yummy food and helped to take the pressure off of us to feed my parents and in-laws while trying to recover and take care of a sick baby. 6. Tate's daycare at St Michael's sent both of us a get well card and assured us that his spot would be there no matter what and that anything they could do, they would. 7. The specialist says that Tate's constant sickness will be a distant memory after his first year of life and that even his colds will be easier for him to handle by that time. Until then, we continue the nebulizer treatments and keep a close watch on him. 8. The biggest miracle of all came from a completely unexpected place. My husband quit his job after 6 years as a Service Supervisor at BJ Services, an oil service company in Bryan, to pursue an opportunity to start up a company (Elite Chemicals) in this area, which meant more time home with us. Many of them found out about our situation, including one supervisor trainee that Patrick had trained. They were out in the field on a location about to do the job with this trainee supervising, and the trainee told everyone about what we were going through. This trainee told my husband that they all stopped what they were doing and came together and prayed for us right then and there in the middle of that meeting. He said many of them had tears in their eyes as well because despite all their differences, the petty disputes that happen in most work environments, and their beliefs, they came together as one group in the middle of the oil field to pray for one of their former co-workers and his family. He said that this act has changed many of them and that their relationships are completely different than they were before. In the day and age where prayer and Jesus are points of contention in the workplace, it is absolutely amazing that this happened. I never knew that a baby and a spot on a leg, could change people's lives. God is indeed amazing and He does have a purpose for everything, even if we do not understand it. Going into this, I had faith that I would be healed and my son would be ok, but I did not know that by asking and believing that God could work a miracle, he would work many miracles in many people's lives just because of our story.
Mark 11:22-23
22"Have faith in God," Jesus answered. 23"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.
Krista Thomson
Until next time,
The tot
