I have a story to tell you! My story of the past two weeks.
I have not written a blog post for the last two weeks. I began one about patience after a long busy weekend when I was particularly tired and I was sitting at the shopping centre late on Sunday afternoon waiting for my son to finish up hanging out with his friends.I ended up not being very patient at all!
I never finished writing because .....life got in the way.
For a few weeks I had been having pain off and on in my lower right belly area. I went to the doctor and they gave me a referral to get some ultrasounds. I was thinking that it might be my appendix. I was helping organise a ladies event at this time and was beginning to think that I was going to let the team down due to being unwell.
The ladies event in itself is a story of blessing and provision. 2 weeks out we had 30 of the minimum 50 required to hold it even after weeks of talking about it. I really felt that we were not to cancel but to trust God for the 50 women. We ended up having a beautiful evening of cooking demonstrations, eating, fellowship and hearing about Gods goodness with 52 women! Praise God!
The pain stopped over that weekend so I guessed that it was just a virus and I didn't bother with the ultrasound. God is good, I was able to fulfil my responsibilities for the event.
But then the pain returned on the Monday or Tuesday so I made the appointment and had the ultrasounds on Wednesday and Thursday morning. Then I went to the doctors on Thursday afternoon for the scan results.
I couldn't get a appointment with my regular GP so I saw another doctor at his surgery. The ultrasound showed that I had a cyst, a fibroid and a solid mass in me. 'Solid mass' are not words that you want to hear from your doctor! She explained my circumstances well and gave me a referral to a specialist, who I called immediately as I know how long it can take to get in to see them.
Four week! can I go for 4 weeks without knowing the seriousness of my condition? Let's face it, we all go to the worst case scenario when it comes to health issues and not knowing our fate. Was it cancer? Had it spread? how long do I have? The mind went into overtime for a little bit, but I became determined to trust God no matter what the outcome. I even bought a book called Trusting God to by Jerry Bridges to help me focus.
We told very few people about my situation at that time because my parents were on holidays and they needed to know before too many others and I wasn't going to spoil their last few days away.
I felt uneasy over that following weekend as you can imagine and decided to see my regular GP as soon as I could get an appointment with him.
I rang on Monday morning and got an appointment that afternoon! This in itself was unusual as the last few times I had called for an appointment he was booked solid for a week!
My doctor was keen to get the ball rolling a lot quicker so he called the specialist and was able to get me an appointment for the next day! An then he prayed with me for my health and that the mass would not be cancerous.
That evening our pastor also prayed with us for peace. Tuesday I felt at peace. No matter the outcome I knew that God was in control and this time would be for His glory.
I saw the specialist who needed 3 indicators to decide whether there was cancer. I needed to have a blood test, which I did that afternoon.
I was not expecting the results until the next afternoon or even the day after, but I got a phone call the very next morning from the specialist to say that there was no cancer!
It actually took me quite a while to feel relief and joy from this result. However I was thankful to God for answering my doctors prayer.
My thoughts went to all the other women who didn't get good news that day. The mothers and grandmothers and daughters who were told "I'm sorry but you have cancer" The ones who had to wait weeks for doctors appointments and test results. I am praying for them, that they might know Gods plan in it all. That they might know peace in the midst of their fears and struggles. That they might know healing. Please pray with me.
I am still booked in to have surgery to remove the bits that caused my pain, and I have since found out that I have had some kind of minor heart issue in the past, but I am so very thankful with the speed my issues are being dealt with. My surgery is booked in to be done before my initial specialist appointment would have taken place!
The night after we heard that it was not cancer the family gathered for dinner and we celebrated with a Thank You Cake. The granddaughters were so excited to eat the green freddo frog ice cream cake and we were able to use it to explain that we were very thankful to God that their Mama was not very sick.
Also thankful that we have managed to afford private health cover over the years!
I know there are many others who have their own similar stories to tell. I just wanted to tell mine in hope that someone might find some encouragement in it somehow. I would love to hear your stories also. Please feel free to comment below or email me at suzzimaggs@gmail.com
I don't know why I was spared from a worse outcome, and I am still having a surgery which will require some time for recovery, but I do know that I have to trust God no matter what happens and know that He will work things out for his glory!
Blessed! Trusting! Thankful!
The pictures are from my art journals!