“WE GOT THE CANCER”, by Scipio

That’s what the recovery room nurse said to me as I woke up from my TURBT operation.

“Wake up Scipio (not my real name). We got the cancer”

I awoke to the worse pain I had ever had.  It was all I could do to stay on top of it.

When I was 16 years old, I was chasing a receiver to tackle him when he made a cut and I tried to follow his cut, but slipped and as I put my right hand down to catch my fall, I heard two distinct rapid successive sounds of “snap” “snap” as my radius bone came out of my forearm and dug into the grassy ground. I struggled to get back on my feet because my right arm wasn’t working right somehow.  I finally go up and looked at my right forearm dangling at a 90-degree angle from my upper arm. A splintered bone was sticking out of my forearm with a chunk of dirt and grass embedded in the shattered end of the bone and blood was oozing out the sides of the wound.

That was in the fall of 1962, and up until Jan 4, 2024 when I had my TURBT operation, that incident was my number “10” when a health care professional asked me my pain level from 1-10. Now, that broken arm experience is a number “2” on my personal highest level of pain scale.

Several months before, a radiologist was trying to locate the source of pain I was having in my groin area and it turned up a “mass” in my bladder. The attending PA said they were going to schedule a biopsy and go in and extract a piece of the “mass” and see what it was.

Surgery was scheduled but cancelled when they dropped the ball on info I sent them, and had to be rescheduled. The second scheduler said, “The doctors want to look at the “tumor”. I said, “Tumor! Nobody has said anything about a tumor!” She said, I am sorry for using the word “tumor”, I meant to say “mass”, we don’t want you to think you have cancer”. I was relieved to know they were not thinking “cancer” at this point and that is why hearing in the hospital recovery room, “We got the cancer” was a shock to me.

Leading up to the operation there was no counseling of what was going on. There wasn’t even an explanation of what was happening other than the benign explanation from the PA at the radiologist several months before. There was no communication as to what was going to happen. I thought they were going to go in and get a “sample” and send it to pathology for tests. Instead, from their point of view, they were going in to remove a cancer. Total FUBAR.

As I lay there in the recovery room, trying to get a handle on the pain I was in and the shocking news I just heard, I kept asking myself, “Shouldn’t I be having some kind of emotional response right now?”  After all, I was just told what I have heard described as the worst news you could ever hear, “You have cancer.”  I thought, well, I must be in shock, because I am not having any panicky thoughts, I will probably start getting scared soon.  But no.  Instead, I felt an overwhelming sense of peace over me.  I have never felt the depth of that sense of peace before.  I asked myself, “You just heard the worse news you could ever hear, and you feel great in your inner person (even though my body was racked in pain)?”

I thought to myself, why am I feeling this way? I felt high. Then I realized it was because for over fifty years, my life has been in the hands of my lord and savior, Jesus Christ. My life is not my own.

Not only was I not afraid, I got excited about going to heaven, and going soon.  The thought of seeing Jesus, and seeing Him soon, not some unknown date in the future, got me so excited I forgot about the pain. This may sound foolish, but I thought, “I hope I die within six months because I don’t think I can wait longer since I am possibly this close to being with Jesus. I never thought about a cure.  I only thought about being with Jesus!

Two months later, a follow-up Cystoscopy known as a “scope” showed something growing out of the spot where the cancer was removed.  I was under local anesthesia during the procedure and witnessed everything the oncologist surgeon was seeing.  BTW this is done by inserting a camera up your penis (that’s also the way they do the TURBIT), and “yes” it hurts.

Since my initial surgery in January, I have been in extensive alternative integrative therapies of massive amounts of vitamins, minerals, prescription medications, and IV therapy. I did not take the normal medical practice treatments of Chemo and radiology.

Instead, I asked people to bath me in prayer for healing.  After my initial experience in the recovery room, my family let me know they didn’t want me to go to Jesus right now, so I decided to stay if it was God’s will. I now know what conundrum the Apostle Paul was in when in Philippians where he said:

“I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. 21For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; 24but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.”

This Wednesday, May 8^th, I had another TURBT to take out what was seen in the previous “scope”.

The bladder cancer was gone!

The pathologist’s report confirmed I was cancer free.

For whatever reason, God has spared me. Lots of people prayed for my healing.  I give God all the glory.  My wish is that all of you can have the same peace I had in that hospital recovery room when faced with possibly the worst news you can ever hear.