Waiting

Seems waiting is part on the strain of cancer.

• Firstly has one got it
• Then what has one got / how dangerous is it
• Then has surgeon got it all out
  
• Then what else has one got.....i.e. lymph nodes, even secondaries?
  
• Is follow up radio or chemo needed
• Then every year an annual exam to see if one hasn't got another or a recurrence.

It is dawning on us that what we had hoped would be a quick snip, and away with cancer like my earlier scare with a suspected skin cancer is more a long term membership of a club. Recurrence will be a constant risk.

Trusting and resting in Jesus can take some of the strain. A friend emailed to encourage us. Having had cancer himself he stated he just rested in Jesus, and trusted him to keep to God's perfect timing.

But could the doctors help? Do they make us wait unnecessarily? We have still only been told it is cancer to be treated by a lumpectomy and to expect radio and Tamoxifen afterwards. We are expected to wait till 12 March to be told any more.

So who is playing what game?

By 29 Jan we had worked out it was invasive cancer near the chest wall.
By 20 Feb we could give it the medical name "Non palpable invasive lobular breast cancer"
By 26 Feb we could see the ECG was OK
By 28 Feb we could say that only one lymph node had been taken.

So why increase our agony by not confirming this information as we go on? Instead we have to wait another 13 days. We need to be treated as equal members of a team treating this, not second class "bodies" on whom they work. As from the 28th Feb. we have to take care to prevent lymphedema. Why even after we asked three times do the doctors refuse to tell us how many nodes they removed?

The apostle Paul must have had similar waiting experiences waiting for years in prison in Rome before his execution under the emporer Nero. Yet in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1 he writes "let us run with perseverence the race that is set before us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross."

I read some bible notes which suggest we should meditate on heaven for 15 minutes each day. The certainty of heaven encourages Janet, the healing merely changes when she gets there. So much of the strain of waiting is taken away.