Healings

Some of you may remember my friend Christa, who was battling colon cancer while pregnant. Her healthy little baby boy was born in December, but she had to start radiation treatment shortly after giving birth. Yesterday she had some major explorative surgery and received some good news. Her husband wrote on her CaringBridge page:

Well yesterday was a long day for Christa and myself. We arrived at the hospital Thursday morning at 6:00. Christa was doing her best to cope with whatever the outcome of the surgery would be. Prior to being taken to the operation room, she predicted to one of the physicians they would not find any cancer. For days now Christa has mentioned to me that she did not feel like she had cancer anymore, so her prediction to the doctor was no surprise to me. My prayer has been that she would be healed, so I too hoped for the same. We have been praying for healing through the intercession of John Paul II and April 2nd will be his feast day when he is canonized. JPII died on April 2, 2005. In the Catholic faith, we generally celebrate a saint’s feast day on the day they died. Just in case anyone is wondering, Christa did not intentionally schedule the surgery for April 2nd, so this too was a reason why Christa is convinced she has been healed from cancer.

The medical staff took Christa to the operating room and I sat and waited. The surgery lasted for nearly 5 hours. Finally one of the surgeons came out of the operating room and provided an update to me in the waiting room. He advised the following:

• They removed the area where the tumor and lymph nodes were located
• They took tissue samples from areas around the tumor
• All tests were negative, meaning they did not find the cancer!
• Christa received an illeostomy (a temporary colostomy), PRAISE GOD!!!!

We are very happy to receive the good news. We will know the lab results for the lymph nodes/tumor next week, so we are still praying they will not find any cancer cells. It appears the radiation and chemo Christa received has worked so far, so we are still hoping everything will come out negative. As you can imagine, Christa is in pain which is to be expected. We are not sure how long she will be in the hospital.

This is wonderful news for Christa, her husband, and their three children. And I thought it was fitting to read this news report today of a possible miracle attributed to Pope John Paul II.