Painful Blessings

Who ever heard of such a thing? How in the world could anybody believe that when your body hurts, it could be a blessing from God? Well, when you think about it, the pain and suffering that our Savior Jesus went through blessed us greatly! The human body is a remarkable creation! I sometimes have trouble understanding how a scientist or physician could learn so much about how our bodies work, and appear to distance themselves further from God. When I learn, in layman’s terms, something about how cell creation or skin repair happens, I’m in complete awe of God’s creation!

For me personally, I really can’t comprehend how our eyes work, yet it seems so simple; we look, we see, and understand what we see. And, we are able to judge how far away that object is. It’s called “Depth Perception.” We have two eyes, and somehow most of us see one image. Not even Hollywood can do that. Oh sure, with all the technological advances in today’s world we get pretty close to 3D, but it’s still not the same as what God has created. While I understand how depth perception works, I don’t have the physical ability to judge depth correctly. You see, I was born without my eyes focusing in the same direction! It wasn’t until a year later that one eye was corrected, and two years later for the second eye to be corrected. It wasn’t until I was two years old that both my eyes even pointed in the same direction. Although I’m not a physician nor a scientist, I believe that since my brain developed without the ability to see one image from both eyes it never assimilated to have one image. I have crossed double vision, and have seen the world like this since birth!

Yes, creation is truly a remarkable thing. As our bodies develop, from formation in the womb, they continually learn how to adapt! I still do not understand how someone could learn of all the “scientific things” that cause this to happen ... and not believe in a Creator!!!

I’m sure my vision sounds really weird to someone whose eyes work “normal.” But what exactly is normal? If our bodies continue to adapt as they form, then normal for one is not the same as normal for another. I have lived with the ability to look with one eye or the other, one at a time, as I choose to. However, I have never seen one object from both eyes. For me, this is normal: just pick which eye you want to look from, one or the other, and focus on that image. I just ignore the other image. Gee, can’t everyone do this? Seems normal to me! Now, this does not allow me to judge depth, technically. Over my 60 plus years, I have learned to judge depth with one eye, although, it’s not as accurate as when one has fusion. Fusion is the ability for one’s brain to take the two objects from both eyes at the same time, and turn it into one image. Our brain does this. The eyes are merely cameras for our bodies. How could someone who has completed years of studies concerning how this works, not believe in God, our Creator? While this might sound painful to some, believe me, it’s not. Maybe just a little inconvenient. However, believe it or not, we can, and do, receive blessings from pain! My wife can attest to this. Her pain led to “our discovery” of her cancer! A few years ago, my wife wanted to go for a walk. She wanted to begin exercising and improve her health. She was excited about her walk. I, on the other hand, had asked her not to go because it was getting late and turning dark. I had recommended to start tomorrow, in the daytime. However (those who have been married for some time will understand), she chose not to listen to my advice and proceeded to go for her walk. A few minutes later I received a phone call from her, telling me she had fallen and needed my help. She was not panicked and attempted to keep me calm. I couldn’t get to her quick enough! When I found her down the street, she was lying on the sidewalk, waiting. I help her to her feet, checked body parts, and got her in the vehicle. After some discussion, we decided to go home. After a few pain reliever tablets, she fell asleep. She woke up about midnight, complaining about pain in both arms. We went to the emergency room, got X-rays, and received the “good news!” She had broken her left wrist and fractured her right elbow! Nice, huh? After a cast and elbow brace were installed, we were referred to a “bone doctor.” Thus began our God blessed adventure ... caused by pain! While at the orthopedic doctor’s office, my wife also mentioned something about her back pain. More X-rays. Nothing was broken. She had back pain for sometime, and was not happy with some of the doctors from years past. However, we were referred to a pain management doctor, so as to further investigate her back pain. My wife had been to pain management doctors before, but this one seemed different. He had what I call “bedside manners.” He asked about specific activities, that included her work and after work lifestyle. Both my wife and I liked him, and were pleased with his diagnosis and treatments. After a couple of years, there hadn’t been any real significant improvements. My wife finally told him that she wanted him to find exactly what was causing the pain, so he could stop it. He ordered a full body CT scan. After the results came back, he studied the back bone and spinal cord. He also noticed something different. He saw a small growth on her left lung that was new. There had been a growth on her right lung in the past scans, but it was a type that didn’t cause alarm. No, this one was different. He recommended that we see a lung doctor soon. My wife’s normal “lung doctor” wanted to wait a few months and see what develops from the nodule. She told her pain management doctor about it, and he recommended another pulmonologist. This pulmonologist wanted to do a biopsy immediately. He arranged for a CT scan and, upon results, scheduled the biopsy. He also agreed that the growth on the right lung was of no concern at this time. Also, he was the type of doctor that I reference as being “a doctor with no bedside manors.” He was a “just the facts” kind of guy. He took three samples from three different nodules on her left lung and sent them in for testing. About a week later, we had the results. One of the three samples, a 10 mm nodule, was cancerous. It was called “small cell undifferentiated cancer.” For those not familiar with cancer, this is a life altering conversation. The pulmonologist scheduled a new PET/CT scan (body scan) and an MRI (brain scan). Just to be honest, I can no longer accuse my wife of not having a brain. It was there, on the scan. Boom!

We got the results and went back to the pulmonologist for diagnosis and treatment. He was excited, which didn’t fit his earlier experiences. He had never caught this kind of cancer in the early stages, in his career! Usually small cell cancer is not detected until it’s too late. It grows and spreads, and by the time one feels any symptoms ... it’s usually too late for treatment. My brother-in-law, who had suffered for many years with the pain and troubles associated with diabetes, had complained of different pains. When investigated, he was diagnosed with small cell cancer, and it was in many tumors all over different organs throughout his body. He was placed on hospice care on a Tuesday and passed away that Friday. This is a terribly aggressive cancer!!! So, my wife was diagnosed with small cell cancer, that was a 10 mm nodule, on her left lung hilum. The pulmonologist was excited. He called a “cancer doctor” that was recommended to us from a friend at church. He told the oncologist that he wasn’t sure of the next step, because this had never happened to him, in his entire career! He asked the oncologist about surgery. The oncologist explained that with this type of cancer, surgery is usually out of the question, because it is so aggressive. If just a microscopic particle is missed, it will normally spread quicker, and out of control. Our oncologist, one who by the way has a since of humor and has “bedside manors,” recommended chemo treatments and radiation. He explained that my wife would get two kinds of chemo, distributed over three days, followed by 21 days off.  We would do this for four cycles. He also assigned 33 treatments of radiation to the specific area of the lung, where the nodule was located. We are currently in the process of both. So, boys and girls, we feel like we are extremely blessed by God. Not just all the time and for everything we have, but for the pain my wife suffered. If it hadn’t of been for that night time walk (the one I didn’t want her to take), we might not have ever been referenced to our pain management doctor. If she hadn’t of complained to him about the pain, he might not have done the scan. If he hadn’t noticed the growth from the spine scan, we wouldn’t have seen the pulmonologist. To me, that means that we might not have found this highly aggressive cancer until it was too late. I cried when we realized just how blessed we were in catching this small cell cancer in the early stage. Why would God bless someone like me with such a gift. Remember, with cancer you never know the long term results, but we have a good chance of beating this back for many years, simply because God blessed us through pain. God’s blessings aren’t just limited to life in this body, on this earth. His greatest blessing bestowed upon us was the pain and suffering that His son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ went through, so that we might live eternally with Him! Thank you Heavenly Father.