Dr. Johnson. org
From the Doctor’s
Diary-3-The Modern Day Crown
“You turn men back to dust, saying,” Return to dust sons of
men” (Psalms 90:3)
For the past several nights I have been keeping watch over a
man who is slowly passing away from this world. Any moment now he will be a
person of the past.
About 3 months back he was hale and hearty, 73 going onto
74, but then it happened suddenly one morning twitching of the right half of
the face and difficulty in speaking.
I remember him calling me that morning telling me his
symptoms and our rushing him to the hospital and getting him admitted for
checkup and management.
The neurologist diagnosed it as a stroke, the CT scan was
inconclusive and he was sent home because the recovery was fast.
Those nights, after my work in the clinic during the
daytime, I kept him company in the hospital and he talked about his former days
and their glory with little talk of God.
He was discharged after 5 days and was sent home for rest
and recuperation.
The symptoms reappeared a week later and we planned to get
an advanced scan (
I still remember the radiologist calling me that evening and
giving me his radiological diagnosis-Glioma Grade 3 or 4(a cancerous growth of
the brain)
A biopsy was decided on and immediately we took him to the
best hospital in the state.
Here was a man who had never experienced acute physical pain
for years together and I as a physician did not know what a stereotatic biopsy
of the brain was.
The neurosurgeon informed us that the biopsy itself caused
little pain but the fitting of the rim to the head to do the biopsy was quite
painful.
I left him in the hands of capable doctors and met him an
hour later with the rim fitted to his skull.
What struck me immediately was the close resemblance that
his head had to the head of Jesus with the crown of thorns.
The rim was fitted on the head with nails driven into the
front and back of the skull with blood marks as evidence of the painful ordeal.
He shook his head and with tears streaming down his face,
with feeble voice asked me,” What’s this? The crown of thorns?”
I couldn’t say much, my voice seemed to be caught unawares
temporarily, as he was wheeled to the scanning room where he was made to lie
with his modern day crown in the scanning machine and spend another hour to get
more scans before the biopsy.
The biopsy over, we returned home in a couple of days .The
biopsy confirmed the radiological diagnosis. Advanced cancer of the left brain,
in layman’s terms.
We took him to yet another hospital for yet another opinion
from the best of neurosurgeons regarding management but there seemed to be not
much hope in the words they spoke.
Surgery-out of question
Radiation-basically no effect, but then we can say that we
did something
Chemotherapy-no use
Back home, now on essential medication, his speech slurred
often and his handwriting went awry.
His focus now shifted to God and prayer. Though no one ever
told him the final diagnosis, it was evident that he realized that his time was
running out.
He was now more alert to the spiritual aspect of his life.
His daughter had been praying for the past several years for his salvation.
His right upper limb was just hanging limply by his shoulder
soon.
One night his daughter decided it was time to explain Romans
10:9, 10 and help him pray the sinners prayer with whatever speech was now left
and he did it on that wonderful night a month back.
His right side was totally paralyzed soon and he started
getting convulsions. He lapsed into a coma 5 days back; still breathing as I
write this, waiting for Jesus’ time to call him back.
What we are glad about is that God gave him time to get
ready for eternity. Pain made him look to Jesus and his crown and pay attention
to the Creator and forget his own righteousness with which he had been living
for the past several decades. Often we wondered whether there would be a
miraculous healing for we and several others prayed earnestly for it for the
past 3 months. Some who prayed said “yes”, some “no” regarding a healing.
The best was said by Jesus, about him (my father in law),
one night to my wife (his daughter) as she prayed…..”Your father will live and
walk ….in heaven soon!”
Praise the Lord!