"Leap of Faith and into His Will" by Mary LaFrance

While I was in surgery, my Debby went shopping with my friend Pat. I’m sure they both were trying to keep themselves busy while I was in surgery. My sister found a little stuffed skunk with a porcelain face and she told Pat this is “Perfect.” Now my sister doesn’t think I stink like a skunk or look like a skunk. When we were little girls, we had a portable record player that played 45 RPM records. For those of you under the age of 50, you won’t understand. Anyway, we had a record that played a song called, “Fumey Roo” about a little sweet skunk that was made fun of and was always looking for love. I still have Fumey Roo and probably always will. Leon was busy keeping family posted on how things were going, and after 3 hours, I was still in surgery. He was trying to remain calm but things were getting a little bit stressful for him.

After 4 1/2 hours of surgery, I was finally done and was in recovery. Dr. Slovic went out to talk to Leon and Debby to let them know I was resting and they could see me soon. He told them I might need a 2nd surgery if he wasn’t able to get clean margins after the pathology report came back. Now according to my sister, when I was being wheeled back to my hospital room, I sat up on the gurney and told the nurses to stop a minute, because I could see my sister down the hall and she would expect a “parade wave” from me. Hum…that did not sound like me at all, but people do weird things under anesthesia…LOL

Back in my room, I was finally awake enough to talk to Leon and Debby for a few minutes. They wanted me to sleep and rest so they didn’t stay long. I was in and out of sleep for the next 3-4 hours.

The nurse kept checking on me, taking my vitals and asking me if I needed anything. I wasn’t hungry, just thirsty. So I asked for some Sprite and was granted my request. Within a few minutes after having something to drink, I had a really weird sensation come over me and I began to feel like I had a serious case of hives all over from head to toe! My incision was burning and my skin felt like fire. I was having a reaction to the latex medical tape they had used to secure my bandage to protect my incision, and I was having an even bigger reaction to the morphine drip in my IV. My blood pressure went sky high and my throat started to swell shut! The surgeon soon was back in my room. He order and antidote for the morphine and had the nurse take the medical tape off and get something else. I requested that I only be given regular Tylenol for pain and I was pretty blunt in telling them “I won’t take anything else…is that understood?” Let me tell you as the nurse started taking that medical tape off, I was ready to hit the ceiling. So, rather than have her feel bad and “try” to be careful, I suggested she let ME take it off and then help her replace it with something else. She looked at me kind of funny, smiled, and said, “I’ve never had a patient help me with this because you shouldn’t move your arm yet. I told her I was ambidextrous, so “NO PROBLEM!” She asked me I if was sure I only wanted Tylenol for pain. I said, “Yes ma’am, and I’m really not in pain at all.” She said, “Whoa! That’s unheard of!” I just smiled and told her that my prayers and the prayers of many were being answered by God Almighty. I would probably go home tomorrow if things went good the rest of today. She quickly replied, “I think your delirious from the morphine reaction!” I thought to myself, “We’ll see…we’ll see.”

Time kept ticking on the rest of the day and into the night. The nurses kept checking on me. They marveled at how I was not experiencing any nausea or headache, no pain, and was happy and wanted to watch ESPN sports. I continued to express my faith in Jesus and simply told them that He was covering me with grace, tender mercies and certainly his unfailing love. The evening shift of nurses came on, and I had one nurse, from Romania that had a gentle spirit. Her name was Nadia and she was one of God’s earthly angels. Around midnight, she came in as I was finishing my prayers, thanking God for being ever present and providing everything I needed. She quietly asked me if I was sleeping. I said, “No, I was just praying and thanking Jesus for all of the blessings I had been given this day.” She turned to grab the blood pressure cuff and when she turned back to face me, tears were streaming down her face. I didn’t want to pry, but I simply asked her if she was okay. She composed herself and then replied, “You are being so courageous, brave, joyful and strong. I’m sorry I could not hold back my tears when you said you were thanking God for blessing you. You who had this big surgery today. You who will go through long treatment. Somehow, you are still smiling. I lost my mother to breast cancer not long ago. She suffered greatly, and yet she too was full of joy. God is our only hope.” I asked her to hold my hand. I prayed for her to cling to Jesus, for strength, encouragement, wisdom and for Him to meet all of her needs. She had a very different and calm demeanor about her after I prayed. She left me but not before saying, “Thank you for sending light to my heart…I feel so much stronger now.”

It’s a good thing the day shift nurse and I didn’t make a friendly wager about when I would be going home…because I would have taken her money! Dr. Slovic thought I’d be in the hospital 3-5 days, but Jesus had a different plan in mind…yippee! He came in at 8:00 a.m. the next morning. Asked me how I was feeling, checked my incision, took my vitals, and then scratched his head and said I was free to go home if I thought I was ready. Just like the game of Monopoly…Let me pass GO and move on down the line. He did have to tell me that I would need a 2nd surgery. The pathology report and images showed that he wasn’t able to get clean enough margins. He would be able to use the same incision, so my 2nd surgery would be scheduled to happen in 10 days. He also told me that it was good that I had him removed all 47 lymph nodes, because 19 of them were cancerous. Had I waited much longer, the cancer would have attacked most of my major organs and bones. Now there was even more to praise Jesus for and sing praises to Him for his protection and grace.

The 2nd surgery went as planned. I made sure that everyone knew…NO MORPHINE AND NO LATEX MEDICAL TAPE! I arrived at 6:00 a.m. and was back home by 4:00 p.m. the same day. I was loving how Jesus was blowing the medical scene right out of the water, by showing them and all of us, He was in control and his will was being done. Dr. Slovic was quick to remind me: No lifting anything heavier than a fork, no housework, no lifting your arm to wash your hair in the shower, no going back to work for 4-6 weeks, and certainly rest would be best…right doctor…right. My independent mind, could not wrap itself around the thought of me having to depend on anyone for much of anything. Leon would have done ANYTHING I asked, and I robbed him of a few blessings. I had to apologize later on for being stubborn and not wanting his help. Dr. Slovic would let me know in a few days if he had been able to get the clean margins he needed this time. If so, then I would have one follow-up appointment with him, and be sent on to the NW Compass Oncology Clinic to meet with the chemotherapy and radiation doctors. The song, “It Is Well With My Soul” was the theme for this day.