God's timing...

Last Tuesday, Mark was admitted to River Oaks after complaining of severe pain in his abdomen. I took him in that morning and we ended up in the emergency room for 7 hours. During that time, they did blood work, chest x-ray and CT scan. The results from the CT scan showed that his pancreas was enlarged. The ER doctor also mentioned that a cyst was detected on his kidney, but nothing to worry about. He said that he had one on his kidney. As a precaution, they would do an ultrasound the next morning.

Wednesday morning, he was taken down for the ultrasound. The one comfortable chair in the room was at the end of the bed, but I decided to move it up to the head of the bed. Little did I know, just how important moving it closer to him would be. Shortly afterwards, a doctor we haven't seen walked through the door. He said that the test was done to check the place on Mark's kidney. I said, "the cyst?". He then looked at me and said that it wasn't a cyst but a tumor. I replied "you don't mean like a cancerous tumor" and he said "yes, renal cell cancer". It was so matter of fact, just like a knife into my heart. Mark was silent. I was asking all of the questions. I kept thinking to myself, "hold it together Melinda. Mark needs you to be strong and to know what questions to ask." This urologist said that he was so fortunate to have had the pancreas attack, so that this silent cancer could be discovered. By the time symptoms appear with renal cell carcinoma, it's usually too late. They will be able to remove the tumor from the kidney and he should be fine. There's a risk of it returning or appearing in other places, though. They will wait and do surgery in about a month to make sure the pancreas is fully recovered.

Praise God, this was caught early! It was God's hand on Mark-period. Mark has never been in the hospital-wasn't even born in a hospital. He goes to the doctor once a year to have his blood pressure meds refilled. Very basic visit, nothing done that would detect kidney cancer. I do believe that the pancreas problem was created in order for this cancer to be found.

Mark came home from the hospital on Thursday. I am working this morning on getting him in to see Dr. Joe Ross. My dear friend, Carla Moss has worked closely with so many doctors who treat cancer and she says he's the best. I saw him several years ago when I had kidney stones and loved him. He took great care of me. I trust him. I don't know anything about the urologist who saw him in the hospital. I feel that we need a second opinion anyway.

Thanks to my fellow mentors in the Great Expectations Ministry at church for being so understanding last Tuesday when we cancelled the fellowship at my house last minute. Zachary did say that a few people didn't get the message and showed up...I'm so sorry. Last time, it was the grill mishap... and this time we didn't have it at all.

Thanks to all of our family and friends for your love and concern. Thank you most of all for your prayers for Mark. Like his daddy said yesterday, "Mark's a man of few words anyway... and he really is now." Most importantly, his faith is strong!