Tag: Answers to Prayer (Page 8 of 12)

A Good Report

June 9, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 0 Comments

God gave me so much peace the day of the surgery. I can’t believe how well I handed it all. Having Mike with me every step of the way has been such a comfort.

In the pre-opt room, I learned that the surgeon’s team had been working for weeks on my case, making sure everything was as corn free as possible. I was happy to wake up 11.5 hrs later to hear that surgery went well.. and that I had had no bad reactions. Yay!

The week since has had it’s ups and downs. It was such a blessing to have my mom stay 24/7 with me in the hospital. The lortab that I had had specially made without corn gave me hallucinations so I ended up taking some not so corn free percocet instead. Returned home from the hospital Saturday afternoon.

Sunday was a good day. Monday another story. Vomited all day long. Bye, Bye, nice, pain meds.

Tuesday, I went to see Dr. Paula Gilliam, a chiropractor, to see if she could help me with acupuncture. Loved it. It helped with the nausea and my post surgery lungs (risk of pneumonia) which were worse after a day of vomiting.

3 AM Wednesday morning, I couldn’t stand it any more. One of the stitches holding one of the drain tubes in under my arm was ripping through my side, felt like a fish hook. I went in the bathroom to take a look and sure enough it was bleeding.

My choice was to take it out right then so I could get some sleep, or to wait another 36 hrs till I could drive 2 bumpy hrs. down to see Dr. Fix during his office hrs. to have him take it out. I had been off the drugs for quite a while at that point, which made it easy to make a rational decision.

I was so happy once I had the first stitch snipped and drain tube out (almost did a little dance), that I decided to pull out three more. I left the last one in that was still draining quite a bit. Luckily for me, one of my drains had lost suction in the hospital and I knew what to do from watching them pull that one out.

My body wasn’t as happy as I was to be rid of them and I ended up even more nauseous than before. Acupuncture to the rescue again. Wednesday was my first good day. I ate, I watched TV for the first time and felt half alive. Thank you Dr. Paula Gilliam.

Today was even a better day. More acupuncture, a good pathology report, and Mike and I are off to Chick-Fil-A to celebrate. Thank You, Jesus!

The Storm

May 4, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 0 Comments

Mike called from DC the morning of the storm to tell us that there were tornado warnings in our area. I replied, “I know the sirens have been going off all morning.”

Trash was out, happy for the rain considering the drought and fires where my parents live, tornado sirens aren’t that out of the ordinary (and I still prefer them to the long drawn out hurricane warnings we had in Florida).

I thought about having James go in late for work.. but Mike talked me into letting him go at his normal time. Josh was studying for final exams and Joel was on the computer. Judi was dreaming about tornadoes (no kidding). Joel and Josh came out and looked around after hearing so many sirens then went back to their room.

I was working in the kitchen a little while later when I saw a wind shear blowing across the lake and called the boys to “Come quick and see.” Joel noticed a rotation in the clouds just above our yard. I yelled, “No!” Then on the far side of the lake we saw what I guess was the beginning of a water spout; water splashing and beginning to spin 20 to 30 feet up into the air.

Josh yelled, “Run!” Joel said, “Where’s the camera? Let’s take a video.” Josh and I yelled in unison, “No! Run!” We yelled to sleeping beauty, “Get in the bathroom there’s a tornado!” The dogs followed and we brought them in with us. Judi asked, “What about George?” Joel said, “Forget about her. Cats are survivors.” The lights flickered. We lost power. A few minutes later it had past.

It just missed our house. Threw our patio furniture on and broke a neighbor’s fence a little over a block away. Broke our table into a million pieces and scattered them across the length of our neighbor’s yard. It abused our screen door. It’s hard to latch and often gets blown open. This time it bent out of shape and the screen tore up (most likely by an airborne patio chair). Knocked the propane tanks to our fireplace off their foundation and bent the pipe to the gauge (I always thought they should be under ground). We have a little damage to the roof.. mostly from the large hail we got later in the day from the storm that did the worst damage in our area (destroying whole neighborhoods up the road).

The tree near the “water spout” lost a bunch of branches. And many trees behind it and the frame of a newly constructed house are all down. Many of our neighbors (including one next door – her flag pole was bent over too) have blue tarps on their roofs now, a few lost their fences, a trampoline dropped on a neighbor’s BMW and a few other small things things were lost, but for the most part we are all happy to be alive and that things were not much worse.

Minutes after our small tornado a friend called from Montgomery to see if we were OK and to tell us that they had spent the morning praying for us. Wow! So nice to know. So blessed.

Jenny

Favorite Verses Turned into Praise

April 18, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

I’ve been collecting favorite Bible verses ever since I was a teen. I’ve written them in notebooks and on note cards, I’ve made my kids copy them and memorize them with me, and I now have files and files of them in my computer.

When I need them, Holy Spirit is faithful to pop them in my head, I search them out and cling to them and try to keep them before me (that’s why I have so many on my walls). It’s the only way I am able to run the race.. “keeping my eyes fixed on Jesus, who initiates and perfects our faith.”

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 We do this by fixing our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects of our faith. Because of the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now He is seated in the place of honor at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again. Think of all the hostility he endured form sinful people; so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

I’ve always wanted to compile a list personal confessions (You know, like the ones that say, “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.”), so in October I started working compiling a collection and finding a way to keep it before me.

I cut an old cork board into the shape of a cross and tried pining them to it and confessing them, but it looked tacky and I couldn’t get comfortable confessing them. It felt too much like striving to me (see my previous post). He does everything by His Spirit (Zechariah 4:6). My only job is to rest, trust, and believe.

Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.” John 6:29

The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. I Thessalonians 5:24

One day, I had the idea that I could rewrite my favorite verses as confessions/praises of who God is and what He has done in and for me; making it more like a prayer of thanksgiving than a demanding of myself. So I took “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.” and turned it into “You strengthen and enable me to do all things.”

It’s taken me weeks and weeks and Holy Spirit keeps popping more in my head, but I think I might be close to finishing. I wrote them all using periods for punctuation, but when I confess them it’s more like:

Jesus!!!! You are soooooo AWESOME!! YOU give me STRENGTH!!! HALLELUJAH!!!!! THANK YOU JESUS!!!! THANK YOU for enabling me to do ALL THINGS!!!!!! All this while I am jumping up and down.

Do you know how many favorite verses you have? I was thinking 30 or 40, but so far I have 281 written into praises. I didn’t include the ones like “Wives submit yourselves to your husband.” Although, I could have; it could say, “You enable me to submit myself to my husband,” because He does. I know it’s not my strength, because I often have to dig deep to draw it up from Him.

I have two favorite sources for Bible study:
I’ve been using Bible Gateway for a long time. I love plugging in my 5 favorite versions (NIV, NASB, MSG, AMP, NLT) in and reading them side by side. You can read whole chapters at a time this way on Bible Gateway.

I just recently found the Online Parallel Bible. I like it because it has cross references and commentaries on the same page as the verse; helping me to really study out my favorite verses.

I hope I am not making similar mistakes to when I was collecting my favorite Psalms and leaving out the parts about wanting God to defeat my enemies.. I am sure it won’t be long before Holy Spirit straightens me out where I need it.

Making Decisions

March 24, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 0 Comments

We really liked Dr. Fix and his physicians’ assistant Dee. They’ve worked together for 18 years. They said with my body type, age, and health I could have whichever reconstructive surgery I wanted. And the answer to my big question “Can you do both in one surgery?” was “Yes.”

We’ve decided to keep going in the direction of having a double mastectomy with reconstruction. It seems kinda extreme at first but when you think about it in the end it has the least amount of side effects and you get all your risk and healing out of the way in one swoop.

I still have to decide about if or not to allow them to take lymph nodes. My choices boil down to:
A. Keep my lymph nodes and trust God that I don’t have cancer in them or anywhere else in my body.
B. Let them take the lymph nodes and trust God to protect me from getting lymphedema. This is especially hard for me because it’s my dominant arm and where I first get hives when I am exposed to corn. It could mean that every time I am exposed to corn my arm would swell with the hives.

Warning TMI ahead… What Kind of Reconstruction?
Only for those who have a fascination with science and the medical world like me.

The reconstructive choices are also hard. I could have a relatively quick surgery with implants, but then my body may reject them. I could have muscles moved from my back or stomach to my “breast,” but after seeing the “Bodies Exhibit” a few years back, I am even more sure that God put each muscle where it is for a reason.

We are choosing the longest (10 hrs.), hardest (microscopic) surgery which comes with a 2 month recovery. They will take some skin and fat and possibly a little mussel (depending on how my blood vessels look when they open me up) from my nice little streached out from babies tummy and place it where my breast used to be. The end result will be like a tummy tuck. 😉 Good thing I’ve been too lazy to work on my abs. If you want to look up the procedures up they are called a SIEA flap, DIEP flap or mussel sparing TRAM flap.

Ahead:

An appointment with an allergist here in Huntsville on Monday morning.
Praying that I will have wisdom and ask the right questions and that he’s able to give us some good advice.

A CAT scan where they give will give me an IV of contrasting dye to get a good look at my blood vessels. Praying for perfect vessels and no allergic reaction to the dye.

A wonderful trip to Alaska with the loves (Jesus and Mike) of my life.

A decision about my lymph nodes.
More Wisdom. Peace.

Surgery possibly on June 1st (they are still working out the details) and a nice, relaxing summer where I am not allowed to lift more than 5 lbs.

Love,

Jenny

George Müller on How to Ascertain the Will of God

March 19, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 0 Comments

A dear friend sent this to me today. I really liked it. Hope it blesses you.

How to Ascertain the Will of God

1. I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Nine-tenths of the trouble with people generally is just here. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the Lord’s will, whatever it may be. When one is truly in this state, it is usually but a little way to the knowledge of what His will is.

2. Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If so, I make myself liable to great delusions.

3. I seek the Will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.

4. Next I take into account providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate God’s Will in connection with His Word and Spirit.

5. I ask God in prayer to reveal His Will to me aright.

6. Thus, through prayer to God, the study of the Word, and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly.

In trivial matters, and in transactions involving most important issues, I have found this method always effective.

GEORGE MÜLLER.

Miracle Swimsuit

March 17, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

Judi has decided to go for her lifeguard certification with the Red Cross and

will be spending the next 4 Saturdays at UAH learning Lifeguarding and CPR.

Pray she does well and is able to find the perfect summer job.

She starts this Saturday and needed a new swimsuit fast.

The last 4 years that we’ve been swimsuit shopping

it has averaged us 4 days to find a modest swimsuit that fits.

The last couple of years the only thing we could find

that wasn’t old ladyish, cost less than $100, and fit was a two piece,

so she has basically been wearing shorts and a tank for the modest part.

Yesterday, we walked into JC Pennies and out with this

swimsuit in less than 10 minutes! It fits and it’s modest

and it’s attractive on her, it was on sale, And we both liked it!

Praise God!

“Carpe Diem”

March 11, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

“Enjoy the day, pluck the day when it is ripe.” Was the much needed Word I got early yesterday morning.

I wrote my last post just before going to see my nutritionalist and Dr. Harriman and asked for prayer, “Pray that I will have favor with Dr. Harriman and he will agree to do the lumpectomy only as a first and prayerfully last step and that my appointment with the nutritionalist will also be filled with wisdom and peace. “

My appointment with the nutritionalist went very well and I believe we had the wisdom and peace that we prayed for. Mike was able to get off work a little early and go with me to my appointment with Dr. Harriman. I am so thankful because it went the opposite of what we had hoped.

When you are diagnosed with DCIS, you are basically given two options. The first being lumpectomy with radiation and a drug that you are required to take for 5 years called Tomoxifen. Dr. Harriman was with us in that he didn’t believe radiation and Tomoxifen were very good options. They both can have very bad, long term side effects.

Option two is to have a mastectomy or double mastectomy. The cool part is that you can have reconstructive surgery at the same time. The uncool part is that it’s a very long surgery 8 hrs. or longer, recovery can take 8 wks. or longer, sometimes the reconstruction doesn’t take, and if you are lucky, you will no longer have any feeling in your sad, scared “breast” because one third will have phantom pains. The worst part about having a mastectomy is that they want to take a few of your lymph nodes and this can cause lymphedema (swelling in your arm) that can last the rest of your life. There is the possibility that they could find an invasive cancer in your lymph nodes and will want you to take chemo “therapy.”

In response to our desire to do a lumpectomy only as a first step Dr. Harriman repeatedly said, “That is ABSOLUTELY the WRONG decision. If you were my wife, I would drag you kicking and screaming for a mastectomy.” I did like him and I don’t think I can say that seeing him was a mistake, so “Where does that leave me?”

I am not sure. If we decide to do a mastectomy, we will do it in Birmingham because they have better options there for reconstruction. Yesterday, I called Birmingham to get things rolling that direction and got an appointment for a consultation with a plastic surgeon named Dr. Fix on Tuesday, March 22 at 9:00 AM. Once I see him and hear my options, he and my surgeon will have to find a date when they can both operate on me.

I will most likely ask them to wait until June because this year Mike and I are celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. In May, we are flying to California to see Savannah, our daughter from Thailand, for the first time in 17 years. Then we are taking a 7 day cruse to Alaska. Yay!

What makes it really hard to make a decision is that although most American doctors will only give you the two options, there are in reality many, many more options. There is prayer and miraculous healing, there are natural healing alternatives, and there are medical doctors around the world that are curing cancer with other medical procedures.

After a much needed nap yesterday, I watched several of the Joseph Prince episodes that I’ve recorded on my DVR. He said several things that stood out to me. One was “That it’s more important to have peace than to be right.” You can send your life trying to be right, when choosing peace is life giving.

One series was about putting on “as a helmet the hope of salvation” from 1 Thessalonians 5:8. He says that hope is “the joyful, confident, expectation of good.” That we can’t live in the past thinking, “If only” or in the future thinking, “What if?” “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1) We have to live in the now where God is.

This very much fits with “Carpe Diem.” Thinking, “I may be having a mastectomy in June.” does not give a very easy feeling. Focusing on having “a joyful, confident, expectation of good” is a much easier way to live.

Another verse that he quoted was: Mark 11:24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. During worship a couple of Sundays ago, Jesus whispered in my ear “Receive your healing.” Ever since I’ve been speaking in faith, “I receive my healing.”

So now I am waiting with a “joyful, confident, expectation of good” for a very visible sign of healing. I wake up each morning looking for the angel of the Lord and hoping to hear him say, “You are made whole. Cancel all your doctors appointments.” My mom said that she, and Mike would have to see him, too. With God all things are possible. 🙂

If he doesn’t come, I am not sure what decision we will finally make, but I will still hold on to my “joyful, confident, expectation of good.” Maybe my “good” will be a supernaturally quick recovery. I know that God is faithful and will be with me every step of the way and that in it’s self is a special kind of miracle. Thank you, Jesus, for making a way for me.

Romans 5:13 I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Love,

Jenny

He Knows My Name

March 8, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

Jennifer

Fair Lady

Her ways are ways of pleasantness,

and all her paths are peace.

Proverbs 3:17

Dawn

Dawn of the Day

Cause me to hear

Your loving-kindness in the morning,

for on You do I lean

and in You do I trust.

Cause me to know

the way wherein I should walk,

for I lift up my inner self to You.

Psalm 143:8

I am a morning person. I love to get up with the sunrise and spend quite time alone

with the Lord and preparing for my day. It wasn’t until recently that it dawned

on me how perfectly my middle name, Dawn, fits me. 🙂

Shortly after we moved to Florida, just a few days before

my birthday, I had an accident where I

very stupidly opened a pressure cooker to see if

the corn on the cob I was cooking was done.

The steaming hot water exploded up and caused second

degree burns on my right arm and shoulder.

An angel’s wing protected my face.

I ran to the bath tub and tried to put my arm

under some cool running water where my

melted skin looked like it was going to wash right off.

I cried uncontrollably from the pain all the way to the ER.

On the way home, I looked up and noticed that just

a couple of blocks from our house was a street named “Jennifer.”

The Lord spoke to me that each time I saw that sign I was

to remember that He knew my name. 🙂
I purposely chose to drive that direction many times.

The spring before, I had looked up the meaning

of my name and chose the verses above to go with it.

Both verses speak about being led by Wisdom.

I so need, love, and deeply desire Wisdom (Jesus).

The moment I became a mom I realized how destitute I was

without God’s Wisdom and have since continually prayed for Wisdom.

God has been so faithful to give us words of Wisdom

and to lead us though open and closed doors during this recent trial.

Yesterday, I started from scratch looking for a

surgeon here in Huntsville. I’ve liked all the doctors we’ve met so far,

but didn’t feel like we had the right one. I had on my heart one

person I felt like I was supposed to call for a recommendation.

I left her a message on Saturday and was waiting for a return call.

One thing about being a morning person is that by the time most people are

up and moving around, I’ve already been up and waiting to talk to them for hours. 🙂

Eight O’clock, Nine O’clock, Ten O’clock went by. I finally called the only breast

surgeon here in town to see if I could get an appointment with him.

He’s taking time off for the next several weeks and doesn’t

have any appointments until April (closed door).

His nurse gave me a name of someone else I might try. I called to make and

appointment with him but didn’t feel peace about it and was starting to

wonder if I should just go with one of the surgeons I had already met (no peace).

A good friend came over to visit that afternoon. I so needed the distraction

and we both enjoyed the time of fellowship and refreshment.

Just a few minutes after she left, the one lady who I felt like I was

supposed to get a recommendation from called. I can’t tell you the whole

story because I could get her in trouble, but she told me who she would go to.

And after talking to her, I knew that God had given me favor and I had found my surgeon.

By this time, it was pretty late in the day, so I didn’t waste anytime in

trying to get an appointment. I told his receptionist my situation

and asked if he had any appointments. She said he might have one opening up

this Wednesday, but she had to make a phone call to see

if she could work it out for me and call me back.

If I had called that morning for an appointment, she would have told me that

they didn’t have any openings until March 22nd. The whole day I was

impatiently waiting for a recommendation and struggling over who I should see,

God was working on my behalf to open up an appointment for me. 🙂

He is so GOOD!

I will be seeing Dr. Harriman and the nutritionalist, who didn’t have any

appointments until April, tomorrow. 🙂

Pray that I will have favor with Dr. Harriman and he will agree to do the

lumpectomy only as a first and prayerfully last step and that my appointment

with the nutritionalist will also be filled with wisdom and peace.

Isaiah 43:

1 But now, thus says the LORD, your Creator, O Jacob,
         And He who formed you, O Israel,
         “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
         I have called you by name; you are Mine!
    2 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
         And through the rivers, they will not overflow you
         When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched,
         Nor will the flame burn you.

Love,

Jenny

Saturday’s Decisions

March 6, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

Saturday morning, Mike and I got up early expecting a long agonizing, discussion over what to do. Although the doctors are proud of their 99% “cure” rate with DCIS, there are many things to take in to consideration.

First, their definition for cure is that their patient is still alive 5 years later. If they die 5 years and one day later from breast cancer, it doesn’t change their percentages. This is why it’s so important to live a healthy life style. Body, soul and spirit are tied to your health and we have to take care of them by eating right, exercising, keeping our stress levels in check, getting plenty of sleep, taking Sabbaths, loving God and taking time to allow Him to work in your life and help you have healthy relationships with others.

Second, their “cures” can cause other very bad side effects; including lung and ovarian cancer.

Knowing all of this, we sat down to pray, took communion, then got out the dry erase board that I use for homeschooling, and laid out all our options and their risks and possible side effects, and most importantly the words that we had from God so far.

In less than an hour, we had made our decision, had peace that it lined up with what God had spoken to us, and were able to lay out what we needed to do from here. Praise God! It would have been even faster, if Zoë, our puppy, hadn’t interrupted. We were so amazed that it went so smoothly, and so happy that it was over, and we had our day of rest back.

We decided to do a lumpectomy alone, and see how the pathology report comes back. We are praying that it will come back really good; showing no cancer like the 2nd mammogram. If it does, I believe it will be a testament to God’s glory. If it doesn’t, we will have to make further decisions.

We are also praying about:

*Finding surgeon here in Huntsville that I like so that I can avoid traveling back and forth to Birmingham for follow up exams
*Getting a family membership at the YMCA
*If or not we should do the vitamin C IV treatments that one nutritionalist suggested

I really liked the nutritionist/pharmacist that I saw on Friday, agreed with his approach to health, and felt like the paths that he wanted to guide me on to health were paths that God had shown me before. I will be seeing him again on Wednesday to find the supplements that will work best for me.

Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support. I am so blessed. This is my song for today.

Love,

Jenny

Thursday’s Appointments

March 4, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

Yesterday’s appointments went as well as could be expected. Your prayers and Mike’s support were a great strength to me. Thank you.

The calcifications that first alerted the doctors to the possibility of me having cancer no longer show up on the mammograms. They believe that the biopsy got them all.. 🙂

Sad thing is that they still strongly recommend the same treatments: either a lumpectomy with radiation or a mastectomy. It doesn’t matter that they can’t see it.. “It could still be there.”

I am going to see another natural doctor this morning. Tomorrow, Mike and I will try to make a decision.

Thank you for your prayers.

Jenny