THE ANSWERING
It has been a season of wondering - wondering about life …and death. There’s so much. It’s everywhere.
After a year of medical specialists and institutions trying to decide what to do with me, we finally, actually, did something: prostate surgery.
As usual, it got complicated.
In preparation for the surgery an MRI was done to guide the surgeon in the surgery. It did not work. The dyskinesia from the Parkinson’s blurred the images. The surgeon, despite this, chose to proceed with the surgery. I was skeptical. I can read. The summary report on the MRI images:
Extremely limited exam due to severe motion artifact from patient's Parkinson's disease.
None the less, on Tuesday, my sister, Dona, and I, under the cover of darkness (3:00 AM) drove to Rochester for the surgery. My sister, Jane, joined us. As they were rolling me out of the prep room and down to the operating room, I caught a glimpse of Jane. She was fighting tears. I glanced up at Dona. She had lost the fight.
As the ceiling tiles rolled by, I thought many things. One being,”This is real”. I was also feeling many things - the greatest was love.
The operating room was full of people wearing matching blue/green costumes. It was reassuring to know that whatever happened in this room it would be coordinated.
The last thing I remember was a guy looking down on me saying this was the last thing I would remember.
Prayers in motion.
The surgery went well - at least that is what I was told. One doesn’t really know. We live on the brink of life. It can end in a moment. One doesn’t even need a reason.
That night, as I lay in my room in a Mayo hospital, when all seemed well, when the air breathed success, the peace was suddenly broken. The atmosphere changed to one of bells, beeps, and multi-color lights blinking out of sync. People came running from all directions. Eyes were fixed on ever changing screens. The voices of those gathered outside the room were perplexing. It seemed they didn’t know what to do. They stuck an oxygen tube up my nose. It seemed my heart was not getting the oxygen it needed. I had been having blood pressure issues. It fit.
Then, as quickly as it came, it was gone. The people gathered outside my room were not there. The obnoxious beeps were not beeping. The lights were not flashing. The room was silent.
Two men walked through. I asked them what was going on with me? They pointed at the blank screens and said, “Nothing.”
And I wondered what just happened. Had it happened? Was it real? Can reality change? Can a road diverge?
And I wondered.
Was this what answered prayer being answered looks like?
Received today:
Dear Mr. Eickhoff,
I hope you're doing well and enjoying your Cheerios.
We received your pathology results from surgery. The final results show a Gleason 4+3 prostate cancer, which is slightly higher than the Gleason score from your biopsy (which was 3+4). There was one tiny area of cancer beyond what we removed, but this was actually separately removed as well during surgery. We have no evidence of any cancer spread beyond the prostate, or beyond what we removed during surgery
Overall, based on this pathology report, we would not recommend any additional forms of treatment at this time. No need for radiation, hormone therapy, or any other types of treatment right now. Instead, we would just keep an eye on your PSA blood test. As long as your PSA blood test is <0.10 ("less than 0.10"), then you won't need any additional treatment, and we'll simply continue monitoring the PSA over the long run.
I think it’s what answered prayer looks like.
