by Larry Young
God answered our prayers and relocated my family to Oregon City, Oregon in the early 1980’s. We had just rescued two girls from an evil orphanage operation, and God had opened doors for us that we could have never imagined. I learned that trusting God and following His guidance was the key to success, but only if love and humility were the motivators. So I asked God to teach me humility.
Almost immediately after that, I developed a growing sore spot on the side of my tongue. When you accidentally bite your tongue, it really hurts in a deep way, but then it slowly goes away. This was doing just the opposite! I had quit smoking 10 years before, but I didn’t know then that the danger of mouth/tongue cancer doesn’t go away for nearly 15 years after you quit, especially if you were using smokeless tobacco.
I was diagnosed with tongue cancer as T2 lesion carcinoma, with a 12% chance of survival, pending immediate surgery and 3 months of high intensity Xray radiation. I was beyond devastation. The surgery slurred my speech, and the radiation caused painful bleeding sores all over the inside of my mouth, not to mention it wiped out my taste buds and salivary glands. Eating solid food was impossible, so milk protein shakes and apple sauce was my staple.
My self esteem took a huge hit; my speech made me sound like the village idiot, and the low odds of survival caused major despair. I feared losing my new job, losing my future, and leaving my wife and 3 children adrift. I realized just how fleeting and temporary my life really was, and that I was no better than any other lowly human being on the planet. God had just answered my prayer to learn humility!! I also realized that I couldn’t learn humility by reading about it; I had to experience it.
My doctors told me if I was cancer free for 8 years, I would be “home free”. At 9 years, I was suddenly hit with fast-growing cancerous lesions all over my tongue and mouth. They were coming on so fast that there wasn’t time for surgery. My doctor had to cut them out every couple weeks with a scalpel, and patch them with a chemical burn styptic. This went on for over 2 years. It was called “time bomb cells”. The radiation helped save me 8 years ago, but now the cells that had survived the radiation were replicating wildly, bringing back the cancer with a vengeance. Over the next 30 years, I would have 6 more major surgeries, ending with removal of half my tongue and replacing it with a chunk of my left wrist. They re-plumbed me!
With all the surgeries, agony, pain, suffering, and humility over the last 40 or so years, I also learned a little about gratitude and wisdom. Every one of our life experiences are different. Some folks are devastated if someone just looks at them the wrong way. Other folks have to be hit over the head with a baseball bat just to get their attention. I’m somewhere in the middle of that scale. Regardless, I learned a lesson from experience that will help you if you are facing something devastating, and especially if your life is on the line, and your future looks grim.