So, that night was the worst night I’ve spent in my life trying to sleep. Blankets were a shame, pillow was a joke, my hospital gown made me cold as did all the cables connected to me and touching my skin… Sorry, need to vent a little. I went to sleep around 3am and by 4am an alarm started beeping so I called the nurse to turn it off. Couldn’t go back to sleep after that. At 7am a nurse brought be medicine and took vitals I think and then I dozed off for a little. That marked the first night after diagnosed with the brain tumor.

That day, starting at 9am, I received visitors starting with Nubia and Mel who brought me McDonald’s, goodies, my pillow and a Zebra Snuggie (lol… but so much more comfy than the shameful “blankets” from the hospital). Then, Kevin and MK Lemay who prayed and declared victory and God’s word over me. A sweet treat from God. Then, my sister Liz and brother-in-law Adrian. They were so awesome and drove down from Austin the minute Nubia called them with the news. It was a heartfelt and beautiful visit.

With all the visits we were able to laugh, cry, praise God, be encouraged.

After they left, they went to tell my mom and dad. I can only imagine how that went, but mom and dad also got ready ASAP and came to the hospital. Of course, my mom was emotional and we cried a little but I assured her that Jesus was with me. They both prayed over me and declared me healed in Jesus’ name.

As a side note, this whole time I’m calling on my savior, Jesus. I know He is my salvation. I know He was pierced for my transgressions and by His wounds I’m healed. (Isaiah 53:5) I’m not in fear and neither is Nubia as we know sometimes our God shows His miracles through what may seem like a tragedy. We’ve been there enough to pay attention to the God moments and here are some of them for the unfolding of this current story:

– Yesterday, when we had just found out and been admitted to the hospital, Nubia, Mel and Andrew were leaving for the night and were heartbroken that they weren’t able to stay by my side. In the parking lot, Mel noticed a familiar face and, sure enough, Nubia recognized that the person was a dear friend we’ve done ministry with in the past. We’ve known her and her husband for over 14 years. Anyway, she’s a Baptist Hospital nurse educator but at the downtown regional office. The only reason she was at the North Central Baptist that night was to decorate her old office for a friend who was having a birthday the next day. She was there at just the right moment, breath of fresh air, the hug God knew my family so needed. No one knew at this point what our family was starting to go through.

Over a month and a half ago, I had some headaches that would turn into half of my face being totally numb and then tingly. I thought “wow, that’s not normal” of course, so I scheduled an appt. with my general doctor.

When the doctor saw me, he ordered me to have an MRI done. I honestly thought that was overboard at the time but thank God the doctor didn’t. The next weeks were wasted dealing with the MRI imaging place trying to get our insurance to cover it (because they needed more details from the general doctor’s order).

Anyway, fast forward to January 24 in the morning… I get a call from the imaging place and they say they have an opening that morning for me. I told them our insurance still hadn’t approved and they said “oh, they’ve already approved it so you’re good to go.” So, I went in that morning.

After the scan was done, the imaging tech sat me down and said the radiologist wants to do an MRI with contrast to see a better image and asked: “do you have someone who can pick you up.” I was like: “here we go.” I asked her if I needed someone to pick me up because the MRI with contrast causes anything OR if they had found something of concern. She said she would let the radiologist explain.

The radiologist came and explained a mass was found on my brain and he definitely wanted me to go to the Baptist Hospital ER (next door) and then be admitted so that they could order all MRIs necessary for my future care. I was hesitant and just wanted to bypass the ER and go straight to the Neurology dept. We would see…

In the meantime, I had to break the news to Nubia. Back story is we were recovering from Covid and Nubia was the worst one hit and she was still showing some debilitating symptoms. MY HEART WAS SO HEAVY to share this news with her that I decided Melanie would be a good buffer. She is strong, to the point, intelligent, so I called her and worked my way through telling her and explaining how I needed her to break the news to mom in person. I wasn’t there of course, but Mel broke the news as best she could and they both got ready in a flash to meet up with me.

As they arrived at the hospital, I came out to greet them and we prayed outside for strength and God’s will to play out.

When we came in, we went back to attempting to be admitted straight to Neurology but couldn’t manage that no matter what we tried. So, in to the ER we went. The nursing staff was excellent and put me through the admitting area even though the waiting room was full of people waiting to be seen.

From there they sent me to radiology to get more brain MRIs with and without contrast. Then, they also did chest, abdomen and pelvis CT scans just to rule out cancer had started in any of those areas and traveled to the brain, therefore causing a cancerous mass. THANK GOD, those scans came back clean.

That night they transferred me to the ICU in what I thought was preparation for surgery. It turned out that would have to wait. Me going to ICU also meant that I’d have to say by to Nubia and Mel which kind of broke us a little, especially Nubia since she wanted so badly to be by my side.

In preparation for monitoring me, they attached about 10 things to my arms, hands, chest. Since the ER, my veins weren’t wanting to let out blood. They were easy to find but my blood just wasn’t flowing or something. So, the ICU was the same. More poking and prodding with my veins not cooperating. Oh, and they gave me a sponge bath. Wow. Geez. Seinfeld episode anyone? Hahaha…