Monday, March 25, 2013

Lynnette's Doctors Visit: Found a Cyst

This was originally posted in Lynnette's personal blog (www.lynnettegarces.com):

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This past week has been an emotional & stressful week for me and my husband but also a faith strengthener. Last week Wednesday I went in for a TVS (ultrasound) along with a routine pap smear at Saint Lukes Hospital, Global City, Philippines.

DOCTORS VISIT
As the technician doctor was viewing the screen she kept pushing on my right side asking if it hurts when she pushes down. I answered "no". She asked me about 5 more times and my answer was still "no". The doctor calls her colleague into the room. Now I have 2 doctors in the room discussing the images on the screen.

I had no clue what they were whispering to each other as they were whispering in Tagalog. I immediately got worried.

When I came out of the room I was told to come back within an hour for the results and analysis. DJ (my husband) and I went down to the food court for some lunch and I shared with him my concerns.

An hour passed... the technician directed us to take the results to the doctors office for the analysis. I couldn't wait for the doctor to explain the results so I opened the envelope and tried to figure out the results while waiting to be seen.

THE RESULTS
I opened the envelope and read 8cm x 9cm x 6cm paraovarian cyst. My heart completely sank. I had no idea if this is cancerous or if I'm even reading the results accurately. The Gynecologist came in and she was more focused on explaining our infertility issues, but I was more focused on the cyst. She used so many medical terms we pretty much left her office with more questions. She suggested I get surgery done to remove the cyst amongst other things.

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As soon as we got home, I was in a state of shock and disbelief. For some reason I kept translating "cm" into "mm"and just thought- convincing myself..."nah, it's just probably a size of a quarter" I don't need surgery. I'll just keep it in there.

Through my google search, since we left the office so confused, I discovered that a paraovarian cyst is not known to be cancerous (praise God) and is quite common for most women to have, but it's uncommon and not safe for the size that they found in me.

Still in disbelief, I was not wanting to get the surgery done due to finances, being in a foreign country, and other things. Meanwhile my husband made a diagram with the measurements of my cyst. It was as big as his fist like a full size orange. I was completely shocked and decided to pursue the surgery for health reasons.

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OUR NEXT STEPS
Tomorrow we will be seeing another Gynecologist who was suggested by DJ's aunty for a second opinion. Hopefully, we will also schedule the surgery with the same doctor.

HOW I AM FEELING
I am emotional about the results because it stirred deeper concerns beyond just the cyst. Along with the stress of whether our international insurance will cover the surgery and if it does then we will still need to pay a hefty deductible. But God reassured us in His faithfulness as we just found out that our friends (not knowing our situation) donated a hefty amount that covered exactly for the deductible. God is so Good!

I strongly believe that in the midst of all this God is brewing a miracle and a testimony to perhaps one day encourage those who may be going through something similar...

I am eagerly waiting to see how t-HIS story will end.

"Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-19

PRAYER REQUESTS

  1. For wisdom, comfort, & peace leading up to the surgery. 
  2. Prayer for our insurance to fully cover the surgery.
  3. Protections for any lies of the enemy. 

Sunday, February 24, 2013

A Miracle at the Hope Metro Banquet

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During the month of February we have been in a series called the "Love Revolution", where Pastor Nolan has been unpacking the truth of God's love for us, and how we can share that powerful, life-changing love to others.

Love is a verb...for the past two weeks our minichurches (small groups) have been organizing outreaches to love the community. Minichurches blessed the restaurants and shops with food and prayers in the building where our church meets. They blessed the jeepney and tricycle drivers. They passed out free gatorade to workers along the streets near our church. They set up a soup kitchen and gave out food, clothes and toys in our church's barangay, particularly in an area that just had a major fire. All the while we invited people to our finale, our last service of the series...a huge banquet to bless the community. 

This was not your typical banquet...What was special about this banquet was that the church members would be the ones to provide all the food and invite the people - it was not just a few servants or leaders behind this, instead it was the entire church's event to love others in a tangible way. Tonight was the Love Revolution Banquet.

Where is everybody?...Many were invited, the night started great, the worship was awesome, the food was being prepped and our servants were ready. The only problem was that when we began to serve the food less than half the seats were filled...it was underwhelming. We decided to send a small team of servants down to the streets near our church and invite anyone they saw to come have a free feast. We literally lived out the parable in Luke 14. 

Here comes the miracles...Shortly after, people came flooding into the church, every seat was filled, others were standing. What started with about 80 people, swelled to 350, 78 of those being kids! The problem wasn't getting people to come, it was finding them a place to sit!

Miraculously God provided...there was enough food for everyone and left overs for our servants to eat afterwards, and even enough to take some home! Our plan was for everyone to donate enough food for 250 people, in the end God had miraculously multiplied it, not just to barely pull it off, but to overflowing amounts!

But more than just food, hope was served...miraculously God changed lives. People heard the life changing message of the gospel and 45 people gave their life to the Lord! For others, hope was restored and renewed. They found true hope and now their lives will never be the same. I was blessed to see the members of Hope Metro truly live out their identity as messengers of hope. They overflowed God's love through their outreaches, their invitations and their heart to serve those who came to the banquet. 

Many more miracles to come...In January, Pastor Nolan said that 2013 would be "a year of miracles". Tonight we saw that become reality...and this is only the second month of an amazing year ahead of us.