Prayers for Billy and DanaM ANSWERED

First and foremost, I give all the Glory to the Lord and thank Him for His humble servants who have been my support through this experience. There are no accidents, coincidences and you’re never “lucky.”

The week before our scheduled surgery in Pittsburgh, my husband was having cold feet which I understood. But I remembered two things, one-I can’t make anyone do anything (although I have twisted up a pair of handcuffs a time or two to force a non-compliant to his knees…lol-a little humor there Lord) only He can and you’ll get plum wore out trying sometimes) and two-if you receive a word from the Lord or some type of direction from Him-just like the military, cling to the last order from the highest ranking officer regardless of what contrary things you might hear from a crazy private. I have to admit I was tired of fighting and was afraid if I forced the issue regarding the surgery and something went wrong, I would never forgive myself.

I guess that’s when the confirmation came because I was now operating in the spirit of fear and had allowed myself to be influenced by my husband’s “hitchhiker.” I went back thru everything and made the decision to move forward, just as cleverly as the hitchhiker. In no uncertain terms, I told my husband that we were going and that he had up until our appointment with Dr. Luketich to change his mind. I promised him that if he met the good doc and his team and still didn’t want to have the surgery, that I would pack my bag and leave for home.

Needless to say, my husband who loves to eat well (that’s what he calls it, I call it eating a lot…lol) wasn’t in the best of spirits being on a soft food diet when Pamanti’s is around here somewhere…and looking oh so forward to drinking a litre of “Go-lytely” which they should rename “Go-heavily…”

Our arrival at “Presby” left us more than impressed. Everyone was professional, polite. I even watched regular staffers, unfailingly approaching “newbies & visitors” to inquire if they could be of service. Dr. Luketich’s office immediately received us even though we were a half an hour early, checked us in quite quickly and escorted us to one of the consultation rooms. Even though we waited there for a half an hour to see the doc, we were greeted by his many assistants and aids and told stories of his expertise and skill. One of his staffers told me, “You know, he’s actually the best in the WORLD at this. If any of my family members needed anything along the lines of GI procedures, you can bet they’d be coming here.”

We talked at length with Chuck, Dr. Luke’s assistant and thought perhaps we wouldn’t be seeing Dr. Luke and understood…(I’m sure he’s awfully busy) but Chuck said NO way-you have to meet the man, it wouldn’t be right for you not to meet your surgeon. I was warned by one of the girls in the office that Dr. Luke travels with “an entourage.” Lol-it’s true. Even in the OR..he has research assistants and young medical interns eager to learn from him. About 5 other people came in to the office.

I have spent years in a career that forces me to size up people quickly and I’m fairly good at it. I was even comfortable with his assistant Chuck, who is clearly learned from being under Dr. Luke’s wing, and when I met Dr. Luke, not only was I immediately put at ease for numerous reasons, so was my husband. But I guess, he’s equally as good at sizing people up.

He looked right at my husband and explained everything to him and wanted to know if he was sure he wanted the surgery. My husband had already had the cancerous lesion removed. Dr. Luke said, there was a possibility that the tissue he would remove would show no more cancer and didn’t want my husband to be upset.

++++Here’s something real important for everyone to read. Dr. Luke told my husband that he would still recommend this surgery just for the Barret’s and the high grade dysplasia. There is still a lot they don’t know about what causes EC, but they do know with adenocarcinoma that Barret’s is definitely a contributing factor. I asked Dr. Luke if my husband was his brother, would he do the surgery and he was sure he would.

With my husband on board now, we returned to Shadyside with a sense of peace although my husband was STILL not completely convinced that he would wake up. I don’t pretend to know the Lord’s will on some things but on this matter, I was assured. The Lord didn’t see to it that the disease was found, didn’t see to it that I found a way to Dr. Luke’s only to take my husband away from me. He just doesn’t operate like that.

I did have to keep reminding my husband, during two different registration processes, that we were not referred by the Marshalls…lolol (we were in reality, but I had to explain to my husband that they were asking about a referring physician…) I saw two confounded expressions…. “Who were you referred by?” the administrative person said… “The Marshalls” my husband replied…. “Who’s that?” replies administrative person….

I’m so sorry folks, I can just never be short…They took my husband in at 0800 yesterday morning. I put his wedding ring on my finger and told him that I would put it back on as soon as I saw him. The procedure lasted a little less than 8 hours. I saw him at about 1800, I think. What did I see? Mr. Moore, wisecracking with the nurse and asking me if I brought him a coffee. I told the nurse that she had my permission to rap him one, if she felt so inclined. I was tearing up in gratitude and he said, “Hon, it looks worse than it really is…” I told him that I was happy, not upset and slipped that wedding band back on his finger.

He really looked well, all things considered. Good color, good humor, clearly in a little bit of pain which they managed well with a tube down his nose which he said was just uncomfortable and felt a little strange.

I’m afraid this wouldn’t have yielded the same result in Baltimore. I even remarked, could you imagine how you’d feel now if you would have had the open thoracic surgery at U of M? I’m sure if he wouldn’t have had all the tubes and monitors on-he would have left to look for Starbucks.

I thank God. Even now, my eyes are welling up because we’re coming down the mountain now. It’s not over, but we climbed the highest part and it’s all downhill now. It’s been a long journey and a huge leap of faith. I thank you all for your prayers and support. By His grace and with your support, we made it through the valley. God has been listening…during the 8 hour wait, I had an unbelievable sense of peace and thought to myself-people must be praying for me, that I have the peace of God so much.

One of the last things I told my husband was, that if you choose to walkaway, when the cancer comes back, not if, but when, you may not be eligible for a surgery at that time. I could take up 8 more pages and go on about Pittsburgh and Dr. Luketich-the Lord is perfect-He made sure through his instruments, The Marshalls, that I not only found the good doctor, but also the courage to make the trip. My heartfelt thank-yous to my EC family. Susie-thanks for the phone call, it was the second best thing, short of you being there.

Since laughter is good medicine, I’ll leave you with this….I’m actually going to share one of my most embarrassing moments. On the day before our surgery, I was distracted to say the least and one of my employees called me not realizing where I was and I was talking to him on the way up on the elevator. I got off of the elevator, pulled my room key out of my pocket (still on the phone) and opened the door.

There were people in my living room I didn’t recognize. I quickly told my employee, I have to go, because a quick scan of the room, told me that my husband couldn’t have possibly cleaned up a room that fast. But I couldn’t wrap my mind around what happened because they greeted me as if they knew me and never moved from their seats… They said, “Hey, how ya doin?” I said fine…trying to figure out if these were some folks I talk to here but haven’t met face to face yet. I guess I looked really bewildered because they finally said, “What’s wrong? Do you have the wrong room..? I stammered, “I think so-but I used my key…” They said, “Oh, no worries, we never lock the door.. I must have apologized 3000 times and they were getting upset that I was apologizing, so we introduced ourselves…. I think they wanted me to sit a spell but I had to make sure I really had a room there. I still don’t know how I did that…and what’s crazy is-because I thought they were visitors, I just stood there and finished the call after they greeted me because they looked like they belonged… I GUESS THEY DID, it was their room. I’m getting ready to invade the ICU at “Presby” another glorious day. I love you all and remain very grateful for your prayers.