After juicing a few days, I noticed a totally normal looking mole flake a bit. After going back to normal food, the mole stopped flaking. Anyway, I mentioned it to Dr. Hester during my routine mole screening, but he said the mole looked just fine. Since I mentioned that it had been, misbehaving, he took it off to biopsy anyway. Praise God he did! It was stage 1 melanoma (the most dangerous of all the forms of skin cancer). He scheduled the procedure to remove it before he left for Thanksgiving. He opened the office just for me. He treated me like he would if I was one of his family members.
I had a crazy batch of mixed emotions. Most of them consisted of some form of fear. It was crazy that this mole would not have been caught at a regular screening if it had not been at a location I noticed it flaking. That made me panic over the one I cannot see. I was anticipating the worst possible case for the surgery...having to come back and get much more removed. I feared not living to see my grandchildren.
...yet
I had a crazy comfort that came from all those in our church family praying for us, offering us meals, and sharing words of encouragement. Our family was blessed by a group of women that came around me to pray before the surgery. Chris (who was really having a hard time emotionally, probably more that me...fearing the Lord would take me home and leave him here without me) was really lifted up but the men who came to our house to pray with him and for us. I saw how the Lord had His hand in this. He was holding us. My day are numbered; there is comfort in that. There is nothing I can do to change that. It is a very freeing reminder. If God wants to take me home, He will. If He wants my cancer found, He will. He is big! He is Healer. He is Mighty God.
One of the best lessons I learned through this whole thing is that God loves me though His people. The people who love Jesus and live by the Spirit are God's hands and feet. I have always wanted to bless others by staying on the giving and serving end. It was WONDERUL to be served and given to. I got to experience God's amazing faithfulness by surrendering to saying "yes" when people offered to love on us.
I will never be the same.
