Be a Blessing

9/27/12

              Lately one of my prayers is that God would allow me to be a blessing to someone each day. Since I was diagnosed with cancer and then healed that has been something that has really been laid on my heart. I really have a passion for helping others more than I ever have before. Just the other day I had a lady at work ask me about my surgeon at UNC. She explained how she has a friend who was just diagnosed with tongue cancer and he is looking for a surgeon to do his operation. God blessed me with such an amazing surgeon at UNC and I would recommend him to anyone. I gave her Dr. Weisler’s information and I told her some of my own personal experiences from dealing with tongue cancer that she could relate to her friend in hopes that would help him in his upcoming days of uncertainty. I felt like that day that was how I blessed someone. Sometimes those small instances matter so much.

                 This morning at speech therapy my therapist began telling me how she had used me as an example earlier that morning. She had told another patient how much I had improved since beginning therapy and how I had went through tongue cancer, surgery and now my voice is finally recovering. The patient she was referring to was a woman who had recently been diagnosed with tongue cancer but wasn’t going to have surgery because she didn’t want it to affect her speech.  At first I was a little confused because based on my understanding the first step in treating tongue cancer is always surgery to remove the tumor, so I asked my therapist, “They gave her the option?” Then Kelly, my therapist, goes on to explain that I was right, surgery is always the first step and that the doctor basically told her he could either call a surgeon for her or he could call hospice because tongue cancer will kill you. She said the patient was pretty much in denial, that the cancer would just go away and she wasn’t going to risk having the surgery and it harming her speech. This blew my mind! Kelly also went on to tell me that this woman’s case was less severe than mine was and that her tumor was even smaller than mine had been. At this point, I hate to admit it, but I was getting really aggravated at this woman who I don’t even know! How could she be so ignorant and ungrateful? My doctor told me that one week would have made a difference, and here she is lucky enough to have found her tumor while it is still smaller than mine was, and she is wasting time debating on which is more important, her speech or her life! This really upset me that someone would even think this way! Finally I realized that what I need to do about this situation is pray. I need to pray that God will give her clarity about the severity of this situation before it gets too late. I pray that she will realize sooner rather than later that surgery can save her life and that like me, she can regain her speech. She just needs to have faith. Maybe she isn’t a Christian and that is why she is having such a difficult time with this, if so, then that is something else that needs to be prayed about, that through this she will come to know the Lord and she will find comfort and peace from Him during the difficult days ahead. I also pray that what Kelly told this woman about me today will stick with her and that God will use it to persuade her into having the surgery. I hope that my story will help her and encourage her…another way that God will use my past situation to bless someone else!