December 3 Advent Devotion Written by Shirley Flynn

Trisha Huffman | December 3, 2015

One morning in early March, 2005, I got out of bed and discovered a very red lesion on the side of my nose. It was so painful that I couldn’t touch it, so that put a stop to the nose blowing. (I had a sinus infection at the time.) Thee days later, I went to my doctor. He said I had a skin infection and put me on a stronger antibiotic than the one I was taking. Four days later, I decided it was time to see my dermatologist. He performed a biopsy and said I should call back in five days. Then he would know what to treat me for. After two weeks of listening to a recorded voice saying, “Shirley, your report is not in,” I was fed up and called the office, asking to speak to a live person. I accused them of losing the biopsy, but the nurse said it had been sent away for a second opinion. I knew then that something was wrong. Two weeks later, I received the call telling me that I had T cell lymphoma. I asked if I had cancer and the answer was yes. My doctor was out of town, so I had to wait three more days. It was a long weekend. When I finally saw my doctor, he wanted me to see an oncologist. I had to wait another week to see him.

The oncologist was a fine man who really seemed to care about me. He said he was not convinced I had what the biopsy showed, so he wanted to test me “from the top of my head to my toenails.” Over the next few weeks, I had blood work, a bone marrow test, and a PET scan. When he received the results of all my tests, the doctor called me in for my report. I took Don with me for moral support. The doctor asked, “Could you use some good news?” He then said, “I think you have a miracle here.” He said he could have randomly picked anyone off the street and put that person through all the tests I had, and he would have found at least one thing wrong, but all my tests were negative. I said, “Thank you, doctor, and thank you, God.” He said, “Not in that order.” I agreed.

I called the office of my pastor, Mark, and gave Trisha, the office manager, the good news. She said, “Hold on. Mark wants to talk to you.” What I heard when he came on the phone was a loud “YIPPIE!” (I love that man!) I jokingly told him it made me want to be a better woman, but he stopped that kind of talk when he told me he was writing it down. During all this time of waiting, my family and friends and loved ones prayed for me. My church family is so special. I felt all their prayers lifting me up. All those hugs, phone calls, cards, and prayers meant so much to me. One busy deacon worked all day and then went home to cook and deliver a meal (in a cold rain) on the eve of my bone marrow test. I told her she didn’t have to do this for me, and she said, “I need to do it for me.” That’s the kind of people we have at Central. I thank God for all of you. The doctor tells me there is no cure for this disease, just treatment. I may develop other lesions and I might not.

I just have to live with the intermittent itching, but I’m handling that okay. I get up happy and thank God for life, which I’m trying to live one day at a time. James 5:13-20