(Published in the Janesville Messenger, 8-18-2013)
Your child has leukemia.
I sat numb in the hospital room as the
doctor explained that my 21-year-old daughter's blood test from
earlier in the day contained cells that 95% of the time are an
indication of acute leukemia. He assured us that the diagnosis wasn't
a death sentence, that treatment had advanced in the last decade,
that there were lots of reasons to be optimistic. Of course, there
was still a 5% chance that her illness was an infection of some sort,
so an MRI was scheduled for the next day, along with a spinal tap and
a bone marrow biopsy. The bone marrow biopsy was the critical test,
the one that would positively confirm (or rule out) leukemia.
Various thoughts swirled. How do we
tell our son? How do I tell my mother? If she needs a bone marrow
transplant, can I be the donor?
How quickly things had changed in the
span of about 60 hours. Two days before, she had been at a farm in
northern Minnesota, the site of her summer employment, when she
suddenly passed out. It was the culmination of a week in which she
progressively experienced symptoms that included headaches, fatigue,
insomnia and night sweats. My wife and I dropped everything on a
moment's notice and drove over 13 hours to bring her home.
Obviously something was wrong, but
leukemia? We weren't prepared for that, and we are a family that's
had our share of cancer. My mother-in-law lost her battle with it
last fall. It also struck my children's other three grandparents,
with only one surviving the ordeal. And just the week before, my
wife's sister had a melanoma removed from her leg.
Leaving our daughter at the hospital,
my wife and I went home, scared, tired and stressed. We stood
together and prayed. I stood hand-in-hand with her as she prayed that
the bad blood cells would disappear. I'm a believer in prayer, but I
found myself doubting that such an outcome was possible, that we
needed to be concerned now with healing. I kept those thoughts to
myself as she prayed and then emailed our church's prayer chain,
requesting that everyone ask for the same miracle.
The following day, the bad cells
disappeared.
All of her subsequent blood tests
showed no evidence of the cells that led to the initial leukemia
diagnosis. We didn't know for certain until the biopsy results
confirmed it, but within a day of that terrible news, several signs
gave us confidence it wasn't cancer. Instead, it was a nasty virus
that should have no long-term effects.
So was it a miracle? Did God answer the
prayers that we and so many others had made on my daughter's behalf?
Non-Christians – and perhaps many
Christians - will say it was pure coincidence; that it was simply a
case of medical personnel misreading the initial blood test and
drawing an incorrect conclusion. Others may say we're being
presumptuous. Why are we so special that God would answer our prayers
and not those of others? Only God can say why some prayers are
answered with a yes, and others are not. We don't know His plans for
us, but the Bible is peppered with verses that encourage us to pray
and to offer petitions. Those passages are obviously there for a
reason.
Some think I should be incredibly
incensed that on the basis of one initial test, a doctor told us with
almost absolute certainty that my daughter had cancer. It would be
easy to feel that way. His explanation and his delivery of the news
was not handled well. Based on what he had seen, however, that was
the logical conclusion.
Regardless, what he said to us in that
hospital room is not important now. What is important is that my
child does not have leukemia.
And that 95 percent is less than 100.
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