The Time for Miracles

        That Monday we returned to Johns Hopkins for the tests. Sallie completed the CT scan, MRI and Bone Scan in the afternoon and we returned home. On Tuesday I wrote an email to Dr. Rodriguez (as he had instructed me to) advising him that all the tests had been completed. Dr Rodriguez replied on Wednesday to provide the results of the tests. The following is his email describing the results:

From: "Ron Rodriguez, M.D., Ph.D." To: "Robert Senesi"
Cc: "Lee Chromo"
Subject: Re: Test results inquiry for your patient Sallie Senesi Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2000 11:07:42 -0400
Dear Robert and Sallie: The bone scan results indicate no evidence of spread. The MRI shows no vascular involvement and it looks more like kidney than adrenal in origin, however, they cannot be completely certain because the adrenal is not visible anywhere. The repeat CT scan done in a way to help distinguish these possibilities is more suggestive of adrenal than renal. My own reading was that it appear more likely adrenal than renal, however, in the end the only way to tell is to remove it. The overall renal function is good (creatinine is 0.8), and the serum calcium is marginally elevated at 10.8. We should go ahead and schedule the surgery as this appears to be a curable lesion with surgery. I may need to get a general surgeon involved in case we need to remove the spleen or tail of the pancreas or the base of the stomach, however, usually we can avoid all that if the cancer is not directly invading any of those structures. Below are the reports. If you have any further questions please don't hesitate to ask. Sincerely, Ron Rodriguez, M.D., Ph.D.

     After reading that email we were ecstatic. There was finally a ray of hope in a situation that had appeared entirely hopeless. We were so thankful to the Lord for His loving care as we now had something (Someone) to hold on to! The Lord had taken us through the first step… and we know now that there would be many more in the following years . (That is how God works: day-by-day, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute…step-by-step. There is no all encompassing, single-step solution. To the contrary, it is depending on God to be with you moment-by-moment to carry you through—not of your own power, but of God’s power.

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