My Christmas Miracle

In my last posting I told you that I was going on Monday, December 7th to get the results of the CT scan and have another Avastin treatment. Well, when we met with the doctor he told us the CT scan was clear. He spent about 10 minutes reading through my records and then turned to me and said, "we are going to stop the chemo treatments." My heart stopped, I asked him if he was going to call in hospice. He just smiled at me and said that he could not see any cancer so there was no need to continue with the chemo. He said it did not make sense to continue with a treatment that has potentially fatal side effects when he can't see any cancer. We will continue to have monthly check ups and then try again for a PET scan in three months. But for now....NO CHEMO!!

If you will recall, I was told just four short months ago to get my affairs in order. Both oncologists told me that I would have six months without chemo but if I took the chemo the median survival rate was three years. Obviously, we opted for the chemo and were told we would be on it for a year. If things looked good at six months then we would re-evaluate the treatment plan. But here it is just four short months into it and the doctor can't find the cancer. We were in shock. Truthfully, I still am.

I have had several conversations with God over the past few days. My first was one of great praise. I thank God for my healing and believe it to be nothing short of a miracle. Then I thanked Him for all the prayer warriors that have been faithful on my behalf. Then I started to get scared because I have been down this path before and if you remember it only took 3 months for the cancer to return. But I believe that I have gone through this second round as a testament to God's healing power. If I had been healed on the first round then people could say, "well it was the chemo that killed it". But now there is no doubt...God healed me!

Through this journey there have been several times that I pushed the panic button. I had more than one conversation reminding God of His promise to heal me. The final one was last Thursday. I was all prepared for the PET scan when CTCA called to let me know it was denied by the insurance company. Then I was told that the insurance company was also denying my last Avastin treatment. Each treatment is $40,000! So you can imagine my panic level. My stomach was in knots so I went to Debbie's desk and told her I needed some prayer support to keep it together. Debbie had just received an email from a customer with a reference to Matthew 21:22 "And in all things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive." So we found a quiet room and prayed that God would move the mountain before us and take care of the insurance issues. I immediately started to feel the peace come over me. Within 30 minutes of praying, I got a call back from the insurance company that there was a coding mistake on the Avastin claim and they were clearing everything up and the invoice would be paid. I still was being denied the PET scan but as it turns out, it was not needed.

I learned a long time ago that when my stomach gets into knots and the panic starts to well up, it is the devil spinning his lies. I believe that when you are a child of God, Satan can't touch you. He can however, cause you to self-destruct by planting his lies and laughing at your calamity. And yet, every time it happens, I fall for it! But I can tell you the time that I am in knots is getting shorter and shorter. I can recognize it pretty quickly now and I begin to pray for peace immediately. One of my favorite verses to use is Psalms 91:1 "I stand in the shadow of the Almighty. He covers me with His wings." Understand that to stand in the shadow of something or someone means they go before you. So when the whirlwinds start up and my stomach starts jumping, I say that verse out loud and the storm subsides.

I am so grateful for this journey that I have been on. My faith has grown by leaps and bounds. I have a stronger relationship with my creator. I would not change one thing that has happened over the past 16 months. And I know that no matter what the future holds, I know who holds my future. What an awesome God I serve!

May each of you have a blessed Christmas and enjoy the time with the ones you love.

Because of Christ,

Julie