I read with interest the story from Jean Fitzgerald “Have you ever been thankful for a heart attack?” I have written for prayers for my husband Larry who has lung cancer. He is doing real good right now, but the way we found out that he had cancer was very similar to this story. Larry also has what we call hardening of the arteries, and has had surgeries for this on his legs.

Bypasses. In March of this year (2001) he started having severe pain in his right hip. Our family Dr thought it might be related or he could have another blocked artery. So he contacted his vascular Dr and they ordered tests done. It showed that he had a hip lesion. In January of 2001 he had had a stress test done and it had came back that he had problems with the right side of his heart, so tests, and x-rays were done and an angigram which showed no problems. But the x-ray that was taken during this showed a spot on his lung. The Dr said it was just a shadow of the nipple. And was nothing to worry about.

When the x-rays came back that showed the hip lesion, another Dr in the office was looking at them and saw the spot so he ordered new chest x-rays. On April 13th Friday, his Dr called and told him that he wanted him to meet him at the hospital on Monday. We arrived and they already had a bed for him. The Dr told us that the new x-ray showed a mass that they thought was cancer. Then they did a biopsy to make sure it was cancer. It came back positive for small cell lung cancer. He was in the hospital for 7 days, during this time they did every test possible. X-Rays, Mris, bone scans brain scans etc. all came back that the cancer was limited to the right lung.

On Friday , April 17th they started him on his first round of chemo, he was released on Sunday April 19th. The next Wednesday he started radiation treatments 5 days a week. So far he has had 5 rounds of chemo and 28 radiation treatments. He has one more round of chemo which he will take in August. The last scans showed that the cancer had shrunk so much that it was virtually not there and to small to test. But small cell lung cancer is very easy to come back. During all these tests and there have been many, the original bone lesion that lead us to find the cancer has never been found again. He has never had a pain in his hip again.

So yes the Lord answers prayers before they have been said. Never forget to say Thanks to him. We are grateful for a pain in the hip. Please keep remembering us in your prayers. Thank You

Laura Wright lsllwright@hotmail.com (Received on July 26, 2001)