Today was emotional draining. I had a meeting, we had small group, Ramiele was voted off American Idol and I watched this past week’s episode of John Adams. None of that is what I’m talking about though. Towards the end of yesterday’s post I joked that Amanda was looking forward to her doctor appointment. That appointment is the emotional draining part.

I was talking to Jason Revill on the phone around 5:00 when my cell rang. It was Amanda, and I could tell she was upset as soon as I answered. I quickly got off the phone with Jason and asked her what was wrong. The doctor Amanda went to was a gynecologist, and a large cyst was found on one of her ovaries. The good news is that the doctor (Amanda said she and her whole staff were great) said it was not likely, with Amanda’s age, that it was cancerous. She did say, though, that it was going to have to be surgically removed. She tried to send some information to an oncologist to set something up for Amanda for that, but the oncologist had already closed for the day.

There were so many things that went through both of our heads. Of course the biggest worry is that she has ovarian cancer, although the gynecologist, as I said, didn’t think that was likely. Anna talked to a friend of hers, Tim, who is a doctor. He asked if her cycle was still regular, which it is, so he said she shouldn’t have anything to worry about on that front.

The next worry dealt with our ability to have children. The cyst may have caused problems, but if that didn’t then the requisite surgery might. Amanda was told that neither one should hinder us in that regard, but (here’s something not many people know) we’ve been trying for a little over a year. We didn’t want to tell anybody in case we ran into any issues and so we wouldn’t constantly have people asking us about it, but the cyst could be part of the problem. The gynecologist said there shouldn’t have been a problem with that- the cyst is covering only one ovary, people have been able to have kids with just one ovary and she has still been having her periods. I guess after this is all over we’ll try again and see what happens. Maybe it’s me. I probably wouldn’t have mentioned the whole bit about us having been trying, but Amanda went ahead and told everyone at small group tonight, so we went from three or so people knowing to eleven or so.

Another concern feels like a shallow one, but it is one nonetheless. Amanda’s insurance covers the first $500 of medical expenses, then we have to cover the next $2000, then it covers everything after that. That’s not bad, but we don’t have $2000 laying around, and with the surgery and all it’s sure to be over that.

We went to small group at McAllister’s at 6:30. (Nobody was in the meeting room tonight so we used that.) Amanda wasn’t sure if she was going to mention it to everybody, but she’d talked to her mom and Anna by this time and thought she’d be able to hold it together alright. At the end of the night she let everyone else do their prayer requests then told everybody about her cyst. Everyone was, of course, really supportive. When we were closing out in prayer, lead by Mike Boscaljon, Elliot put an arm around my back, which was a very nice, comforting gesture. I’m sure the prayers will be pouring in, and we appreciate all of them.

Zach Dotsey