No Cancer in this House!

 

My Grandma, me, & My Dad

In a prior post I was telling you about a family member of mine who was diagnosed with a very serious cancer. It was my 70 year old, traveling, hiking, nothing-can-stop-me-Grandmother. It was diagnosed as Stage 4 Esophageal cancer (it had spread to several distant lymph nodes), which was also inoperable because of the location the tumor was in the esophagus. (Notice how I'm talking in past tense!?) It absolutely rocked our family to the core when the doctor told us only days after she found out, that they expected my grandma would only have 11 months to live. When we heard that it was inoperable we all felt even more helpless, but the doctor did say they would try radiation but didn't feel hopeful because the tumor was already closing off 75% of her airway and the amount of radiation she would need to shrink something of that size, just didn't seem promising. Well, after 6 extremely scary months, the radiation worked, the chemo worked, and when our family took my grandma back to the doctor she looked at all of us both puzzled and excited. "There is absolutely no sign of disease in your body anymore. You're officially in remission." She showed us the newest PET scan, which only 6 months ago was littered with neon yellow splotches which show you exactly where the cancer is attacking the body. This PET scan was completely clear, with not a single dot of neon.
Esophogeal Cancer is one of the most serious because only 13,000 people in the US are diagnosed every year. This is not enough for our country to require yearly screenings, like we do for breast cancer. So by the time it is diagnosed, it is usually much too late for a positive outcome. Here's the esophagus in relation to the rest of the body, just in case you weren't 100% sure:

 

Absolutely everything passes through here, and the largest cause of this cancer is smoking and alcohol consumption. My grandma had quit both smoking and drinking 15 years ago. They just didn't realize the hazards that we do today, and it saddened us that even though she was trying to better her life, the cancer still was able to sneak in, over a decade later.
   With all of this being said, we are so grateful for the literal miracle that God has given to our family. We prayed several times a day, in big groups, in small groups, by ourselves. Friends of mine who had never even met her were praying with me. I have always believed in the power of prayer, but now I am even more convinced. ;-) Less than 5% of people live 5 years after being diagnosed. We knew all of the statistics but also knew that God is bigger than any doctor or any treatment. He is the largest healer and the bible tells us He WANTS to heal. I truly believe that our faith in God made this cancer disappear and I thank Him every single day for giving us more time with her. We are so happy and so thankful.
  With all of this being said, there are always possibilities of cancer returning. Again, we are not too concerned with the statistics because we have already seen something extremely rare happen while fighting this awful disease. So my grandma will take the precautions of repeating a PET scan every 90 days with the hope that none of the nasty stuff will return. And we will continue to ask God to keep the cancer out of her body. With these couple things, we are praying that she will be the healthy, active Grandma (who I grew up hiking and traveling with), always! Thank you for reading :)