I'm lucky to be alive

I've never given it much thought before a few days ago when my grandma brought it up. Now that she has given me more insight into my terrifying ordeal that happened in January 2008 I realize that I am very lucky to be here.

January of 2008 my entire family (James, Claire, Amy, Andrea, Eric, Connie, and myself) went on a cruise to the caribbean. I had started feeling kinda funny a couple days before we left, but thought nothing of it. About a day into the 5-day cruise I was absolutely miserable. I HAD to sleep every afternoon, I could barely eat anything, I was always cold, I was extremely weak, I had constant headaches. I didn't know what was wrong with me, but figured I couldn't do anything about it until I got home so I just lived with it. Things became exceptionally worse the day we left to come home. We had an 8 hour time frame from when our flight left Miami and I could barely stay awake. When we landed in Memphis for a short layover I was running a 104 degree temperature and had strange rash all over my body. As soon as we landed in Wichita James immediately drove me to the ER. They did all the normal protocol, blood tests, urine tests... that's when things changed.

The ER doctor came in looking very forlorned. He explained to me that my white blood cell count was next to nothing and with the other symptoms I had been experiencing that it was most likely leukemia. As soon as he left the room I immediately started bawling and saying "I don't want to die!" My grandma recently told me that my aunt (who is the house supervisor for Via Christi) had come to tell her what was wrong with me. My grandma said my aunt was terrified and said "Cecily, she only has 6 weeks at best. I don't think James realizes this..."

I was put on the oncology floor, and my aunt pulled some strings so I could have my own room. Numerous tests were ran, a billion blood samples were taken and some sent to Mayo Clinic... the doctors were baffled. I don't remember what made them decide to rule out leukemia. I remember one night sitting in my room and feeling like this HUGE burden was taken out of me. It wasn't until the next day when my grandma told me that all of my aunts, uncles, cousins, and great grandma had become prayer warriors throughout the night that I realized the strange illness was miraculously healed. The next thing I know the infectious disease doctor comes in and says "I really think its a virus. There is a specific virus that does mimic leukemia, and I think thats what you have." I was overJOYED! I wasn't going to die!

Looking back at this experience now makes me realize how lucky I am to be here. I very well could of had leukemia, but because of the way I was lifted up in prayers by family members that loved me dearly I am completely healthy. I will never forget the feeling I got when that "burden" was lifted from me. It was a sense of relief and peace, and I know without a doubt that God performed a miracle.