Lori’s Battle

This past year since I’ve been on Facebook, I have reconnected with a lot of friends that I graduated with from Ainsworth High School (Flint, Michigan) in 1985. It’s hard to believe that it’s almost been 25 years since we were saw each other. Some of my former classmates are married, re-married, have children, have grandchildren (that one still floors me when I hear that) and some difficult things to deal with.

One is Lori Zoll Pharr and her battle with colon cancer. She has created a blog — Lori’s Battle:   http://www.helplorifight.blogspot.com of her journey.

I have known Lori since the 6th grade when we were at Carman Park (Flint, Michigan). We were friends all through school. Since we graduated, I have seen her a couple of times at our class reunions. But now since we are both on Facebook, we have been able to keep in touch with each other.

Here is her latest entry. When I read it, I got chills. I just want Lori to know that she and her family are in my prayers and that I wishing her a full recovery.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Hello everyone!

Well, hey, everyone! It’s been a few days since my blog has been updated, so I thought I’d fill everyone in. Since I’ve been home I’ve been resting pretty well, although the phone is ringing a lot. I don’t mind though, I know everyone is checking on me, and loves me. I’m feeling pretty good; no pain at all (Praise God). I went to the surgeon today and got the 20 staples removed from my incision. No pain with that either. I went and visited work for a few minutes, then headed home. Many thanks to my driver, Janie. On the way home, I “sprang a leak”! I guess the staples weren’t really ready to come out, so back to the surgeon we went for bigger steri-strips and a big dressing. Still, no pain, but it was gross, and it scared me.

I wanted to write down three miracles that have occurred thus far in my journey.

1-The pain that took me to the hospital on Monday, June 29th was completely gone by the time I got into my room that night. No pain meds, nothing. The pain was gone. The pain was God telling me that something was wrong and that we needed to get to the hospital.

2-I have been working at the local Tech college for 2.5 years as a grant paid person-no benefits, no insurance, paid leave, etc. Just work, get a check. I have prayed and prayed for a full-time position, but God just kept telling me, Not yet. Well, it turns out, that because I am a “part-time” employee, there’s a ton of flexibility with how much I can be away from work. If I were a full-time employee I would be very limited in the time that I could be out of work, and if my situation were to be really lengthy, I would have to be replaced. Not now, though. My boss said they would not re-hire anyone and that I could take as long as I needed to get well.

3-My friends and family. Total love and service through Jesus Christ. I am so blessed.

That’s about it for now. Things are good and as weird as it sounds, I’m excited to see what God & I will be doing in the future. I have friends coming to pray over me tonight and really welcome that. Please keep praying and I will keep everyone updated. The next step is a PT scan to make sure that there is no cancer anywhere else. Once that is done I’ll meet with the Oncologist, Dr. Cody and we’ll get moving.