Beech Tree News Network

High School Sweethearts, 36 years of marriage and now....Cancer
Donna and Mike Denning were enjoying, what should have been, a normal week at a music conference in Gatlinburg TN. Life was good, and God was great. But things took a turn for the worse; Donna began having severe stomach pains, and things became very uncomfortable for her. Even though they had ridden with another couple to the conference, they had no choice but to make the call to head home on Thursday due to the severity of her pain. Home is in Alabama, so they had quite a drive. Upon arriving home on Thursday, they called Donnas' regular doctor and got an appointment for the following day (Friday).
When they arrived at the doctor, after an evaluation, they ordered an ultrasound to be done on Donna. So, they got that scheduled and done not long after her visit, the same day.  On her way home from this procedure,  Donna received a phone call from the nurse and said the doctor would like her to come back and have a CT scan. Ironically enough, they got her in for a CT scan the same day, all of this on Friday, July 1.  It was discovered on this day, that Donna had a mass in her colon. The doctor told Donna that she was almost certain it was cancer but that it was contained to the colon. They were both in shock. Donna said she hadn't had any symptoms at all.
On July 5, they revisited the doctor, and a colonoscopy was scheduled. From that point, they were recommended to a surgeon to make arrangements to extract the mass that had been found in her colon. Mike, being the strong Christian man and a Baptist minister that he is, was very upfront and to the point with this man and asked him "are you a Christian?" As a Christian myself, that touched my heart because if I were in this boat, I'd want to know the person operating on me was a child of God. It's important that they know my God, believe in Him and realize, if it weren't for God, they wouldn't be able to perform the procedures they are trained to do. They conversed with the surgeon and learned enough about his life to proceed on to scheduling the surgery. This had all been such a whirlwind for Donna and Mike. Up to this point, all of this had happened within two weeks. This was a lot to grasp in a very short amount of time.

Donna shared with me that the Sunday before her surgery, she did not want to go to church. She just didn't want to face everyone and have to deal with the 100 questions game that she knew was going to take place. But, being the strong lady that I can tell she is, she got up, got herself together and went to the Lord's house. The senior pastor had already decided he wasn't going to preach that day; he was going to make that service about Mike and Donna and the prayers they would need at this scary time of their lives. The pastor brought them to the stage, much to Donnas' dismay, they went up on stage. Donna said she had no intention's at all to speak a word, but the Lord changed that for her. He spoke to her and said two things..."No tears & God's got this" came out of her mouth. She said she didn't intend to say them, but God put the words in her mouth to speak.
The day of the surgery, Mike and their three daughters were told this should be about a 2-hour surgery. After sitting in the waiting room for 4 hours, yes 4 hours, the surgeon called Mike and the girls to a small room where he broke the devastating news. Things were much worse than they had been told initially. The surgeon told him " I opened up your wife/ mom and I almost sewed her back up." The cancer was not only in her colon, but also her liver and stomach. There were multiple lymph nodes affected as well. But because Donna was in such good physical shape and with her being so young, he opt to continue with the surgery during which he took part of her stomach, more of her colon than he wanted to and told Mike "now it's between her and the Lord." Mike fought through the tears to talk to me about this and I just felt the love he has for his beautiful bride. If ever a time a couple needs to pull together as one and rely strictly on their faith in God, it would be now.
Two weeks after surgery, Donna began Chemo treatments. They had been going to M.D. Anderson, in Houston TX for months.  About round 3 or 4, the treatments they find out they are not working; cancer had started growing again.
Along the path of her chemo treatments, Donna experienced a stroke. Mike wanted to elaborate on the stroke and share how God performed a miracle through this. Mike had to be in Birmingham at 5 in the morning on this specific day, to be with a church member to pray with them before their surgery;  so he had gotten up at 3:00 a.m. and began getting ready. When he came out of the shower, he noticed Donna was up and walking down the hall. He called out to her, and she didn't respond, he looked her in the face, calling her name, and still no response. At that point, he guided her to a chair and looked into her glazed eyes and knew immediately something was terribly wrong. She tried to speak but couldn't. He proceeded by calling the cancer hotline, and they instructed him to take her to ER immediately that it sounded like she was having a stroke.
The ambulance quickly transported Donna from the nearby hospital to UAB in Birmingham with the intention to do surgery. But by the time they got there, the bleeding had already stopped, so the doctor didn't want to do anything that absolutely didn't need to be done. The stroke was either caused by the chemo and or the blood thinner she was on at this time.
Had Mike not have had to get up and go to Birmingham at this particular time,  Donna probably would have slept in that morning. If she had done this, there was a very good possibility she would have laid in the bed and continued bleeding and it could have very possibly been her last day her on earth.  Note the miracle in this situation. Our God...isn't he amazing?
Donna was telling me the sweetest incident that happened while she was in the hospital due to the stroke. Again, a miracle for her. She was in ICU, said she was feeling really down because it was hitting hard that she couldn't talk, she couldn't communicate with anyone, and she broke down and was crying. There was a lady that came in to clean her room, this lady no doubt was put into Donnas' path at that time because she needed to hear what this woman had to say. She told Donna she was going to be okay. She reassured her, God was with her and taking care of her. I, myself, have always been a firm believer that God puts people in our lives at the times that we need them the worse.
Donna had been Mike's pianist since high school and all through his music career. Along with being an associate pastor, Mike is also the minister of music. When Donna got home from her stay at the hospital due to the stroke, she sat down one day at the piano. Even though she could not speak, she sat there and played Amazing Grace. Again, the miracles that God continues to perform is never-ending.
After speaking to their oncologist and the Cancer Center of America, they decided to call for a testing on this cell; they wanted to know more about what they were dealing with. They sent a sample to Boston ; it came back as the BRAF cell. .Mike was instructed by the doctor to call M.D. Anderson and find out if there is anything out there on the market that they know of that will fight this particular cell.  All the side effects that Donna had been suffering from due to chemo was because she didn't need to be taking after all. All of it was unnecessary.
The kind of cancer Donna has is not a typical colon cancer. Mutated BRAF cell which is from melanoma. They were treating her for the first 8-9 months for wrong cancer. They thought it was colon cancer, which it was, but after sending it off for further testing, to find out what was going on, they find out, it's a whole different kind of cancer than what she had been being treated for.
Since I had never heard of anything like this, I did a little research myself. One of the articles I found from May of 2016  (by Jeremy C Jones, MD)  was so interesting, and I wanted to high light just a few of the points it brought out:
•    Over all, BRAF mutations are found in approximately 7% of all human cancers.
•    Patients with BRAF CRC are generally older (not in Donnas' case) and are female, and their tumors are more likely to have microsatellite instability, be the higher grade, have more lymph node involvement (Donnas' case) and have more advanced primaries.
•    Rational clinical trial designs are likely the key to exploiting BRAF mutations as targets for treatment rather than as markers for poor prognosis.
Donna is now on a trial treatment. Two weeks ago, her liver numbers had gone from 1000 down to 500. The doctor was amazed. God is good. Prayer chains were and still are in place for Donna and Mike and, like myself, they are firm believers that prayer heals.
When I asked where they stand now? How much longer on the drugs? What is the prognosis? Mike said on a clinical trial like this, they just go as long as they can, if things turn and the wrong way, they don't know what the next step will be. Right now, things are looking much better. Her pain is down tremendously, almost to the extent of having no pain at all.
I had never met Mike and Donna before Thursday night of this past week. I honestly felt like I have known them my entire life. Such amazing, sweet, so in love, Christian folks. This is why I continuously feel God called me to do this kind of photography. I feel God placing these people(not only Mike and Donna but all my clients that I've done stories on) in my path, allowing them to share a piece of their life with me, makes me a stronger Christian than I was the minute before I meet them. 
Thank you, Mike and Donna from the bottom of my heart for sharing your story with me and all the people that love you so much.
Donna returns to the doctor on Monday, November 16. Please keep her and Mike and their family in your prayers.

A quick update; Donna went to her doctor today and got a marvelous report!!! God is good!!!

About Debby:
In 2014, I felt a calling from God to change the course of my photography. Here is a little info on Today's Miracle Photography:

Memories last forever; I have a deep passion for photography and writing, and have had for many years. I wanted to tie these two together and use my passion for the glory of God. When our granddaughter Lexi (not by blood) was born, and shortly passed, I felt God wanted me to share her story, from that point on, I've felt that calling. To reach out to people that have had miracles performed in their lives, to bring awareness to terminally ill people, people that have lost loved ones, people that struggle with addictions, just various aspects of life that God works miracles in.
God works miracles everyday, share yours with me and lets share it with the world. I believe these people I photo shoot and write about need prayer and the best way to start a prayer chain and praise God, is with a big group of people that will share all over the world. No miracle is to great or small to praise God for.

I have a page on Facebook named Today's Miracle Photography, please follow me there to capture these incredible people's story's and photos as well.

Debby Lanham