Surrounded By Blessings

Last year, on August 13th, which happened to be Friday the 13th, my husband and I went to the hospital for a scheduled visit.  My husband had been having chest pains for about a month, and a CT scan had showed a few lumps in his lungs.  On this particular day, my husband was scheduled for a lung biopsy which was to reveal one of two possibilities: Lymphoma or Sarcoidosis.  Up to that point, he'd had x-rays, CT scans, and a PET scan.  I evaluated every document given to us from each of the tests and did tons of research.  To say I was worried would be a gross understatement.  In fact, I was convinced he had cancer. 

The biopsy was supposed to take about two hours, but ended up taking almost four.  And though I had planned on sitting in the waiting room by myself, a close friend of ours came and sat with me.  It was a long wait, but my understanding was we would have the results as soon as the procedure was over.  That was not the case, so my fears were neither confirmed or relieved.  Our friend spent the night in the ICU room with my husband and I, which meant more than words could say.  She left the following day, but she kept in contact with us.  We also had many friends and family members stop by the hospital to see us.  By Monday, we still had no results and we weren't sure when my husband would be released from the hospital.  Late that afternoon, a large group of our friends stopped by and asked if they could pray with us.  Of course they could! We gathered around my husband's bed and each friend took a turn saying a prayer.  Not long after they left, a nurse came in to tell us my husband was being released.  Yes! We could go home! We were upset that we didn't have answers yet, but being able to go home lifted our spirits.  And then, just as we were leaving, a nurse brought us a message from my husband's family physician.  The results were in: he didn't have cancer! I don't know why the family physician had the results before the surgeon, or why he contacted us first.  But it didn't matter.  We believed, as we still do, it was our prayer warriors (those who stopped by and prayed along with the many others praying all weekend) and their prayers that enabled us to be released from the hospital with such good news. 

I write all this because this past weekend marked the one year anniversary of the biopsy.  And I can't help but think about how different this past year would have been if my husband had been diagnosed differently.  Instead of having cancer, my husband had (and still has) Sarcoidosis which is much easier to deal with than cancer.  To this day, we have friends and family ask all the time about how my husband is doing.  You see, we are surrounded by blessings.  And no matter what negative circumstances we are faced with, I am reminded that the blessings we have are the people we have.  Nothing else really matters.