Sunday the 11th of November 2007 is a day Maria won't easily forget. For that morning she felt a big hump in her left breast. Immediately a lot of bad thoughts ran through her head: cancer... and even a quickly growing one too... Maria was totally upset and she wept quite a lot that morning. At first she did not want to go to church, because she knew everyone would ask her how she was doing.
She did not want to lie and she was afraid that she would start crying again. Then she realised that in this situation she could be at no better place than in church... for there they would pray for her! She was prayed for and on Monday Maria went to the general practitioner. He immediately referred her to Somedi for further examination. The female radiologist who did the mammography and the ultrasound scan, said she had good news and bad news: the bad news was that Maria had a swelling, the good news that it was nicely encapsulated. That very evening the general practitioner still came with the results of the examination. Maria was very surprised for he had never done so. He said it was a cancer and referred Maria to a very good specialist. But she had to wait some days before she could be treated there.
Monday morning Theo, Maria's husband, received the words from Isaiah 54:14 while he was praying: "Tyranny will be far from you; you will have nothing to fear. Terror will be far removed; it will not come near to you." On Tuesday evening Theo and Maria went to the church meeting. Tuesday evening Theo and Maria went to the church meeting. There they prayed for Maria with the entire church. During that prayer Maria received a very deep rest and she had the feeling that everything would come right. Now you must know that this is not so self-evident for Maria. For by nature she is very nervous and uneasy. This deep sense of quietness kept on lasting after the prayer... already a very big miracle in itself! Maria's own family and friends could not understand it at all!
Also Theo had never seen Maria so calm in such circumstances.
On the 14th of November 2007 Maria was admitted to the specialist. There all the examinations were repeated and they also took a biopsy. In the right breast appeared to be a tumor too, but it was obviously benignant. In the left breast one saw a big, solid, strongly irrigated tumor, 3 to 7 to 3,5 cm. Many blood vessels make a tumor strongly suspected to be malignant. So the specialist said to Maria that the swelling in her left breast certainly had to be removed, and, because she would be under narcosis anyway, she proposed to take away the other one too at the same time. She asked her assistant to make an immediate appointment for the operation and she added that it had to happen as soon as possible. She answered that it was not possible any more in the current year. "And yet it must be done," the specialist answered, and she put Maria on the operation list herself on the 10th of December. The strongly suspected tumor in the left breast and the benignant swelling in the right breast were both removed under narcosis. After one day already, Maria was allowed to return home. Upon closer examination of the removed tumor, it proved to be a borderline malignant (ill-natured) phyllodes tumor. Moreover, a lung X-ray showed a little spot in the right lower field of the lungs. Most likely this was benignant, but it had to be observed further on. For a malignant phyllodes tumor often metastasises very quickly in the lungs.
They decided not to give any further treatment. Though every 6 months Maria was supposed to come for a check-up medical examination. In the meantime we are 2 years further advanced in time. Maria goes well and in February 2009 it proved that also the tiny spot on her lungs had completely vanished!
Or how a story with cancer involved in it can have a very good ending with God...
