A nurse received the most terrifying news of her lifetime soon after her retirement when she learned the pain in her stomach was actually “incurable” stage 4 urothelial cancer. But even in this scary diagnosis, she put her trust in Jesus and witnessed a miracle.
After 47 years of caring for patients in Laurel, Mississippi, Judy Wells finally had time for baking and beekeeping. But her first day of retirement brought a strange pain in her stomach. A scan revealed a tumor on her swollen kidney, pressing against her spine. The high-grade disease had invaded the lining of her kidney and was threatening her bloodstream. Local doctors scheduled surgery.
A friend urged her to get a second opinion at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. There, Dr. A. Ari Hakimi and Dr. David Aggen suggested halting the surgery to try a newly approved targeted medicine called Padcev, combined with Keytruda.
Padcev is a targeted drug that delivers cancer-killing medicine directly to cancer cells, while Keytruda is an immunotherapy that helps the body fight back.
Judy asked Dr. Hakimi point-blank if she was going to live. “He said, ‘Well, aren’t you a Bible-believing lady?’” she recalled. When she said yes, he told her, “Go home and pray, and get others to pray for you. Take this medicine and come back in a few months.”
She went back to Mississippi for six grueling rounds of treatment. She lost 55 pounds and was almost bedridden with severe nausea. Six months later, she returned to New York for a new PET scan. Dr. Aggen showed her the old scan, where her kidney was glowing like a light bulb with cancer cells. Then he pulled up the new scan. It showed no cancer at all.
To be absolutely certain, Dr. Hakimi performed a five-hour surgery to remove the kidney, the ureter, part of the bladder and 50 lymph nodes. He called her afterward with the results. “He said, ‘Judy, I can’t find cancer anywhere,’” she recalled. She remembers him telling her she was the first to have a 100 percent cure for this type of urothelial cancer with this treatment.
Today, she has been cancer-free for more than a year and a half. She says her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ sustained her through the darkest days, and she points others to Romans 15:13. “I want to be the one to give them hope that just because they got that result does not mean that it’s a death sentence,” she said.
It is incredibly striking what that doctor told Judy in his office. He gave her the medicine, but he also pointed a sick woman straight to the power of prayer.
We serve a God who operates way outside the boundaries of a medical chart. Doctors can treat and medicine can help, but healing belongs to the Lord. He alone holds our days in His hands.
When a report says incurable and the situation looks completely hopeless, you need to remember who has the final word. It’s important to seek medical advice and follow the treatment your doctors recommend. But your ultimate trust should be in the Lord, because He’s the author of your life and nothing is too hard for Him.
“Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You.” Jeremiah 32:17 (NKJV)
Let us lift up our hands and pray now for every single person dealing with a severe sickness, asking God to heal them completely in the mighty name of Jesus.
WATCH: Retired Nurse Trusted Jesus Through “Incurable” Cancer. Watch What Happened
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