PATIENT FILE: “High grade carcinoma with pilomatrixoma-like features.” “Aggressive form of carcinoma.” “Innumerable pulmonary nodules reflecting metastatic disease.”
I received these updates in the patient portal app just a week after a fairly routine procedure, but I had no understanding of the meaning. Truth be told, I knew what a few words meant but thought, “Surely, they can’t mean what I think they mean. I mean…I have several weird health issues, but canc— no, that wasn’t one of them. Those words must mean something different in this context.”
On January 26, 2024, around 5:45 in the evening, I hung up the phone after a disappointing conversation with my specialist. I had cancer. My husband was not home from work yet, and I absolutely was not going to deliver this news via phone call or text. I was all alone with just my clingy Pomsky and two aloof felines. I cried and prayed, then soon realized I was not all alone. God was with me. He had been with me when the phone rang. He sat on the line with me during the call. He cried with me in my home office as I was unable to finish my work, and He was patiently waiting for me to call out to Him in prayer.
Around 6 p.m. my husband walked through the door. I waited a few minutes for him to get settled in before telling him the news. “I just hung up with the doctor. He said I have a very aggressive and rare form of cancer. He said I need to meet with the oncology team immediately to determine what the next course of treatment will be.”
The next several months were some of the most difficult in my life, but the Lord heaped blessings on me. I could see His hand working in my life every day. He was blessing me and teaching me lessons daily, some that I already knew but needed to be refreshed, and some that were revealed to me in a greater way. Looking back, I can say with all honesty that I was blessed to receive that cancer diagnosis because it was only through that trial that I received such great blessings and truths taught to my heart.
It is His strength, not mine.
I am a rather independent person, so much so that at times it can be a negative trait of mine. I hate to depend on others, especially when it pertains to something I can do or should be able to do myself. The Lord taught me how little my strength and abilities are throughout this trial. There were days that I physically could not leave my bedroom. I could not shower on my own. I could not dress myself. It was during these frustrations that II Corinthians 12:10 became overwhelmingly real to me: Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. I had to learn to depend on God and the people He had put in my life to help me through this trial. God had to humble me for me to realize that without complete dependence on Him, I am unable to be the independent person I thought I was.
It brought a greater appreciation for those who love and care about me, especially my husband.
As wives, we are given so much wisdom and instruction in the Bible regarding our role as the helpmeet. The Bible not only teaches us to fulfill our role but also to love, honor, respect, and serve our husbands. During the chemotherapy treatments, I had to depend on my husband for everything. He worked more than 50 hours a week in his normal occupation, in addition to keeping up with the household chores and caring for my needs. I saw Ephesians 5:33 in action as I watched my husband selflessly care for our home: Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband. It is easy to take for granted the routine things in life. We ought to be thankful now, not just when the routine changes and sheds light on the blessings we have had but have overlooked all along.
I truly learned the value of a church family.
Shortly after the pathology results came back, the head oncologist went over my diagnosis thoroughly with me. At the close of the meeting, he said, “I don’t know if you’re a praying person, but I would pray if I were you.” As you can imagine, having a doctor say these words was a somber moment. Some of the best doctors in the nation practice at the Mayo Clinic; some even tend to have a “god complex,” viewing their abilities to heal as greater than or equal to God’s. By God’s grace, I had been given an oncologist who is a Christian and was treating me as such. After briefly sharing my testimony with him, I assured him that I would be praying. We asked our pastor and many friends to pray. My husband attended the weekly men’s prayer meetings at our church and asked the men for prayer as well. My name was listed on the churchwide prayer list, including our Sunday school class’s prayer list. My health was daily in the prayers of my entire church family.
Through the months of treatments, I received an overwhelming amount of love, support, encouragement, gifts, cards, and prayers from my church family. There were hundreds of acts of love shown and even more people praying in the shadows. I realized what Ephesians 4:16 truly meant: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. I could feel the prayers and love of the family of God.
After three treatments, my oncologist looked at my scans and results and was amazed. He had never seen results like mine in his more than 40 years of experience. He was so astonished at the results because he was not even certain at first that the treatment would work. I simply told him, “You don’t know who I have praying for me.” The prayers of a church family can make all the difference.
I learned the importance of Proverbs 7:1-3.
My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart. Many times, right after a chemotherapy treatment, I felt so incredibly ill. Whether it was because of pain, nausea, or fatigue, there were times when I could not even focus on written words. I could not read my Bible or even listen to it on audio. The neuropathy halted my daily Scripture writing. I could only lay there and pray to beg God to let this pass quickly. It was then that God would recall to my mind various Bible verses I had memorized, including those that had comforted and strengthened me in the past and would do the same now. I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. (Psalm 27:13-14)
It gave me an opportunity to witness where I was once limited.
For the last several years, I have had health issues that have greatly affected my mobility, and I have been unable to go soulwinning as I once had. Coupled with a career change where I rarely came in contact with any non-Christians, I had few opportunities to share the Gospel. Then, going through chemo, I was assigned several nurses whose sole jobs were to wait on my every need for six hours straight. I also had several encounters with people in the lobby while awaiting the next test, infusion, or scan. I heard many beautiful testimonies and was able to share my own. I was grateful for God giving me new opportunities to give the Gospel that I would not have had if I had not had cancer. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. (Ecclesiastes 9:10)
I cannot say that receiving a cancer diagnosis was insignificant or that going through various treatments and medications was easy. I cannot say learning these lessons was enjoyable. However, I can say that I learned the greatest lesson of all—that God is with me through every season of life. These lessons and many others were all simple lessons I had heard before, but it took a valley for me to keep them in the proper perspective in my life. I was blessed with a diagnosis of cancer because it led me to a place where I could be closer to God and learn at His feet the lessons He had been trying to teach me all along.
by Krystal Salm
Listen to the entire interview with Krystal on Episode #111 of the Abundant Living Podcast on your favorite podcasting app!
