It’s crazy how things can just change in an instance. I had been wrestling with, what we had all thought was, a bad neck for a couple of weeks. It started on Elisabeth’s birthday weekend. We had gone to Silverwood, an amusement park near us, and I felt awful all day. Very dizzy and just out of it. I continued to gradually get worse over the next few weeks until I eventually started throwing up. After being prompted by a few people, we finally decided it was time to seek medical attention. It’s funny because we have been calling everything that has happened a rollercoaster and it all started there.
We first went to one doctor in town who very quickly diagnosed me with a “virus”. He prescribed some medication to take and told me I should feel fine in a week. In all honesty, if I would’ve listened to his advice, I would probably be dead – but the Lord had other plans. The following morning we got a phone call from another doctor. He said my boss wanted him to check me over. They offered me an appointment that day if I wanted it. It never hurts to get a second opinion, so we went for the appointment. That doctor really took the time to get to the bottom of things and booked me in for a CT scan in a few days’ time. (I still can’t believe the doctor’s appointment that got to the bottom of things came to us, we never pursued it, God is certainly Sovereign).
The Day Everything Changed
Fast forward those few days, we are now on Monday, 14th of June, the day everything changed. We went for my CT Scan first thing in the morning, still convinced that I just had a bad neck, we had barely been home for an hour before I got ‘The Call’.
I was told I needed to go to the ER right away because there was a mass growing in my brain and a neurosurgeon was waiting for us there. So, off we went to Kalispell ER. Once we got there, the next week moved incredibly quickly. The doctors confirmed I had a large brain tumor and will need surgery. I was sent for an MRI and then spent the night under close examination in the ICU.
The next morning, after reviewing the MRI, the neurosurgeon decided I would benefit from a procedure to be done before surgery. They, unfortunately, couldn’t do that in Kalispell, so I was flown, with my wife and two other paramedics, to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle where I spent the next eight days. I never ended up needing the procedure, but the Lord used the possibility to send me to the best neurosurgeons in the country, there in Seattle.
A Puzzle of a Patient
Everyone we met was great to us and we were made to feel very special. The Lord kept me beyond stable. In fact, I became somewhat of a puzzle to the doctors. Seeing how stable I was, yet seeing the size of the tumor in my head, was definitely confusing. God performed miracles in keeping me alive. I was able to stay stable and wait until Friday while the hospital assembled their “A-Team” of surgeons for the operation. The head surgeon had been doing this for 30 years. Everyone referred to him as “the guy” and he chose his team to work with too.
Finally, Friday came around and it was time for the surgery. Something very special happened. We had only encountered one Christian (that we knew of) during our stay in both hospitals, and the one time we met him was on the way to the operating room. He was the one tasked with wheeling me to my destination. It was a very sweet, and much-needed reminder, that God has His people and He never leaves you nor forsakes you.
Treatment of the Tumor
The surgery itself was a success and they were able to remove 100% of the tumor. I was stitched back up in just a few hours and spent the next couple of nights being monitored in the ICU. I was doing very well, so they moved me to my final “home” in the hospital for the last few days, before being discharged the following Wednesday. Overall it was nine days from hearing about the tumor, going to Kalispell, and being sent home from Seattle. It was nothing short of a rollercoaster ride.
The rollercoaster didn’t end there though. The tumor may have been removed, and we may have been home again, but we were a long way from the end. In fact, it is now nearing the end of October as I write this, and I have barely been able to get out of bed.
Once we got home, at the end of June, it was time for me to rest. We waited for the pathology report to find out exactly what kind of tumor it was and what kind of follow-up treatment I would need. That was definitely a time of ups and downs, but thankfully I can say that our trust in the Lord and dependence upon Him has grown immensely over this time. When the pathology report came back, we knew it was cancer, the tumor was a Medulloblastoma Group 3 and I needed radiation treatment to my brain and spine.
God’s Clear Provision
There were two options; photon radiotherapy, which could be done in Montana, or proton radiotherapy, which could be done back in Seattle. The proton in Seattle was a much safer option with fewer side effects, especially long-term. At first, it seemed like that would be fine to pursue, but it turned out that the insurance I had would not cover the treatment. Also, me not being from Washington meant that I could not get on a payment plan. So it was a matter of, pay for the treatment fully upfront before starting…or don’t take the treatment. We spent a week just praying and presented our needs to our small-town, local church.
After our week of prayer, we still did not have clarity in any area. We knew we needed to do something, but we didn’t know what. We started pursuing different avenues, all the while still praying. It wasn’t long, however, before the leadership of the church had a meeting and decided to have an offering on our behalf. They wanted to try to raise the money we needed for the treatment in Seattle. They announced it to the church one Sunday, and by the following Sunday, between them and a few friends online, the money was raised! Praise God!
Treatment of the Cancer
Now, it’s back to Seattle; this time with Elisabeth and both kids. The following week, Jonathan and Lydia were able to join us. We were there for a total of six weeks and two days for the proton radiotherapy treatment. Our accommodation was fully provided for the entire time. One of the local churches in Burien provided the home for us. We are so thankful to the Lord that this church was willing to do that for us. It was a true blessing to stay there and be grounded in one place for the entirety of the treatment and have a place to call ‘home’.
The treatment itself hit me harder than I thought it would. Not even the doctors were expecting me to respond the way I did to the treatment. They did everything they could to keep my nausea under control, but even with medications and plenty of rest, I threw up a total of 50 times during the treatment.
Due to not being able to hold anything down for a while, becoming more and more dehydrated, and losing too much weight, we did have to go to the ER for an IV and get some nutrition inside of me. However, God is faithful, and one by one the treatments rolled by, until finally, on September 17th, I had my last one! We didn’t hang around but decided to set out straight away after the treatment was done for our 7-hour drive home. At 7:30 pm, Montana time, we made it home. Thank You, Lord!
Going forward, I will need to have regular check-ups and MRIs, but from what we can see, the worst is behind us. Now it’s time for me to rest and recover. The rollercoaster has ended, Lord willing.
Treatment for Wasted Time
It has been a very hard few months, but there were many lessons that needed to be learned through it.
First of all, my faith has been strengthened. There is no way I could have gone through this without knowing that the Lord was with me through it all.
Secondly, I realized how precious time is. The Lord has given me a beautiful wife and two wonderful children, and in an instant, I was very nearly taken away from them. Now I yearn to spend as much time with them as possible. I will leave it at just these two lessons because I believe these are the most relevant and important.
Let me challenge you to think about these two lessons. If you were to fall deathly sick tomorrow, where do you stand with Jesus? Can you say, like me, that your life is safe in His hands, and that He stands WITH you not AGAINST you? This is only possible through His death and resurrection on our behalf to take away our sins. If we put our trust in Him, He no longer stands against and is ready to judge, but He stands with and ready to forgive and receive you. Therefore, nothing can take away that peace.
Secondly, how are you spending your time? Could you look back in a hospital bed and say, whatever happens, I spent my time well, I am content with the time spent with my family, I am content with the time I spent at church and with God’s people, etc.? Unfortunately, I couldn’t say that when I was in the hospital, but God has kept me alive and I can now do something about it, and I plan to! Don’t leave it until it is too late to make these changes in your life.
