*I’m saying part 1 because I really want to say more. Maybe I will at some point, but considering my history in blogging it might eb another few years for part 2 🙂
Five years ago, I did not think I would get to FIVE YEARS!
FIVE YEARS, Y’ALL.
I am OFFICIALLY considered IN REMISSION!!!!!!
Well, here we are. I MADE IT! It’s crazy to think about how much life has been lived since this crazy day back in 2017.
On April 25, 2017, I went in to my very first major surgery that I have ever had before for a double mastectomy. Prior to this day, I think the only time I had ever had any kind of medical procedure was getting my wisdom teeth out in college, so this was a terrifying day. However, being the Enneagram 5/Wing 6 that I am, I researched, planned, prepared, and did everything that I could possibly do to prepare for the surgery and the weeks of recovery afterwards while also dealing with a husband and a two year old. 🙂
In March of 2017 I was diagnosed with breast cancer (invasive ductal carcinoma, Grade 2, driven by hormones progesterone and estrogen positive 99 and 100%, Her2 was negative). As surprised as I was to be diagnosed with breast cancer at almost 32 years old, I suspected at some point in my life it would happen. My mom was also first diagnosed with it when she was 30 and her aunt, my grandmother’s sister, also had it pre-menopause around when she was 40. I decided to get a double mastectomy despite only having actual cancer in 1 breast because my mom’s came back 10 years later and it was stage IV as she passed away about a year and a half later after being diagnosed the 2nd time. I wanted to remove any possible chance of that happening to me. I do not have any positive breast cancer genes either. CRAZY!
I’ll never forget the day I finally told the “public” through social media. I posted a picture saying “Cancer. It’s only going to be a chapter in my life, not the whole story.” I was terrified. I didn’t know how to tell the “world,” or even really if I wanted to tell the world that I had cancer… BUT what I did want to do is to point others to Jesus. For Jesus to shine through this situation, for his name to magnified through it all. Early on in the “diagnosis” stages, the Lord led me to the verse from the Gospel of John.
John 9:3 – This happened so that God’s work could be shown in his life.
This verse has been the outcry of my soul from day 1 of this cancer journey and it will continue to be until I take my last breath here on earth. I don’t blame God for this. We live in a fallen world as a result of sin and because of that we will all experience pain, suffering, heartache, and ultimately death. BUT I know that I can use my pain, my situation, my cancer experience that I have to live every single day for HIS good to bring HIM glory and that God’s work could be shown through my life regardless of the situation I’m in! Just like Queen Esther, I believe that I was created “for such a time as this.”
Friends, if you are suffering, have suffered, or haven’t suffered yet (I promise it will come), I pray that you seek Jesus. Ask me to help you, I will! In the book of Matthew (17:20) it says that we only need faith as small as a mustard seed… A MUSTARD seed y’all. Thats about the size of the end of a pencil tip. We can bring to Jesus the very little we have and he will have mercy on us, he will guide us, he will carry us through the hard and the tough. He loves you more than anyone on this earth ever possibly could. We are made in HIS image. I have seen his mercy on my life over the last 36 years and he is faithful every single time in every single situation. He has never gone against his word. He says who is says he is. He is GOOD!
That’s all I got for tonight friends. I find my rest in King Jesus and my prayer is that you would find your HOPE in him too.
The Lord is GOOD, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust in him. Nahum 1:7
Thanks be to God.
Carly Wisnewski 