My favorite aunt was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in November. That is always a scary diagnosis, but for my family the news was a particularly painful blow – that same disease killed her husband in 1998 and my father (her brother) in 2003. So this is a story to which we know the end….and it is not a “they all lived happly ever after” ending.
My aunt has been undergoing chemo and we have been told the best news we can expect from the periodic scans is that the tumor has not grown. Good news is “no change.” That was indeed the news we got from the prior scans. However, when I called her home to find out the result of the latest scan, I got the impossible news that the tumor has shrunk.
I don’t know what name to give it. Miracle? Scientific/medical breakthrough? Luck of the draw? I don’t know. What I do know is that I’ve been praying, my family has been praying, our friends have been praying. What I do know is that somehow or another, prayers have been answered.
Will the tumor continue to shrink? Will my aunt live longer than if it has not shrunk? Will the chemo continue to help? I don’t know the answers to these or any other questions that may arise.
But whatever happens, I am enormously grateful for the prayers and support of my friends…and I will be grateful for whatever extra time this may give us with a woman who means so much to so many people, not least of all me.
Thank you, Lord. And thank you to all my friends for your love, your prayers and your support.
Creo en Dios! 