The hand of God

Or in this case...the fist of God (almost literally).

I don't often blog about personal details of mine or my family's lives, but in this case....well, it's one of those stranger than fiction sagas that leave me in awe of how things work out. I do believe in karma and try to give more than I take. And although I believe in God, I, for one, don't believe that SHE meddles personally in people's lives. She created us, gave us free will, and left us to do the best we can. But this incident has left me wondering.

I have a 14 year old daughter who's been plagued by a variety of symptoms since she was little. Headaches, ADD, short-term memory loss (mostly about turning in her homework, hmmmm), odd shaped retinas, teenage angst (she's seeing a counselor and on medication), seeing shadows (is she paranormally sensitive?) and high blood pressure (also on medication). We've taken her to the Dr. to deal with all of them, especially the headaches which were timed for months and determined to have a 28 day cycle (and assumed to be related to her menses).

Then two weeks ago, one of our neighbors died suddenly. It was thought that he committed suicide. Well, it upset my daughter to the point where she excused herself from class one day to cry in the bathroom. Unfortunately, she didn't let her teacher know, so since she didn't make it to class, she was declared "truant" and sentenced to Saturday school.

That was this past Saturday. Concidently, a guy who had been teasing her was also in Saturday school. Throughout the morning, the teasing escalated into some name-calling, pushing, shoving, slapping, and finally a knock-out punch! My daughter (who was just as much to blame as she slapped him first) was taken to the hospital and given a CAT scan.

The diagnosis -- no issues from the fight AND a possible brain tumor. A craniopharyngioma. Scary shit. A brain stem cancer that's benign but malignant all the same breath. Wonderful!

My world slowed to a stop. Everything I thought was important is now so insignificant compared to this.

A trip to our Pediatrician yesterday resulted in an emergency MRI last night. Then, a call today -- the radiologist needed yet another diagnostic test as the MRI didn't quite agree with the CT scan. Okay. Not knowing what that meant, we rushed to the laboratory for blood work and then a three-hour wait for the machine as they had to work us into the already full schedule.

After the test was done, we rushed back to the Dr's office to discuss the findings. What a difference 20 minutes can make. The diagnosis is still scary (an old calcified anuerism in her right temporal lobe), but nothing compared to the original CT diagnosis of a brain stem cancer. We see a neurosurgeon tomorrow to discuss the options.

This explains soooo many of her symptoms, all treated by so many different doctors and never strung together to make a diagnosis strong enough to warranty a brain scan. Which leads me to wonder if we would have EVER found this without the fist fight -- until it was too late? I doubt it.

I feel like our family has been touched by the hand of God.