Confessions of a Blogger - Episode 2

Do modern-day miracles happen? The answer is clearly excitingly YES, and I am deeply thankful for them. And so, my story continues...

In January of 2019, while doing missionary work in the Philippines, I had become deeply fatigued but my husband and I were working in tropical heat and I was nearing 60 years old. I just thought my fatigue was a normal part of the aging process. But then my symptoms got worse and I knew something was wrong. I became weak, food didn’t taste right, my heart rate was high even while resting. I had a low grade temperature of 100 - 100.5 all the time. I didn’t feel like making the one hour drive to see a doctor concerning my condition. That evening a young lady named Hannah Motin, one of our ukulele team members from the nearby remote island of Simara called me. Hannah a senior in High School at the

time was clearly upset. She had a lump on her breast and she thought it was cancer. I immediately sent her 200 pesos, approximately $4.00 to take the pump boat from her island to the Calatrava port near where we lived on Tablas Island. I told her I would take her to Odiongan to go to the doctor to get an ultrasound. What I was struggling to do for myself God was nudging me to do for Hannah, and for myself. Hannah arrived early the next morning. Together, we traveled to get ultrasounds from Dr. Magbanua. This gifted doctor used outdated ultrasound equipment to do total thoracic and abdominal scans with remarkable diagnostic skill.

As it turned out, Hannah’s lump in her breast was a benign cyst. My results were heart rendering. While Dr. Magbanua was doing my ultrasound a tear fell down her cheek. I immediately understood her sorrow. I looked at her and asked if it was terminal and she shook her head in acknowledgment. Dr. Magbanua quickly regained her composure and said that she would put it in a report to email to my daughter in LA, a third year medical student at UCLA Medical School. Our daughter Sarah would be able to quickly review these findings with US doctors. Within hours, they told me to be on the next plane home. I still had to drive the hour back to Calatrava, tell my husband the news that I had something that was terminal. We packed our bags in preparation for taking the next day's ferry to begin our return trip to the U.S.

News travels fast here and many of our ukulele team members came to spend the night with us and stay until we left for the ferry port. We made the one hour drive back to Odgiongan, waited an hour for an 8 - 10 hour ferry ride to Batangas. By the time I got to Batangas I could hardly walk off the ferry and was beginning to retch and dry heave. Most fortunately, a friend was also on the ferry and offered to help us get a van we could share so we wouldn’t have to take the 3 hour bus ride to Manila. I couldn't even get to the bus and wouldn't have been able to function well to get to a hotel after the bus ride. The van picked up and dropped us off at our hotel. This was a huge blessing! We rested until it was time to catch our direct flight to Los Angeles, a 14 hour flight. Our daughter Sarah was there at arrivals to pick us up. She had already arranged for me a to see an internist and scheduled blood work and tests.

Sarah was on an Internal Medicine Rotation so was in the perfect position to assist and oversee. Again, I think back and wonder was this God’s plan or coincidence. How hard this would have been to navigate with no US insurance in a city I was unfamiliar with. Sarah is the only medical doctor in either my husbands or my families.

The blood tests and scans started almost immediately and the doctors at UCLA Harbour County Hospital in Torrance, California concurred with the findings of Dr. Magbanua from a little remote island in the Philippines. I had stage 4 cancer likely of the pancreas or gallbladder and the doctors said I may have as little as three weeks to live. End of life planning began, Sarah called all our kids, grandkids, sisters, and brothers to say their goodbyes. The scans indicated that I had a grapefruit size tumor on my liver, that the cancer had spread to my pancreas, gall bladder, blood, bones, and lymph nodes.

Within days the tumor had ulcerated through my stomach and started an internal bleed. The doctors were able to go through the upper GI and staple my stomach in order to stop the internal bleeding.

And so this amazing miraculous journey began. From joyous missions work to sudden fatigue to somehow getting back to the U.S. for care. No insurance, but care was being given. Terminal diagnosis but true peace in my heart.

"Lord, I am in you mighty hands". Miracles were already happening.

If the airline had found out that I had a fever, they would not have let me on the plane.

If Dr. Magbanua had not been practicing on our small remote island, diagnosis would have been delayed.

If our daughter had not been on rotation in internal medicine at UCLA Medical Center near an international airport, we would have not been treated or at least treatment would have been delayed, and I would not have survived internal bleeding.

Unbelievable. I had never been closer to the Lord! He, the King of kings had my back!

Stay tuned for the rest of this story in Part 3. Goodbye for now. Blessings to all.

Janice Porter