The "Big C"
Another thing that I have not intended is for this blog to be a forum for discussion of my troubles, and those of my family. I have especially intended to keep Sandi out of it in order to maintain her privacy.
But something has happened in her life, and consequently, in the life of our family that has literally changed our entire lives. I am going to purposely skimp on the details a bit because of that privacy thing, and because those details are not all that relevant to what I want to say.
After Labor Day, we learned that she had breast cancer. About a week later, she had surgery. While the surgeon was certain that they got it all, the oncologist thought that because it was such an insidious type of cancer, that follow-up with an aggressive chemotherapy was in order. We believe that by God’s grace and power, everything is going to be alright.
I am writing about this because I want to share my observation on some of the things we have learned through this experience. Specifically, I have learned four things:
1. How many people are affected by this disease. The room where Sandi goes to take her chemotherapy has about thirty seats that are filled to capacity each time. As soon as one seat is vacated, another patient is brought in to fill it. I presume that this goes on all day, all week during daytime business hours. Beyond this, there is the “ripple effect” into the families and friendship circles of each of these people that makes this a very far-reaching illness indeed.
2. Doctors and other medical personnel do not have a full enough appreciation for how disruptive this whole thing is to the lives of people involved. Giving medical treatment is often so routine and matter-of-fact to these folks that they don’t always realize that this represents a major (albeit necessary) interruption in the lives of the patients and families. I respect what these folks are doing, and I marvel at how well they do it, yet I feel that if a little more thought were given, there could be many ways that the course of treatment could be more accommodating to the patient’s needs in their personal lives.
3. There is very little spiritual support offered to those receiving cancer treatment. In spite of the TV spots where former patients of Cancer Treatment Centers of America declare that they “treat the whole person" in the Sioux Falls center at least, there seems not to be any spiritual support beyond the pastors of the patient’s local church (if they have one), and those local pastors are often not as experienced in the specifics of the needs of cancer patients as they could be. While I perhaps had expected that an institution such as Cancer Treatment Centers of America might employ a staff chaplain who might be specially trained in meeting the needs of cancer patients, it appears to me that the Sioux Falls unit is secularized beyond this.
4. The “Big C” is not cancer, but Christ! I heard this statement being made sometime during the first couple of weeks that we went through all this. I think I heard it on K-love radio. Wherever it was, we have found it to be particularly true. He has sustained us, and continues to strengthen and sustain throughout this whole thing. We have been particularly gratified that so many have prayed, and continue to pray for us. I have frequently said that Sandi is the most prayed for person on the planet. Prayer changes things because Christ changes things. No matter what the circumstances, the outcome is in His hands, and there is no bad outcome in His will (see Philippians 1:18-26).
Thanks for sharing this moment with me today.
posted by Glenn Rivers | 11:46 AM
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