Today, thirty-eight years later...

On this date, in 1970, at 1:20 am, a new life was brought into this world. Nearly 5 years later, that same life was in danger.

In late July of 1975, I was hospitalized with a massive tumor in my upper right chest area, which required immediate surgery. This surgery was 2 weeks (Aug 1) before my 5th birthday (Aug 13). When the slides were sent off to several pathologists for diagnosis, the results that came back changed my life in more ways than I could count. The diagnosis was that of cancer. Ganglio Neuroblastoma to be specific.

Luckily for me, my doctor removed all of the tumor, however there were a few side effects that I have had to live with to this day. Those side effects include, having an area under my right arm about the size of a softball which has had a "numb" feeling for the last 33 years. That along with having one pupil that is slightly larger or smaller than the other, depending on which eye you are looking at (also called "Horner's Syndrome" or "anisocoria" depending on which doctor you talk to), this is all in part due to when my doctor removed the tumor, he inadvertentally nicked a nerve. I do not fault my doctor for this in any way. The fact that he was able to remove the tumor in whole, was more than enough thanks.

As I had said, the diagnosis was that of cancer. My doctor was wanting to do radiation therapy on me. He had made these intentions known to my parents, which nearly devestated them. He had told them to think it over for a day or two and get back with him, but he was very adamant about doing the radiation therapy. That night, when my mom went home, and my dad stayed with me at the hospital, my mom prayed to God about the matter. God came to her that night, and told her to not let the doctors or anyone do any further treatments to me. That everything was in His control. The next day, when my mom went to the hospital to relieve my dad, so he could go to work. She told the doctor that he wasn't going to do any further treatments until he sent at least 3 more slides off to other pathologists. She said that if any of them came back as being positive, then she would consider the further treatment.

My doctor reluctantly sent slides off to three other pathologists, and a few days later called my mom saying he needed to see her and my dad immediately. When they got to his office, he had the most awesome news for them. All of the results that were sent out, cambe back as NEGATIVE, with ONE exception.... There was one result that came back with a side note on it. That particular pathology report came back from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology(AFIP). It said in the side note, that while the original slides indicated a malignancy, the current slides showed just a plain benign tumor. The side note also said that due to the tumor being caught in an early enough stage, the tumor which was initially benign, had started the process of becoming malignant.

I could have played the "What if?" game trying to figure out all of the possible outcomes, but it all came to one of many conclusions... What if God wants me here to serve a certain purpose... Maybe to tell my story? Maybe to be who I am? (I am still trying to figure that one out... of just exactly who I am) Maybe to just be a small cog on this giant machine of many more cogs, trying to keep the machine going...

I do know for sure that I was spared a possible death sentence back 33 years ago due to an awesome doctor, and an even more Awesome God.

Just another one of my random thoughts that isn't in any particular order...