X - X Marks the Spot!

 Ok, so it's not a true X word but it's the best I could come up with. 😊

When Babe was going through radiation treatment for his neck cancer, they made a mold of his chest, neck and face. This mold was placed over him as he lay on a table and then was screwed on to that table; it is used it to hold him still in the same exact spot every day. An X was marked on each side of the mold in the neck area where the tumors were. The radiation would hit those spots every single day (M - F) for 37 days. 

One of my friends who went through radiation and had that mold made, told me that this whole thing would soon be a blur. It wasn't that long ago and here I am blurry about the details - praise God for that! Babe had an oncology appointment last week; it had been a month since we were there and that day it felt like a regular appointment. Babe looked at me and said, "It seems like a long time ago that we were doing this all the time." Seriously, praise the Lord!! 

My dad once pushed on a bruise on my arm and I yelped, he laughed and said, "Isn't it good that God made it so we don't physically remember pain? I had to think about that and then understood what he meant.  I can remember that it hurt when he pushed my bruise, but my body didn't feel the pain with the memory. That's how fighting cancer has been. The pain for those long 3 months is tough, but it's now becoming a blurry memory, and I am so very grateful for that. 

Babe was allowed to keep that mold if he wanted it, he did. We are going to paint it and mount it to a piece of wood and make an art piece out of it. Maybe that seems morbid but it's a reminder to us of all that the Lord has brought us through - all the tears, the pain, the silence, the repulsive taste in his mouth, the sleepless nights, and all of the hours sleeping it off. X marks the spots where God's hand has been on Babe, on me, on our children.  

In a couple of weeks there will be a full body scan and a scan of Babe's neck to determine if all the treatments were successful. We are confident that they were. X marks the healing spots. Only God! 

Pouring hope, 

Nen ♥


 "...being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;" Phil. 1:6

Comments

  1. Dave RollerApril 28, 2025 at 9:25 PM

    I love this post. My grandmother's name was Izola Roller. Her maiden name was Becker. We called our home school the Izola Becker School. I called her Grandma of course and my Dad called her Mom. But just about everyone else called her Babe. I think that's one of the reasons why I related so much to your post.

    Don't worry about X marks the spot. I did X marks the spot last year. This year I did X is for Xenophile as part of My ABC's of me theme. I talked about how I'm a xenophile because God is and used John 3:16 as an illustration of how God is a xenophile.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nilanjana BoseApril 28, 2025 at 11:27 PM

    That was a rather unexpected but excellent use of X. Heart stopping. I've had close family members go through cancer, so your post resonated. Here from the A-Z. All the very best.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Z - Baby Z

There is a story in the Old Testament of the Bible about three young Jewish boys who were taken into captivity by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. If you know the story you may know them as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego (for Veggie Tales fans -Shack, Rack and Benny). Not too many people know their real names, for those are their Babylonian names that were given to them when they were taken captive from Judah. Their Jewish, given names are, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. These three young men were among many who were told to bow down to a ginormous statue of the king, anyone who did not obey this decree was to be thrown into a fiery furnace. They refused to do so on grounds that they would not bow to any other God but the One True Living God. The king of course did not like this and commanded they be thrown into a fiery furnace. The three men of God were not afraid and said that God would deliver them and if not to let it be known that they do not serve his gods or worship them. ...
Read more

A - Affection

I am a total rookie at blogging, this is my very first entry. I had no idea what I would write about so I had no idea how to begin. A friend of mine told me about the A-Z challenge and I thought it would be a great way to start so here I am.  The A-Z topic is Empathy. I learned that empathy is knowing how others feel because I have been through something similar and sympathy is feeling bad for someone for what they are experiencing. Someone who has never lost a loved one cannot understand what losing someone feels like so they feel bad but don't know how that truly feels. When that person does go through a loss like that, they can now empathize with someone who has lost a loved one. Internal verses external.   Cancer is like this too. I have good friends who have fought cancer and I have prayed and cried with them and even listened to them share their anger at cancer. I have no idea what it's like to be diagnosed with cancer but I can say I have experienced it up close an...
Read more

B - Benevolence

  Benevolence is more than just acts of kindness, it’s living out one’s faith.   Knowing what one should do and actually doing it are two different things. Christians are commanded to be kind and loving, sadly this isn’t always the case as we are all only human and allow the busyness of life to get in the way. It’s a beautiful thing to see people put their own life aside to be there for someone else, even if it’s just a few minutes out of our day.   Being on the receiving end of such kindness is heartwarming and honestly humbling. Opening our front door to find baskets of love – food, snacks, books, journals, homemade blankets! We have two friends who made us blankets, one for each of us, and one crocheted for Babe to take to chemo (because it’s very cold in that room). The other two blankets are fleece on one side with minky on the other side – so cozy. We have nicknamed these blankets, “super blankets.”   It was a very cold winter so we have enjoyed these super b...
Read more