For he shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.
In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. – Psalm 91:11

Susan Sparks

Have you ever had a Baptist preacher pray over you? If you have, you likely know that there’s a whole lot of energy, faith, power, and other good stuff going on. So when Susan Sparks, my Baptist preacher friend who is also a stand-up comedian – go figure – passionately prayed for angels to surround me the other day, let me tell you that I could feel the breeze of their wings flapping around. There might even have been the tiniest strain of harp music somewhere in the background. I just knew in my gut that I had been really prayed for, and that God would soon send angels to watch over me in this ongoing affirmation and challenge to my life. And that’s what happened and has been happening ever since.

There are so many angels. Some of my special angels are my fabulous doctors who did not stop looking for a diagnosis, who insisted we had to know what we were fighting so I could receive the right treatment. And they didn’t stop. As I wrote in my last blog, they sent my blood work and my spinal fluid around the country to the best labs until the Mayo Clinic came back with the diagnosis: a very rare syndrome called Paraneoplastic Syndrome with antibodies that search out cancers in the body – especially breast cancer. On Monday, September 30, Dr. Paul Tartter, my brilliant breast surgeon, did a lumpectomy and removed lymph nodes at Roosevelt Hospital. So I feel he has dealt with the cancer problem for now, and this will help stop the antibodies from attacking my nervous system. When I saw Dr. Tartter this week, his last words were: “Now let’s be sure we get rid of those antibodies so you can walk better.” And that from a breast surgeon!!

The night before surgery all three doctors talked with me in person or on the phone. I find this quite extraordinary. I wrote them:

Dear Dr. Kamlet, Dr. Fisher, and Dr. Tartter, First of all I owe each one of you a huge thank you for all you have done for me: being persistent about finding a diagnosis, insisting on running one more test, caring for me like I was more than just a patient, and for quickly and skillfully removing the cancer once we had a diagnosis. You are amazing, gifted doctors – all of you. I am so grateful to be your patient and to have the privilege of calling you my doctors. I consider all three of you to be on my healing team.

Andy & Emily Cooper’s angel daughter Erin with Joy

And then there have been other special angels who have been there or who have just showed up when I needed them, like Jane and Alice who have picked me up and delivered me to doctor’s offices and the hospital more times than I can count, like my sister Shirley and
the dozens of people who have camped out on my couch over the last months so I wouldn’t be alone at night, like Mayra who somehow found me in the pre-operating room and stood there holding my hand until they wheeled me into the OR, or Curtis my neighbor who comes downstairs from the 19^th floor and chants for me before I fall asleep, like phone calls from people that just knew I needed to hear their voice, like Anjie who picks up a dust mop the minute she walks in if she sees dust on the floor, like Chris and Jess who bring me delicious food, like Emily and Andy who go with me to the doctor’s office to hear what might be said and help me ask questions, like all my dear neighbors who care for my beach house and birds in Hampton Bays, like . . .

I’ve written this before but it’s true. I am overwhelmed with gratitude – for my brilliant persistent doctors, for my endlessly loving and supportive family and friends and givers of care, for the real possibility of walking again normally, for the freeing from my body of cancer and hopefully of the antibodies that were fighting the cancer but also attacking my central nervous system. Yes, I still need all the positive thoughts and prayers I can get for the long road ahead – from each of you. I believe God – and you – will help me through this next stage of my life.

I have glimpsed the tremendous love God has for us and I have experienced an extremely deep connection with others. And I know that nothing can separate us from the love of God!!

• Is there something in your life that you have taken for granted that you want to be grateful for?
• Have you ever experienced the tremendous love God has for you through the love of others?

O Great Creator, thank you for brilliant caring doctors, for loving and supportive family and friends, and yes, thank you also for the possibility of being able to walk normally again. Help us to not take the simple ordinary things of life for granted – they are special too. May we learn to be grateful for your many gifts to us. Amen.

Joy Carol
www.joycarol.com