Chasing the bright spots

I’ll make this brief-ish because this has been the Monday of all Mondays, and we are in desperate need of a good meal and a long sleep.

We learned on Friday that insurance had denied Jesse’s surgery. We began the fight with them then, which has continued onward today.

It’s complex (and actually pretty boring), but, at the end of the day, the surgery was still denied and we were told we would have to front the cost in order to have the surgery. That conversation went REALLY well. 😏:

Lady on the phone: “Mrs. McMillan? The cost of the surgery will be $99,900. Do you have that amount?”

Me, laughing: “Of course not! Do YOU have 99 thousa…WHO HAS THAT LAYING AROUND?!😂“

Her: Ma’am? What do you want to do? Do you want to cancel the surgery?”

Me: “Well, we’re about to meet with the surgeon to review my husband’s new scans, so I’ll have to call you back about that.We’ll figure something out. He can’t just not have life-saving surgery.”

I was following Jesse into the small review room as I finished this conversation. We sat down in our usual places and waited for the doctor to enter. We love our surgeon. He’s good humored, knowledgeable, and has the kind of bedside manner that makes you want to introduce him to your family as your new best friend. He came in, took his seat, and pulled up the new scans.

And that’s when we saw it….or rather, didn’t see it.

Y’all. *Please do take a moment to dramatically pause with me before you continue on reading*

What looked like tumor growth is most likely a system of tiny veins. Veins. Not tumor. Veins. VEINS. AND, compared to his last scans at MDA in March 2017, his tumor looks markedly, remarkably, obviously…regressed. He does not need surgery tomorrow, because there isn’t any tumor on his right side to burn with the laser surgery.

We are always “chasing the bright spots” here, looking for the bright white flecks in a sea of grey in Jesse’s scans that indicate tumor growth;and, looking for the bright Light of Jesus in every darkened space. Today, unexpectedly, we have found ourselves blinded by the glow of the joy that comes from being granted reprieve in a life so often chaotic, a brilliantly shining reminder of the glorious Hope we have in Jesus. It’s just a glimpse, just a reflection, just a tiny little blip of joy compared to life eternal with Him. But, Oh! Is there ever joy!!

This is certainly not the end of brain cancer in our world. It isn’t. The reality is, these tumors tend to grow and spread and make a mess of the structured human brain. BUT. They lack the capability of destroying the purpose of God, who intricately, intentionally, wove Jesse’s brain in this way for His purposes. And we trust Him. We trust Him so deeply. No matter the path we take in this life, we choose Christ. Our greatest hope is that you who find yourselves on this journey with us choose Him, too. You will surely not regret it.

Rejoice with us today, friends! We have such good news to celebrate!!