Diagnosis

May 29, 2022

As a parent, some of the worst words you will ever hear begin with the phrase:

“I’m sorry your child has _____” 

For our family that phrase included the ending of Stage 4, Neuroblastoma, a highly aggressive childhood cancer.

The next few moments were devastatingly hard.  To be completely honest, I’m not sure I even remember much of them.  Random bits of conversations, flashes of memories, tears, and pain all mingle together to make a confusing jumble.  The one thing I do remember is crying out to Jesus with a, “Oh Lord, please help us!”

Immediately after a diagnosis, friends and family will usually descend on you asking, “What can we do? What do you need?” 

--the reality is you just don’t know how to answer.

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Where moments before you had been a normal family with a child that felt sick, now you are a family with a critically or even terminally ill child.  That pain alone is enough to overwhelm you and shut your brain down.  All your thoughts are now of the illness…the what if questions…and the how we can fight this. No longer are you worried about the day-to-day things like meals and simple life problems, rather now the big problems loom over you. Where will seek treatment? Will it work? How will we be able to pay for this?

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If you too have heard a devastating diagnosis for your child, I cannot tell you to not worry.  I can’t tell you it will all be okay.  I won’t tell you that God gave you this trial to somehow make you stronger.  What I will say is while it doesn’t take the pain away, Jesus is here to comfort you in your pain.  He understands your anguish.  He knows how broken hearted you are.  You can trust that he will be with you each step of the way. 

Do you know him?