It was a cool, sunny Tuesday afternoon in March.  I had just finished having my ultrasound and decided to pay my husband, Rick, a surprise visit to his office.  It seemed like no time before my cell phone rang.  “Hi Dawn, this is Dr. Wong.  Are you in a good place to talk?”  “Oh sure,” I replied,  “I’m in my husband’s office.”  She continued, “I have some news to tell you.  Would you like to come to my office?”  “No, Dr. Wong, you can tell me now.  I am in a good place.”  “Well, I just got the results back from your ultrasound and you have a 3 cm mass on your left kidney and an 8 cm mass on your right kidney.  It looks like the masses are cancer.”  I slumped into an office chair feeling too weak to continue standing.  “Could it be anything besides cancer?” I asked hesitantly.  By now, my husband was on his knees in front of me, concern etched on his face.  “Well, it’s abnormal cell activity.”  Dr. Wong stated.  “I have scheduled a CT scan for you tomorrow and an appointment with an urologist on Friday.”  I shut off the phone, searching Rick’s face for comfort, hardly believing what I had just heard.  We held each other and discussed how the upcoming days would be difficult…and so our nightmare began...

I needed to pick up my nineteen year old son, Jonathan, from work.  I hated to shatter his young, carefree world with my health problems.  It broke my heart to see sorrow cross his handsome face at the news his mother most likely had cancer.  Upon arriving home, my Mother was anxious to hear how my ultrasound had gone.  As I told her the news, she covered her face and began to softly cry saying, “This should be me, not you.  I have lived my life.”  I held her tenderly in my arms and told her I was glad it was not her.

As night fell, I knew sleep would not come.  I cried and lifted my hands in prayer to the Lord begging for mercy and comfort.  The nights were long, as sleep became a stranger.  I filled the hours by reading God’s Word and praying.  Then I would frequent the computer looking for ways to cure cancer.

Friday finally came.  This was the day I was to meet my urologist.  As Rick and I waited in his office, I felt I was facing my death sentence.  I dreaded to see the doctor walk through that door.  I did not want to face my mortality.  The doctor finally came in and began looking at my CT scan films.  “So what do you think is wrong with you, Mrs. Abel?”  He asked.  I told him the last doctor said it looked like I had cancer on both kidneys.  He said, “Well, there is no tumor on your left kidney.  But an 8 cm tumor is hanging off your right kidney.  There is a ninety-eight percent chance it is cancer.  Now we need to do tests on your brain and lungs to see if the cancer has spread.  Meanwhile, we must schedule surgery to remove your right kidney and tumor.”  Is there any way we can save my right kidney?”  I asked.  “No!”  He stated.

However, it was this very night that God began showing His love and compassion to me.  After having met with the urologist, in my mind, I knew I had cancer.  Now it was a matter of whether it had spread.  My internet studies had informed me that kidney cancer spreads easily.  With a tumor as big as mine, I could feel the cancer in my lungs.  Due to lack of sleep, my brain felt funny too!  That night I was not sleeping…again!  I had been on the computer and crawled back in bed around 3:00 a.m.. I still couldn’t sleep, so I reached for my Bible.  I opened to Psalm 4:3-8..

Did you notice the Lord told me to lie down and be still?  My only hope for safety and peace was from Him.  I laid down and was still and slept for five hours!

My CT scan (to view the lungs) and my MRI (to view the brain) were not scheduled for five days.  I hate waiting.  But this time of waiting was horrible.  Sleep would not come.  I had no appetite because I was so traumatized.  My husband was doing everything around the house as well as running his own business.  I could barely get out of bed.  I viewed my tumor as a big balloon hanging off my kidney that could pop at any time spreading cancer throughout my body.  Whether it was medically possible or not does not matter, that was my perception.  I started receiving the “Get Well” cards.  I really enjoyed hearing from my friends.  But if a card had the word “cancer” on it, I would fall into despair and throw the card away.

My husband asked me what I thought about posting my cancer diagnosis on facebook.  My first inclination was to say, “No!”  It is so humbling to let the world know you are dreadfully ill.  But the thought came to me that if I was praying for healing, wouldn’t God get more glory if many saints were praying and could know of His wonderous works?  So I answered, “Yes!”

In the midst of all this misery, my Mother started saying, “I am going to pray that God will save your right kidney.”  This just sounded so ridiculous to me.  Wasn’t it good enough that I had one good kidney?  Of course I had to lose the right kidney…the urologist said so!

Finally, my five days had passed.  I submitted to the scans.  That evening, the urologist called to inform me the cancer had not spread.  I was overjoyed!  He asked if I was ready to book the surgery.  I said, “Book it!”

Sitting on my bed one day, I began thinking, “I wonder if there is any way to save this right kidney?”  I went downstairs and told my Mom what I was thinking.  She got a gleam in her eye and replied, “Dawn, I knew you wouldn’t listen to me, so I began praying God would put it on your heart to save your kidney.  Here you are two days later!”   

One sleepless night I randomly opened my Bible to Psalm 118:17-21.

Could it be?  Was God speaking to me through His Word or was this just a coincidence?  I underlined the passage because I wanted to claim it for myself, but I wasn’t sure I could.  The next night I thought I would try opening my Bible and see if it just automatically opened in the same place.  No, it didn’t!  Several nights later, I opened my Bible again and there was Psalm 118:17-21 staring at me.  I stared back, wishing it was a message from God.

I had read online that there was a new procedure for kidney cancer where the surgeon could quickly clamp off the blood supply to the tumor and take it out.  I thought this could be the answer.  I asked Rick if he would spend one day at work trying to find an urologist that did this procedure.  On Thursday, Rick said he would spend the day working on it.  That evening, I was lying in bed.  My husband came home all excited.  “Guess what!”  he said.  “On Monday, we have airline tickets for you to go to the Mayo Clinic in Arizona.”  I asked, “Why Arizona?”  I kind of had my heart set on a doctor in California.  Rick told me how he had prayerfully spent hours calling doctors.  For the most part, he was getting “leave your message, please” responses.  When he did talk to a live person, he was informed I couldn’t see a doctor for at least three weeks.  Then it could be another month before a surgery date could be obtained.  But my cancerous, balloon tumor could burst at any moment.  I had made Rick well aware of that!  My husband went on to tell me that while making these calls, he received a call from Pastor Jim Greenacre.  Pastor Greenacre told Rick of the great miracles God had performed in his life using the doctors at Mayo Clinic.  He encouraged Rick to take me there.  My husband took this call as from the Lord and decided to pursue it.  Immediately, he called Mayo Clinic.  Amazing, he actually got a live voice saying I could have a doctor’s appointment on Monday.  They would try to schedule my surgery on Friday since we were out of town.

On the airplane I was miserable.  My cancerous tumor was killing me.  Sitting in those seats was almost more than I could bear.  The ride was very turbulent which hurt even more.  We had my health reports faxed to our hotel.  I saw the title of one, “Malignant Tumor.”  That did it….no sleep that night!  I just sat up in bed and shook…full of fear.

We were sitting in the parking lot waiting for our appointment.  All of these expensive cars were pulling in to park.  I asked my husband to start calling other doctors for back up because I was afraid this fancy place must only take patients with Cadillac insurance policies.  Poor Rick, he started frantically calling only to get the same responses as before.

Our appointment time finally came.  We were greeted by a friendly nurse.  Rick immediately asked her if she could prescribe me something to help with sleep.  She kindly agreed.  Then we were seated in the doctor’s office; the same doctor Pastor Greenacre had used.  The doctor began discussing my tumor.  He looked at us and said, “You know, your tumor has the characteristics of angiomyolipoma.”  Well, that sounded great, but I had no idea what the big word meant.  He went on, “I believe your tumor is benign.”  Tears welled up in our eyes as we looked at each other.  Could it be?  The doctor stated he would refer my case to the head urologist.  My appointment was at 2:00 p.m. the same day!

Rick and I had lunch.  Now we found ourselves sitting in the head urologist’s office.  The urologist came in with a twinkle in his eye and said, “You sure have not wasted your time by coming down here.”  “What does that mean?” my husband questioned.  “Well, that means your wife does not even need surgery.  On Friday morning, we will perform an embolization. This involves cutting off the blood supply from the kidney to the tumor using platinum coils.  The tumor will shrink up and go away in time.”  This was unbelieveable!  We were numb with exhaustion and joy!  Now I knew Psalm 118: 17-21 was God’s promise to me….little ol’ me!  I knew God had used my Godly Mother to encourage me to save my kidney.  I knew God had used Pastor Greenacre to show us the way.  I felt so humbled, so unworthy.  I took my sleeping pill and slept ten hours that night!

After my procedure, the flight home was especially rough.  Everyone was gripping their armrests.  I was resting perfectly remembering my passage…”I shall not die, but live, And declare the works of the Lord….”  I turned to my faithful husband and said, “I wonder how long my living coupon is good for?”  He laughed.

Two months later we were back at Mayo Clinic for a follow-up visit.  After three more CT scans, again we found ourselves in the urologist’s office.  The doctor informed us that my embolization was a complete success and everything looked great!  As we were riding the airport shuttle on our way home, tears came to my eyes as I recalled God’s mercy and blessing in my life.  My husband looked at me questionably.  I said, “It’s the end of a long journey.”  He put his arm around me comfortingly and I thanked God for His goodness and for my wonderful, Christian husband. 

Dawn Abel