Kathleen Hyke

One year has elapsed since the cancer diagnosis … a milestone marker filled with battles and triumphs. It’s still hard to accept all that has happened to me. Looking back, I still have painful memories of those early days of the new and unwelcome role as a cancer patient.

My family physician broke the news to me, “The report says non-Hodgkins lymphoma (NHL)." That's it; that's all it said. He was just reading a report from an upper endoscopy procedure, from which the reason for the oral lesions I was experiencing was to be revealed.

I made my way home and told my husband Gordon. He had a look on his face I'll never forget, and I can’t even describe. Gordon and I were still newlyweds. The next step was to tell my family of the cancer diagnosis without any knowledge of the prognosis; this is a phone call no one wants to make to their family. Telling them hurt me deeply, more so than having cancer myself.

Then I started praying. I confessed to God, "I can't handle this Lord. I'm handing it over to you Lord, and you are in control." An amazingly peaceful feeling came over me. The burden was much lighter, and I was able to wait five more days before I had an appointment with the gastroenterologist. This doctor didn't have any more details than my family physician did, just a report. Next, they sent me to the hematologist who ordered labs, scans and biopsies. Over one month passed before I received the news that it was a slow-growing, follicular lymphoma.

I think after all that waiting, I was ready to hear anything and listened to the treatment they suggested for NHL … chemotherapy. I’d been experiencing abdominal pain, which is what led the hematologist to decide that chemo should be started and … I went for it. I started the first of six cycles, but after only two cycles, the nerve pain from the chemo was unbearable. I was so "drugged up" with pain meds, I couldn't function. I needed a new plan to treat this disease.

My case is particularly complicated. I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2000 before the 2004 diagnosis of NHL. MS has been a life-changing disease for me, whittling my ability to work 50+ hours a week at a self-employed career to working a mere few hours a week as a nurse when I’m feeling up to it. MS was the demise of my business, home and lifestyle. During that time, I also lost my mother to Alzheimer’s disease, and my father passed on from Parkinson’s disease. I had already experienced so much loss and now another life-changing illness? When does it quit, and what is the reason for all this??

I’d seen the commercials on TV about CTCA and was curious. After telling my problems to a clerk in a local vitamin store, she also suggested CTCA to me. "CTCA healed my nephew,” she said and "they know how to control pain there." I called CTCA when I returned home, and, a week later, I was at CTCA in Zion, Illinois.

I think now that the Lord allowed that pain … after all, that pain prompted me to seek a new facility, where being healed means being made whole: spiritually, physically and mentally. I needed more than just having the cancer removed from my body, I really needed all my bodily functions working together for total healing.

When I came to CTCA for a second opinion, Dr. Redei was very receptive and genuinely concerned. I participated in creating a treatment regimen that was right for me as an individual with other medical problems. Dr. Redei understands MS. He patiently discussed all options that would be helpful for me specifically, taking into account my particular medical history, rather than dispassionately tossing me a general panacea offered to one and all alike.

Dr Redei wanted me to be comfortable with the treatment plan I would follow and assured me CTCA would not only carry it out on my behalf now but would help me adjust it as I wished based on the indications of future insights, knowledge and evaluations. Twelve pages of the calendar have been turned; the tumors are gone; I hear those prayed-for words, “Your scans are normal.” And I’m so incredibly grateful.

I feel so comfortable going to a facility where the employees and patients are friendly, smiling and, by and large, look glad to be there. The nurses are genuinely caring and fun; we joke around a lot. When I walk through the CTCA doors, I feel I’ve come to a place where I’m wholeheartedly welcomed, yet a place where the entire staff, including the doctors, want to lose their patients ... to health. CTCA is a place where everyone smiles and says, “Hello.”

One of my latest trips to CTCA was during the Christmas season. After a day of treatment, I was riding the shuttle bus to my hotel. Christmas music was playing, the shuttle driver was singing carols, and pretty soon, everyone on the bus was singing! People think I’m weird when I tell them I look forward to my return visits every six months for treatment, but I believe you have to experience CTCA to truly know how I can say this and mean it.

Other aspects of my CTCA visits include seeing the naturopathic doctor (ND), a nutritionist and the acupuncturist, but most importantly, going to the worship services. I’ve chosen to take the food supplements the ND suggests. They’re designed just for me -- some are for the multiple sclerosis, some for the irritable bowel syndrome and some for the cancer. And I know they work, because I've attempted not taking them, and, after a few days, discovered I wasn't feeling nearly as well and started them again with no intention of stopping them.

I finished my first round of treatments at CTCA in December 2004. In January 2005, I was having some symptoms I wasn't comfortable with. I made a call to Dr Redei's office and, after much hesitation on my part, my daughter and I returned to CTCA.

When we arrived back at CTCA, I underwent some lab tests, scans and exams. While waiting for the results of the scans, we decided to go to CTCA’s mid-week worship service. This was to be my first of many worship services. It was two hours of praying, worshiping and learning how to include God in my healing. I had never seen anything like this worship service … so much love, hope and, for sure, a feeling of God's presence. Now I choose to incorporate the worship services into the treatment I receive. Pastor Percy McCray is truly amazing. His sermon was so inspiring, and I was filled with hope and feeling so uplifted … truly as on eagle's wings … equipped to handle whatever comes next.

That day, Pastor Percy shared with us a new program called Our Journey of Hope which he was beginning at Zion at that time. It sounded truly awesome, and as I continued to listen, I knew I wanted the lay ministry training to be done in my own church. It wasn't an option; the Lord was leading me to do this. A few days after arriving back home and talking to my pastor about it, I made a phone call to Pastor Percy, as I was given the blessing to proceed. It gives me extreme pleasure to tell you that our lay ministry training, reflecting Our Journey Of Hope’s principles, wisdom and experience, is in full swing at my house of worship, Community Celebration Church in Kasson, Minnesota.

With an inspired vision to reach far and wide by educating outside of CTCA’s immediate vicinity, Our Journey of Hope teaches others how to counteract the draw to despair and persist with the continuance of hope when pitted against this ferocious disease. Those who would start their own ministry are taught about different cancers, treatments and the offering of spiritual support, so that cancer patients throughout the land and those who journey with them can be uplifted. With the immeasurable knowledge and compassion Our Journey Of Hope so readily extends, we can safely grow in the belief that we are truly armed to reach out and influence others in ways we usually do not dare to dream is possible.

Our Kasson area group has chosen to call ourselves Hopeful Hearts Cancer Care Ministry. Our group of approximately 15 members offers a monthly cancer support group, securely grounded in the spiritual realm, which recently became listed on the American Cancer Society’s website under support groups. We also provide personal prayer services for cancer patients and their loved ones. We’ve brought meals to people, visited them, given rides to treatments, cried and laughed with them and, most importantly, brought them closer to God by reminding them it’s the Lord who’s in charge.

Our Creator is the Ultimate Physician, with whom nothing is impossible. He is the Alpha and the Omega and has promised to never leave us or forsake us. In the future, we’ll be providing a monthly prayer and healing service for anyone in our area or anyone just passing through. There are unlimited possibilities with the training we received and the upholding of the Lord!

MS changed my life, and cancer changed my life, but CTCA changed my life even more. I’m healed and helping others with cancer. I had been praying for something positive to come from my experience with cancer and now it certainly has. Now I know my purpose. Thank you, CTCA…thank You, Lord.

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