Mom’s Here! (For the Next Three Weeks)

Mom’s invaded my turf today and she’s stinking around for three weeks.  It’s her first time to the “deep south” and more importantly to Cullman, AL.  Her response, “It’s not anything like I thought it would be.” She had a hard time articulating what she had envisions, but from what she saw, she liked…well, most of it.

I think what she experienced through a good amount of our city was really hard for her to put into words, because for the first time in her life she saw first-hand what a tornado can do to a town. Weeks later she’s no longer able to see some of the business, the houses that were most severely damaged by the storm.  Rather she sees the rubble that is slowly being picked up by the men in safety suits. It kind of looks like we’ve been invaded by the people who took E.T. from Elliott’s home.

I wish I could say this was just a normal, planned visit but she’s come to Cullman to be there for my surgery this week and to help me through my recovery. My surgery is scheduled for wednesday at the Vanderbilt Clinic in Nashville, TN.

About three months ago I was diagnosed with a carotid body tumor. Essentially it’s a tumor that has grown around on my carotid arteries on the right hand side of my neck. It will put me in the hospital for at least three days and out of work for a month. More than likely I will have temporal damage to nerves that affect my vocal chords, the movement of my tongue and my ability to swallow.  I will also have to have my exterior carotid artery grafted as the tumor has total overtaken this artery.

People keep asking me how I am feeling about the surgery.

My response to them everytime is, “God has given me peace.”

I’ve been all over the place with this surgery.  There are times I have been overwhelmed with fear.  Fear like I have never experienced before in my life. But after much prayer, studying God’s word to understand fear and embracing it as something that we are to live with and overcome, I now…on the other side of that am experiencing peace.

So this will be my last post on here awhile. I may not be able to update again for weeks though you need to keep an eye out for some guest blog posts that will be showing up in cyberspace in the next week or two.

However, I have come to realize through sharing this with friends and family that though I am experiencing a peace about this, not everyone else in my life is…so here is my prayer for you:

God, I pray that you would provide for others the same overwhelming sense of peace about this surgery as you have given to me. You are in control, you knew me in my mother’s womb, you know when I lay dawn and when I rise. (ps. 139)  You know the plans you have for me, plans to prosper me and not to harm me. (jeremiah 29:11) You have me in the palm of your hand and it is that hand that I pray guides the hands of my surgeons. May you be with my family and friends as they sit in wait. May you remind them of your love for them and give them a comfort to know that you are with them and you have not foresaken them or me. I pray all these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.