Thankful, Day 8

Yesterday I posted that it was a hard day to be thankful, and I had to turn to the Psalms, specifically Psalm 66. The outpouring of prayers and compassion from so many friends blew me away.

Today I am thankful for friends and family, and for the amazing technology of the Internet that allows us to be part of each others' lives daily and to hold each other up in prayer. Your prayers were felt. And appreciated!

I'm thankful that a nun lived over a hundred years ago. Born in 1856, she became Sister Mary Joseph Dempsey, then she became a nurse. She worked as the surgical assistant to Dr. William James Mayo from 1890 until 1915. She has many great accomplishments, but she observed that patients who had a particular nodule, or node in the area of the umbilicus (belly button) had cancer that had metastasized from another organ in the abdominal region. http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/2984.html

Yesterday we met Dr. Dustan Osborn, Gary's new oncologist. He talked to us in terms we could understand. He's the one who introduced us to Sister Mary Joseph and that background on the node on Gary's abdomen. In a nutshell (and not particularly scientifically stated) while a baby is still developing in the womb, the umbilical cord supplies all the nutrients needed from the mother to the baby. Various tubes run from the umbilicus to the digestive organs in the body that then distribute it to the blood stream and the rest of the body. Those tubes are no longer used after a baby is born, and the umbilical cord is cut, but they are still there. As I understand it, cancer cells can migrate along those unused tubes back to the umbilicus, where they form a nodule. That is Sister Mary Joseph's Nodule.

Today, I am thankful that Gary's surgery was delayed. It seemed frustrating that things weren't moving faster. We all wanted the doctors to get in there and fix it. But then Gary felt a lump near his belly button. He almost didn't tell the doctor. He thought it seemed insignificant. I am thankful that he did tell his primary doctor. That led to a hernia repair surgery and a biopsy. And that changed how his cancer will be treated. No more surgery. Now the focus will be radiation and chemotherapy. I am thankful for advances in medical research that make treatment available and easier on the patient than it was twenty-five years ago when my mother-in-law went through treatment. And for the prayers of hundreds, perhaps thousands of people who haven't even met Gary, and that God hears our prayers and is faithful to answer.