My oncologist, Doctor S, could barely contain his excitement when he read my blood test results in his clinic a few days ago. He said the markers for my cancer cell load was down to one point something. Great news, but what I long to hear is: You are cancer- free.
The excitement in my oncologist’s voice made me recall what Sister Joy of Pastor Suleman’s Omega ministries said to me: Go tell your doctor you are healed and let him run his tests. The matter-of-fact way the young lady decreed that made it sound like my healing was a fait accompli and that impressed me and fired up my own faith.
After a previous prayer intervention in December, I did remember to declare my healing to the doctor before he ran his tests. That’s what I had been instructed to do by a group of bold young men and women who seeing me on a wheel chair by the closed entrance to a Benny Hinn crusade were moved to surround me and start speaking life into me. They said: You came to see Benny Hinn, but you cannot see him, but Jesus you can always see at any time, so we are going to see the Great Physician and ask Him to heal you.” I was eventually let into the Benny Hinn event and when he called out healing from cancer I received it from where I was sitting in the back.
When I saw Doctor S after that December double-prayer intervention, he exclaimed “wow!” upon reading my blood test results. I told him I had attended a prayer meeting and he did not cut me off. He is no longer dismissive of my faith talk, his attitude now is more like “whatever works for you is fine by me.” Even though he didn’t take the tract I tried to give him when I first started coming to his clinic, I still pray along these lines: Lord please heal me and make Doctor S look good. My good doctor took on the challenge of saving my life despite my poor financial and insurance status and my initial opposition to chemotherapy.
Doctor S has stopped short of declaring me cancer-free, but he did say it is now time to start correcting the damage the cancer in my blood marrow has done to my bones. Time to be more aggressive, he said. To that end he called a neurosurgeon right away after I saw him last week. The neurosurgeon was at the gym so he said I should give him time to get home and call him. I still have not called. Even though I sent Dr. S a thank you card last month to mark my one year anniversary under his care and promised that I would be more compliant, I find myself not wanting to go along with his surgery recommendation. Maybe later. MRI and scans will reveal whether my bones are now strong enough to take any surgery.
Cancer has a lot of audacity. It was eating up my bones and left lesions (holes) in them. That was the give-away sign that led Doctor S to suspect I had cancer —- before any tests were run to confirm his diagnosis. The damage wrought by these rogue cancer cells in my spinal column and rib cage caused some of the bones in those areas to collapse onto one another. Cancer cells are like invisible wrecking balls that can tear down an edifice God so fearfully wonderfully made.
With the bones in my rib cage fused, and others in my spine and legs so fragile, it is hard for me to do some things for myself. That’s why Doctor S wants to give me a new lease on life.
We need to give you your life back, he said. “Yes, “ I said, “did I not show you my photograph and ask you to make me look like that again.”
Sitting in his office in my body brace, I did look like a representative of life from another planet. The brace props up my neck and goes all the way to my waist. It is supposed to mitigate the curvature taking place in my spine and stop more bones from collapsing. The song that goes, You are the pillar that holds my life,resonates with me on both the literal and figurative levels. My brace represents a pillar.
My battle against this cancer continues. I am not letting my guards down. I am still in need of your prayers, dear readers.
