How did all this start...?

Several people have asked how I knew to go to the doctor and/or how all this was discovered. The answer is...God. Really.

Back before Christmas I started having an occasional mild burning pain sensation in the left side of my abdomen. It kept up for a couple of weeks and I went to the doctor here, thinking I had a hernia. He said it was not a hernia, but if it kept up I needed to get a colonoscopy. It did, so I called some friends in Spartanburg, SC and got referred to a great Christian doctor down there. He did the colonoscopy in February - found and removed two polyps, one pre-cancerous, but no big deal for somebody my age. He said if the pain kept up, I needed to get a CT scan, as it seemed like I might have a small incision hernia from my reflux surgery in '97.

I went to see a good friend here in KY (that is in our SS class) and he sent me for the CT. It came back and showed no reason for the pain in my left front, but showed a small spot on my right kidney.

He sent me for an MRI, which basicallly confirmed that I had a small spot on my right kidney. He said I needed to see a Urologost. I called the doctor's office in SC that had done my colonoscopy and told them I wanted a referral to a doctor "just like him". He referred me to Dr. Harry Kinard, a top Urologist in SC and an outstanding Christian man. By the way, google 'Andrew Kinard', (his son) and CMA awards and you'll see what kind of family this is.

We were going to be in Spartanburg for a missions conference so I made an appt to see Dr. Kinard that week. He thought it was probably a benign cyst, but said we can find out easy enough with an ultra-sound. He sent me straight from his office that afternoon, and by the time I got through with that, it was after 5pm. I was headed back to the conference when he called my cell phone (he had stayed in his office to hear the results). He was very compassionate, and very reassuring when he told me that it was definetly cancer and I needed to come back the next day for a better CT.

I did, and the following week I had to go back for an IVP, which confirmed the type (renal cell carcinoma vs. transitional cell carcinoma). It may sound weird, but really the only "bad news" in all of this has been when they decided they could not do the surgery laproscopically and would have to do it with a traditional large incision, meaning more hospital time and longer recovery.

By the way - the burning pain that started all this...? Gone. Haven't had it in about 3 weeks, about the time I got the diagnosis. Maybe the Lord was just pinching me and saying "Go to the doctor." I also have not had a single "symptom" of the cancer. No pain, no nothing. God really is good, He really is faithful and He really is worthy of our trust. We have seen His hand in all this from the very beginning, and He has blessed us with a peace that really has passed all comprehension. We rest in Him.

As the Hebrew boys said so many years ago, our God is able to deliver and we believe He that will. But if not, know this...we will not bow our knee to the fear and panic that Satan wants to bring into our lives. And, one way or another, God will get the glory...and THAT is what it's all about.