faith in every footstep

I borrow my title from a comment made here by a dear friend.  It feels like such a good way to describe how we are trying to face my battle with cancer.

Wednesday I had sinus surgery.  The tumor tissue in my nose was so swollen that I could't breath through my nose on either side.  It was getting annoying.  I had a visit with an ENT and he said that it could be corrected without too much risk.  I checked with my doctors in Houston and they were fine with removing the tissue as long as we would preserve it and mail it to Houston for analysis.  So, with all that said, I went ahead and scheduled.

The surgery was scheduled for 6:00 am on Wednesday morning at a new hospital out near Thanksgiving point.  Tuesday night a nurse called up to get information before my surgery.  She wanted a short history of my condition that had lead to the need for the surgery.  I think she may have gotten more than she bargained for.  I told her briefly about my battle with cancer and also about some of the miracles along the way that have preserved my life.  I also told her about the current experimental therapy we were undergoing.  I told her that we felt like it was a miracle prepared by God to preserve me.  After a few minutes of that she finally said,

"Wow, that is the most amazing story I think I have ever heard.  You sure aren't shy about talking about God and stuff.  You are kind of a different sort of person"

That made me laugh.  I told her that I fully believed that my life would be spared and that I don't plan on keeping it a secret that God had a hand in my preservation.  I told here "

"Pretty much anybody who will lend me their ears for 5 minutes is going to hear a little about God's hand in my life." 

She laughed again and said,

"I wasn't scheduled early tomorrow for work but I think I will come in anyway.  I would really like to meet you in person."

Anyway, so we showed up Wednesday morning.  The hospital was very nice and the nurse I had talked to the night before was there to meet me.  She had gotten up at 3:00 am and driven from Moroni.  Everything went really well.  I woke up able to breath again.  They cleaned out my nasal passages and my sinuses as well, at least partially.  It was so nice to breath again.  I expected some pain from the surgery but was pleasantly surprised to find that my overall pain was actually less than before.  It must be because they cleaned out the sinus and removed some of that pressure.  The tissue had been saved and JoLynne took charge of preserving it on dry ice and mailing it to Houston.  It arrived there safely the next day.  We will be very interested to hear about the analysis that they do there.