Holy shoes

I had misplaced the number of my family doctor the other day and when I got really sick I asked a mutual friend to text him and see if he could expedite getting me in to see him right away. My friend obliged and the doc agreed to see me on short notice, but he told my buddy to be sure and tell me that he wanted me to bring him a copy of my book. I agreed but only one copy for him; (he has eight wonderful kids and a lovely wife who is also a doctor and I could get a hernia bringing a book in for every member of his family and then I would owe him even more money on the co-pay for treating that too).

The doc sent me to get an x ray and then a CAT scan on Tuesday and subsequently I contacted him and asked him if he could expedite getting the results back quicker. Wednesday he sent me an e-mail and told me the CAT scan revealed a spot on my lungs, it appeared to be a nodule that was about a half inch long and quarter inch wide, and he wanted me to see a pulmonologist, (lung specialist).

Not long after I got the e-mail an African American preacher friend inquired as to how my test turned out and I told him the test came back positive and I had to see a specialist. He told me that I had a powerful testimony and I wasn’t afraid to give it and that I should know that satan would be “coming after me”. I told him that I wasn’t worried about satan “coming after me”; God can and will send him scurrying for cover like the rat he is and I intend to stay close to God. My preacher buddy then asked me to speak the last weekend of March to “his kids”; (175 troubled kids who are currently incarcerated for various problems). I told him I would consider it to be an honor and a privilege to talk to these kids.

Then another buddy called and wanted to know how I was faring with my lung problem. I brought him up to date and he told me that coincidentally one of his good friends was a pulmonologist and he would try to get me in to see him right away. He came through and I got an expedited appointment to see him yesterday. I was in the waiting room at the doctor’s office with my wife and in walked my buddy. He told me that he knew I wasn’t good with directions and just wanted to make sure I made it. I told him that I believed he was just being nosy and my wife shot me an annoyed look for saying such a thing to a friend who had done me such a big favor getting me an appointment on short notice.

He picked up on that and quickly told her that my comment is but one example of how shabbily I treat all of my friends. I told him that he obviously didn’t remember me returning the shoes that he left in my truck the other day. He turned to my wife and told her that I had e-mailed him and told him that his shoes weren’t worth the gas it would take for my wife to drop them off by his office. My wife shot me another look of disdain and I protested that he called me no less than ten times asking me to bring him his shoes and so I finally became so exasperated that I went out to my truck and found them. Those shoes were at least 20 years old and had two inch holes in their soles. I simply told the truth that they needed to be put in a dumpster. I would have figured that an important VP of a big bank could afford better. By this point my wife was glaring at me.

Just in time the nurse called me back to see the doctor and it turns out the doc had heard my testimony at a church that I had spoken at the other night. I immediately felt better about my situation by just knowing I had a Christian doc. The CAT scan revealed a place on my right upper lung that he referred to as a nodule .9 centimeters long x .6 wide, (about inch x inch). He wanted me to get a PET scan next week to determine if it is cancer. In a PET scan they inject a radioactive sugar into my bloodstream and then do a full body scan, (neck down). If you have cancer the sugar goes to it and it shows up as a “hot spot”. If the PET scan comes back positive the next step would be either to get a biopsy on the nodule or just have it removed in its entirety.

He emphasized that this spot was found entirely by accident and had nothing to do with my original respiratory ailment. He told me that he doesn’t know what it is, but at this point he doesn’t think it is bad. I have several signs of old scarring around the edges of my lungs and this might be a remnant of something else that happened to me years ago. He said if he were a betting man he would bet 80-20 that it wasn’t malignant, so that is encouraging. I wouldn’t want it 80/20 the other way I tell you.

So next week I will receive a PET scan and possibly a biopsy after that. I’m not at all anxious about it and trust that God’s good plan for whatever remains of my life will work out perfectly.

I will say that it is nice to have friends. In addition to help received securing appointments etc. I have been receiving e-mails and encouraging calls from people wishing me well and praying for me ever since this ordeal began. It is nice to have Christian doctors too, who not only care about you, but care for you.

Whenever someone applies for a job, high on their list is a desire to know the benefits. Having friends like I have is one tremendous benefit of being a Christian, but of course the best benefit is knowing that there can be no better friend than Jesus Christ. No matter if satan and all his demons come after me with all of the resources that they have in their nasty arsenal, my best friend God is far more powerful than they are and best of all He will never abandon me and I am assured that I will spend eternity with Him surrounded by the rest of my good Christian family of friends. (I wonder if my buddy will attempt to wear his “holy shoes” when he enters those pearly gates. Knowing him he probably will, because he is too tight to replace them) Sorry couldn’t resist that…

John 15:13-15
“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”