I want to share a good report with you from the past two days.
Yesterday I had my nephrostomy tube removed. This is a huge blessing because it was starting to hurt like the dickens, and also because it means that kidney is draining like a boss!
While I was in the urologist's office, he ran a cystoscope into my bladder. He was very surprised at what he saw. Four short months ago, the tumor in my bladder took 30% of my bladder and was black and oozing. Yesterday, he saw two small spots about the size of my fingernail, or less than 5%. These spots were not black, but were only red and inflamed. That's a 25% decrease, folks and I'm praising God for his faithfulness.
Today we met with our surgeon. Apparently, my urologist called in a few favors and asked a spectacular surgeon to assist with my surgery. He is a urological oncologist but also, another patient in the waiting room told us that he is a specialist with lymph nodes. Who knew?
This man gave us every option for surgery, answered every question, and explained the details of recovery. It will be a radical surgery, but the outcome looks very good. In fact, he is convinced this will be healthier for my already damaged kidneys.
What this doctor also told us is that my CT scans looked very good. In November the cancer was glowing on the PET scan, and there was a lymph node that was also glowing. When we did the CT scan last month, he said the lymph node had all but disappeared. That was mid chemo therapy. We did an additional 3 rounds after that scan. His words to us today were highly encouraging. He said, with the disclaimer that we won't know until after the surgery, that if that lymph node was not cancerous I have a 95-98% survival rate. He is the first doctor that has given us a survival rate that promising.
Now, there are unknowns... we don't know if the node is hot. We can't speculate. Even the doctor says it's 50/50 whether it is or not, but he did say the way it responded to the chemotherapy was promising and the prognosis looked very good.
He also told me that after this surgery and a long 6-8 week recovery that I will be able to do anything I want to do; I can live a very long and very active life. I can run, hike, camp, swim, etc, etc, etc. Anything I want to do now, I can do then!
I am overwhelmed by the "coincidences" that have lead us every step. I do not believe these are coincidences at all, but rather God's sovereign care for us, by which he is suppling all of our needs. He has aligned us with careful and loving doctors...doctors that give us their personal cell phone numbers and email addresses; doctors that get special privileges to perform surgery at hospitals other than their own; doctors that treat us like friends rather than "just another patient or case."
I can never repay these people. I can never repay their care, their comfort, their concern or their kindness to us. I am blessed to have a crew of people, the best in their fields caring for me...and none of it by my own design. These things have just fallen into place for us...but the grace of God.
I know that my God will supply all of my needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus... He has been faithful before and he will continue to be faithful!
Only By His Grace,
Billie
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