LIFE AT 64 - 4 YEARS AGO

Today is a day that is burned into my memory.  NO nothing historical happened here, at least not that I know of.  The earth did not stop.  No one famous passed on.  NOTHING EXCEPTIONAL happened, EXCEPT to me

4 years ago, last night, I was honored to be able to be part of a group of veterans to read the names of FALLEN military at the Soldiers Memorial.  It was a huge honor for me to do that.  Renita was able to join me as well, as she is also a veteran.  It was a cold, rainy, snowy, icy night, and it did not start till after 930pm.  I developed a sore throat, hoarseness, and by the next morning I was unable to swallow much more than my own spit, and even that was difficult.  Kinda scary too.  That brings us to THIS date January 28, 2012.

After getting up, sore throat, unable to swallow, not even able to get down a smoothie, Renita took me to the ER.   A resident Dr that I do not know the name of probably saved my life.  After an initial exam, he came and said that he could not see ANY inflammation and since I was complaining about a sore throat, he should have, and asked if they could do a CAT scan.  He was suspicious of something.  After the scan he came back and asked how long I had been a smoker, and when I replied that Ive NEVER been one, he literally asked if I was sure!!!!  Well DUH, of COURSE I was sure, he kinda laughed and said that was  a silly question, but what they were seeing they usually only saw in heavy smokers.  He told me that he thought I had squamous cell carcinoma on my larynx.  THAT was the beginning of a story that Ive told on here many times, but I was in SHOCK.  They put me in the hospital overnight for observation because I was having trouble swallowing.  They put me in a room in the Heart Hospital at Mercy.  NOW I HATE hospitals, but if ya gotta go, that place was amazing.  I would literally compare it to a room at a Hilton Hotel.

After the initial shock of all of this wore off, I had to dig deep into my soul.  Deeper than Ive ever gone.  I had to find faith.  I found it.  Not at all sure where it came from, but from early on, I declared that God was in control and would heal me from this disease.  I had been in church and Sunday School my whole life.  I had heard all the Bible stories, I had seen healings in the past, and even had small healings, but this was a giant in my path, and I needed some stones to knock him out.  I discovered that I had people literally all around the world praying for me.  THAT is an incredible feeling in itself.  Those prayers were some BIG stones!!!!

I had to meet at the end of that next week with an ENT.  Since I did not have one that I normally go to, the one on call happened to be the head of the ENT department at St Louis University.  He confirmed what everyone had been saying, but he still needed to do the biopsy.  He started out by saying that surgery would be necessary, and that I would have to have a breathing tube, and a feeding tube and on and on, and on.  I had to stop them and tell them that there would no surgery other than the biopsy, and that God was going to heal it.

Here we are 4 years later.  I still have my voice.  I NEVER had a breathing tube!  I NEVER had a feeding tube, though the one nurse practitioner almost demanded that I would!  Honestly I really never had much pain in the throat, at least nothing that was as bad as what they were describing.  Im still cancer free, and knowing that God healed me.

Prayer works.  Ive talked to a few people even lately that are incredulous that I dont want to go to the Dr every few months, or that Im so confident of my healing.  I will go to the Dr on prescribed appointment times.  I will do what they ask, but  I KNOW where I my healing came from.  YES I did chemo.  YES I had radiation, but I also believe that there are times where God wants you to go through something like that just so YOU will have that witness to others when they are going thru it.

Do I have all the answers about healing?  NOPE!  Do I have all the answers about WHY?  NOPE!  I dont pretend to.  Do I sometimes feel guilty because someone that I know does not get healed and dies?  YES!  Do I  know WHY sometimes God chooses how and why He chooses.  NO!  I just know that HE healed me!

Continue to follow my blog, there is more to come as this 4th year unfolds.