God and the “C” Word
The story below comes from Renee W. and is a testimony of God’s peace, comfort and answers to prayer in a big way for a little girl with a strong will to live.
Mollie was born in 2003 and was a healthy child. She was very active and doing everything early. She was walking a eight months old and earned the nickname F5 from her granddaddy who alsways said she was active as an F5 tornado.
Mollie started gymnastics at age three and loved tumbling. On August 14, 2013, Mollie came to me halfway through her two-hour gymnastics class telling me she had a headache. I clearly remember thinking that was odd for her. But it was a hot August Alabama day and she was running and tumbling in a not- so- cool gym.
I gave her some Tylenol and sent her back to class, but the headaches continued and became worse and by Friday of that week, we ended up in the emergency room. She was diagnosed with pre-puberty migraines and sent home to follow up with her pediatrician.
Sunday night was hectic at our house. We were getting ready for the first day of school. Mollie would be a 5th grader, our son Austin an 8th grader, and Stephen a senior.
We all went early to bed to be ready for school the next morning, but around 11:30 p.m., Mollie woke me to complain about a headache. I did my best to console her, gave her medicine and tried waiting till the doctor’s office opened. I did not want to go back to the ER. But by 2:30 a.m. , she was screaming and crying and begging for relief. So off to the ER we went again with the same outcome as before.
So I was determined to see our pediatrician later that day. We made an appointment and the doctor was quite concerned and wanted an MRI to rule out the “c” word.
Within 10 minutes of her being taken into the MRI, a nurse came to me asking for my signature so they could start an IV. I was concerned because this was to be a “no needles” procedure and I had not prepared Mollie for having an IV started. She had never been sick and I had not explained that to her. But there was lots of insistence and urgency and I kept being told it would be explained to me soon.
My cell phone started ringing and it was my pediatrician (I kept her girls in my daycare) telling me to sign the form and then she would talk to me. She then explained to me that the first set of pictures they took of Mollie’s brain indicated she had a very large tumor, the size of a peach, on her brain stem. They were going to finish the MRI and then she would be transported downtown where she would be admitted for further testing and surgery.
Mollie had a 10-hour surgery the next morning to remove as much of the tumor as possible. We were told that the surgery was very risky and if she survived she would probably have lots of side effects because the tumor was in her brain stem. But we had no choice but to have the surgery.
We were so blessed. Mollie handled the surgery perfectly and only had a couple of side effects. She had double vision which corrected itself within a couple of days and a balance issue which she forced herself to overcome.
That first night as Mollie laid in intensive care, I was sitting and reading Gods word. He had already been carrying me but I was searching, trying to find something and I quickly came to 1 Timothy 1:7. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and love and self discipline.”
This quickly became our verse.
Mollie stayed in the hospital ten days and was diagnosed with anaplastic ependymoma, which is a very rare brain cancer that there was little to no research on and the outcome was not good. She had a five percent chance of survival. She would need six cycles of chemotherapy followed by 45 radiation treatments, six more cycles of chemo and two more surgeries.
We had our first cycle of chemo and when we went to our clinic visit our neuro-oncoloogist came into the room and said “I don’t know what to say. When I told you that Mollie had anaplastic ependymoma it was after seven people confirmed the diagnosis after doing pathology on the tumor. But the tumor tissue was sent to eight other labs and they have all confirmed that the diagnosis is wrong. And I honestly don’t know how to explain it.” My response was, “I can. My God did it.”
Her diagnosis changed to anaplastic medulloblastoma which is still a rare brain cancer but one that had some statistics and proven studies and therapies. Mollie would receive 30 radiation treatments to her brain and spine and would receive six more cycles of chemo. But no further surgeries. Her chance of survival rose to 50 percent.
Today I am proud to say she is almost three years cancer and therapy free and although we still fight the damage that was caused from the chemo, she is doing remarkably well.
She has very little to no hair due to the extensive radiation to her head and has some weakness and balance issues but she covers that up very well.
We recently celebrated her 14th birthday.
My God is an awesome God and I am certain that without Him and the prayers and support of our church family and friends we would not be where we are today. I knew from the very beginning that God was in control.
