Читать книгу It’s A Miracle: Real Life Inspirational Stories, Extraordinary Events and Everyday Wonders - Richard Thomas - Страница 19

Nestled among the majestic redwoods of Northern California is the quaint town of Garberville. In 1999, Nancy and Jeff Best were raising a family there, while running a popular coffee shop, the Java Joint.

“Our lives were a little hectic at the time,” recalls Nancy. “We had three kids going to three different schools. My husband had taken a job in the Bay Area, which is a good four-and-a-half-hour drive away, so during the week he’d be gone and I would have to run the shop.”

Even with her active schedule, however, Nancy dreamed of adding another member to her family.

“I’ve always been an animal lover,” she says. “My mom used to call me ‘Dr. Doolittle’ when I was little, because I always had animals around me.

“I’m particularly fond of dogs,” says Nancy. “I had been pestering my husband about getting a yellow Lab every time I would see one. I would hint, ‘Christmas is coming, I want a yellow Lab.’ But he kept saying that we really shouldn’t get one at that time.”

“I didn’t want a dog, because our lives were kind of in flux then,” Jeff says. “We were renting the house and we just didn’t need a dog.”

But a few weeks before Christmas, opportunity rang.

“I received a phone call from a friend of mine who had spotted some yellow Labs,” says Nancy. “She said, ‘Nancy, these dogs are just beautiful. You have to come down here right now. The man who’s selling them is just here for a minute, he’s traveling. If you don’t come now, you’re going to miss your opportunity.’”

Nancy decided that she wasn’t going to let the opportunity pass her by, and she took off to meet her friend without telling Jeff where she was headed.

“I got in the car and drove to the park,” says Nancy, “and as I drove up, I saw these beautiful puppies. They were so cute, they were the most darling yellow Labs. They were healthy, and their tails were wagging, and they were all running around in a little bunch. I knew that I wasn’t going to leave without a puppy.

“And at this point I didn’t know if I wanted a boy or a girl,” says Nancy, but she bonded instantly with one of the puppies. “When I held her, I knew she was the one I was going to take home.”

“So anyway, she showed up with this puppy, and I was not happy about it at all,” recalls Jeff. “I wanted her to take it back.”

“Which I couldn’t do, because the owner of the dogs had already left,” counters Nancy. “So that worked out really well.”

It didn’t take long for the puppy to soften Jeff’s hard heart.

“I mean, puppies, you know, you fall in love with a puppy almost immediately, so it worked out pretty good that way,” admits Jeff.

Nancy named the pup Mia. And Mia grew to become a true member of the family.

“Mia’s kind of like Nancy,” says Jeff. “She likes to have fun, she likes to be with people. She’s just a nice dog, always friendly, ready to cuddle up or be scratched behind the ear or whatever.”

When Mia was about fourteen months old, Nancy started to feel run-down, and her dog’s behavior began to change.

“With my life so hectic at that time, I was feeling a little tired. I was just getting worn out. I was physically tired. I knew if I didn’t start taking a rest during the day I couldn’t continue,” says Nancy. “When I would lay on the couch, Mia would usually lay next to me, and it would be pretty uneventful. But during this particular time when I was starting to feel really tired, Mia would come up and lay her nose on my chest and start sniffing. And at the time I didn’t think anything of it. I thought maybe she was smelling meat or some kind of food from the Java Joint that I might have had still on my shirt,” explains Nancy.

“This proceeded again. She came back to me a couple of days later, and did the same sniffing and licking in the same spot. I was so tired and I was so bothered by the fact that she was doing this, that I actually got mad and put her outside,” Nancy admits.

And she kept her outside the next day as well, but eventually Mia snuck back into the house.

“My daughter had come home from school,” says Nancy, “and after she opened the door, Mia came barreling into the house. She dove into my chest, with her nose again in the area she had been sniffing and licking before. I started to rub it with my hand, because it did cause a great deal of pain.

“And at that instant, I felt the lump.”

“Despite having had a mammogram before that was negative, indeed there was a lump of tissue there that was new and different from the previous exams,” reveals Nancy’s physician, Dr. Mark Phelps. “Unfortunately, the lump did have the little specks of calcium that make us real suspicious.”

Dr. Phelps recommended further testing to determine whether the lump was malignant.

“It was very scary,” recalls Nancy. “I never thought I would get cancer. I always thought everybody else got cancer, and I lived a pretty healthy lifestyle. It was a shock.”

“The diagnosis was, unfortunately, a new breast cancer called ductal cancer,” says Dr. Phelps. “It’s one that can be extremely dangerous, that spreads quickly, and the timing is critical. Gotten early, these are the cancers you can cure, but just a little too late and they spread.”

“When the doctor called me with the results,” says Nancy, “the first thing that I thought was, I was going to lose my family, my children. I wouldn’t get to see them grow. Other than the fact that you think you’re going to die, you have to think about the things you haven’t done yet. And you know tomorrow is not promised to anyone. I had that feeling in an instant.”

Nancy was immediately scheduled for a partial mastectomy and the removal of nearby lymph nodes where the cancer might have spread.

“My fear was for any suffering Nancy might have to endure,” says Jeff. “I gave her a kiss for good luck, and I was just trying to keep her positive. But, you know, there’s always that thought in the back of your mind that you can’t help but think: Your wife is going to die.”

As Jeff waited, the surgeons removed twenty-six lymph nodes from below Nancy’s arm.

“All of the lymph nodes were negative for any spread. The cancer was confined just to the small area,” says Dr. Phelps. “She was able to remove the cancer and preserve her breasts, and go through the treatment with a very high likelihood of complete cure.”

“If this cancer hadn’t been detected at that time, my doctor feels that it could have gotten a lot worse. He said the chance of it spreading would’ve increased,” reveals Nancy. “Had Mia not discovered it at that time, my chances for survival would have been greatly reduced.”

“The fact that the dog was able to do this is just remarkable,” says Dr. Phelps. “I’ve heard little bits and hints. You hear them from cancer specialists now and again ’cause they’ll hear the stories. But I never thought I would see a case like that. Who would ever think?”

“I think the miracle here,” says Jeff, “was that Mia was determined to let Nancy know that there was something going on there that wasn’t right, and she kept at it until Nancy realized it.”

To show Mia how much they appreciate the miracle she gave them, Nancy and Jeff reward her each morning with a special treat.

“My husband makes breakfast for the kids in the morning, and Mia waits anxiously every day for her pancake,” says Nancy. “And she’s just thrilled to be spoiled like that. She’s the little princess of the house now.”

And Jeff realizes how close he came to not allowing her to be part of their family.

“I thought about the fact that I never wanted the dog to begin with, and what an amazing thing it was that we got her,” Jeff remarks. “I mean, I didn’t want it, and Nancy kind of snuck down there and bought this dog behind my back, and then it turns out to be a savior dog, you know. So it was a tremendous thing.”

“For Mia to find this cancer, and just five months after I had a negative breast exam, is a miracle. It’s nothing less than a miracle to me,” declares Nancy. “If Mia could understand words, I would tell her thank you. Thank you for alerting me to something that could have taken my life, something that could have taken me away from my children, my husband, the things I love most.

“I would tell her that she is my miracle, and there is a reason that I have her, and that I love her.”