So many of us take our health for granted – myself included.
It really wasn’t until this year when I would spend hours upon hours in a chemotherapy ward in Santa Monica as I watched a close friend battle for his life, and spoke to the other patients who were so sick but striving to just live, that I got a full sense of just how evil cancer is.
Cancer is a horrendous battle and it’s merciless – it doesn’t discriminate between the rich and the poor. It’s a fight of your life.
Chula Recique has written a first-hand astonishingly honest account of her latest battle with the disease, which you can read below.
We hope her story will give others the strength to keep fighting – never, ever, give up!
Chula Recique’s story
There are many things in life I have come to fear with time and wisdom, but none made me more afraid than the Big Bad “C”. For me that was cancer. I was first diagnosed in 2002, then in 2004, and again in 2018. Hearing that diagnosis is like suddenly falling off of a cliff and never hitting the ground. However, this time I have two references of victory from which to draw upon. Despite the statistics on the survival of African American women from breast cancer compared to other races, I have been blessed to have good doctors I believed in and I am sure that is half the battle. My faith was already very strong just due to my life experiences, beginning from birth throughout my adult life, but this required yet a deeper faith than I had ever possessed. I came to a total reliance on the sacrifices of Christ as being the answer to my healing and a deeper belief in the Words of the Bible.
It had to be more than a good story now. It had to be real or I had no hope. Isaiah 53:5 says that “by His [Jesus Christ] stripes, we are healed”. I also had to know that not only was it real – He was definitely here on earth – no one can deny that, He was going to manifest the healing in my body. The first rodeo with Big C was only having a lumpectomy and thinking I would be fine for life now. Doubt plagued me at times during that second bout which was much worse than the first. I had a mastectomy and began the arduous journey through chemotherapy and radiation, which is third-degree burns wherever administered. In my case, the right chest and underarm.
While I believed in the procedures of my doctors and them, I also believed that Christ would heal me, one way or the other. He could heal me in my body and I would be fine, or if He called me home and took me out of this body – I would also be healed. Day after day of laying in my bed, tired of watching HGTV do-overs, I came to this conclusion. No matter what happens, I will be healed. So for this third rodeo with the Big C, I’m coasting, despite this being the worse diagnosis ever. I have an inoperable tumor that has swallowed a top-right rib which would require the rib removal and thus preventing surgery. I am on meds to shrink the tumor, hopefully to a size that is removable. Still, I know that all is in the Creator’s hands, and He will do what is best for me. Maybe heaven is closer than I think and maybe I have more work to do. But the “waiting for the answer” is in my constant connection to Him, knowing that my next breath, my next heartbeat, is His gift and to just enjoy it. Faith removes fear.
Let’s wish her a speedy recovery.
