Her crinkly blue eyes smiled when she entered the room, and long, straight gray hair framed her angular but welcoming face – strangely reminiscent of my own fine, dishwater blonde locks back in the 70’s. The pin-on nametag on her clinical white coat said “Dr. Mann.” I guessed she was in her mid-50’s. Her technician, Patty, also personable and just as willing to entertain questions and conversation, was probably in her 40’s.
It’s always a little bit of a shock to me when I run into overt compassion in a medical situation instead of the usual contained, professional, stick-to-the-statistics norm. Today Dr. Mann and Patty listened, considered, educated, discussed, and yes…even hugged me right there in the digital mammography dressing room of Kalamazoo’s huge Bronson hospital. Not just once, but at different points in my visit. And they weren’t fake hugs, but rather hey-I-understand-you-have-some-weird-medical-history-involving-exposure-to-active-radium hugs. I-want-to- come-alongside-you hugs.
Angels. Both of them. Public servants who mercifully understood with reach-out-and-touch-you realness.
After some re-takes the news was all good – wonderful, even. A suspicious calcification had changed for the better during the last 10 months – become “coarser” according to Dr. Mann – and there is no cause for concern or follow-up.
Looking back over the past year-and-a-half since this issue first erupted, I can see an emerging sequence I didn’t recognize as it was playing out. To summarize, fear can be intimidating, even immobilizing. Trust in God’s sovereignty and faithfulness, and confidence in His leadership through rough terrain, can be liberating and enabling. When the two come together, there is synergy - great possibility for physical, emotional, spiritual, and psychological transformation.
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