Theres nothing more chilling when a medical professional tells you they wish you the best of luck.
It’s like the conversation has ended and there’s not much hope for you – it’s out of their hands and depends on your own odds.
You feel like saying ‘what? no! don’t talk about luck, there must be a logical medical solution to this, aren’t you people trained in this stuff – you’ve got machines and things’
the odds are certainly stacked against you
But when you have brain tumor you fall into a category where the odds are certainly stacked against you.
It’s a numbers game: Percentage risk of your tumor being malignant, risk of dying during surgery, risk of complications, and risk of reoccurrence.
And so wishing luck is offered regularly because the risk factors are well and truly understood by the surgeons and medical teams treating you.
There has been a swathe of others come before you, who have played out this statistical dice game. Some win some don’t.
It’s a doctors way of saying things don’t look good for you right now, but you never know your luck in big city.
But unless you’re an uncannily lucky gambler, luck is nothing to hold onto.
When other people are told you have a brain tumour, no matter how hard they try and mask their reaction, you can see on their faces or hear in their voice “Jesus – you’re rooted then!” At best they muster a well meaning politically correct statement of reassurance – but it only reaffirms how hopeless your situation is.
Yet there is one little thing that makes a significant difference when you are facing the prospect of life or death with risky surgery.
difficult for a hard cold darwinian atheist to confess too
And It’s difficult for a hard cold darwinian atheist to confess too – prayer
Yes, there’s nothing more comforting and empowering when someone tells you they are praying for you. Oh my god it feels good, because you are given spiritual hope, and then apologetically grasp at the existence of a benevolent supreme being.
And I can tell you those gifted prayers are savoured dearly when you need them most, I’ve remained eternally grateful and will never forget the positive impact on my outlook.
See we humans are spiritual beings, and for millennia have used spirituality to cope with unexplained phenomena or adversity. It’s wired in our DNA.
The irony is I was raised in a catholic household and around my early teens swore an oath to the dark side – evolutionism.
But now I’ve come to greatly admire and respect people of faith; they have a very powerful force at their disposal.
Would you believe I was a ‘alter boy’ when I was a kid, but was never molested by a priest or cardinal for that matter… perhaps I was just lucky.
