What a day!

Earlier today Annie had a visit from the very oncologist we last saw sometime in September 2011. One of our last meetings with her was in a small windowless room on a Friday afternoon; and one of the last things I remember her saying was that Annie had just a matter of months left to live.

I wasn’t there for the meeting today but Annie told me that the oncologist sat down with her, smiled and simply said: “You don’t make sense.” The oncologist had come to give Annie the news that the results of the fluid they had drawn from near her lung, showed up clear – as clear as the same analysis of fluid that the oncologist conducted over 14 months ago. It was one thing to see Annie alive beyond her months but seemingly something else to see that in 14 months, the latest fluid sample would not harbour something more malicious and malignant. Another illustration of the unpredictability of something as complex as cancer or simply a miracle? Well, as the testimony of this blog will tell, the miracle far surpasses the unexpected preservation of Annie’s life. It’s not simply a miracle; our journey so far has been a wonderful case of multiple miracles of God’s grace and power.

Of course, we’re under no illusion that Annie is cancer-free or physically healed. Something isn’t right and it’s really neither here nor there what we label it as. And yet through it and through us, God is not only sustaining but He is perfecting His power.

Following a chat about another future blast of radiotherapy to help with the pain, the oncologist passed Annie back to the doctor who gave Annie the all-clear following her last dose of anti-biotics which she had to take at around 9:30pm this evening.

To cut a much longer story short, I now have my Annie back home for Christmas!

…’Hopefully’, that is.

Cancer is so very unpredictable (always bear that in mind if you are ever ministering to someone with cancer) and anything could change. While Annie has the all-clear, the nature of this whole episode has been and remains quite unclear – to both us and the medics. We were not really given any conclusive explanation of what caused the fluid build-up; all we know is that it was neither infectious nor cancerous. But while doctors and oncologists may be left puzzled, we know God had a purpose for this entire episode which He perfected through our weakness.

To God be the glory, great things He has done.

R&A