Marilee & Ed, What a Wonderful Life!: A Cancer Adventure

By Edward Velázquez

Marilee & Ed, What a Wonderful Life! provides an honest yet encouraging account of how one faces a life-threatening diagnosis. Velazquez's humor keeps his story light while sharing insights and lessons learned on the dark journey. -JAMES WATKINS Award-winni

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Aug 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9798887388779

Edward Velázquez

Edward Velázquez is a man full of God's joy. As a Mexican teenager in the '60s, he survived growing up on the west side of Chicago by God's grace. He's been married fifty-one years to his wife, Marilee. He gave his life to the Lord on February 16, 1976. He moved to Marion, Indiana, in 1980 and is a retired middle and high school social worker that spent thirty-four years ministering to his students by encouraging them, giving them hope for their future, and telling them how God has a purpose for their life. When he got cancer, he used his cancer journey with the Lord to tell his students how God was working in his life! He still keeps in touch with his kids!

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Marilee & Ed,

What A Wonderful Life!

A Cancer Adventure

Edward VelÁzquez

Marilee & Ed, What a Wonderful Life!

Trilogy Christian Publishers A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network

2442 Michelle Drive Tustin, CA 92780

Copyright © 2023 by Ed Velázquez

Scripture quotations marked ICB are taken from the International Children’s Bible®. Copyright © 1986, 1988, 1999 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.TM Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.TM. Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Public domain.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without written permission from the author. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA.

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Trilogy Christian Publishing/TBN and colophon are trademarks of Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Cover design by: Kelly Stewart

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Trilogy Christian Publishing.

Trilogy Disclaimer: The views and content expressed in this book are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views and doctrine of Trilogy Christian Publishing or the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Manufactured in the United States of America

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN: 979-8-88738-876-2

E-ISBN: 979-8-88738-877-9

This is dedicated to my wife and true love, Marilee Kay Velázquez. She went through this cancer experience with me and held strong and faithful to the Lord throughout all her tears, laughter, and funny moments!

Marilee, I want to grow old with you and continue serving the Lord and have Him use us as His witnesses wherever we go in life! I love you, my strong German woman. What a wonderful life with you!

These writings are a testimony to my God, who gave me another chance at life, and to Jesus Christ, who lives in my heart and who gave me strength every day to carry on! I believe that God allowed my cancer to happen for various reasons. Two of them were at Marion High School, where I am a social worker. You see, I had two boys that year that had cancer, and I would have never been able to counsel them in the manner I did without understanding what they were going through. Another sad reason was that one of my students lost her father to cancer, the same kind that I had. God’s timing was right!

To whoever reads this, our adventure or experience may be different, but our hope is the same; it’s in Jesus!

Table of Contents

Chapter One

The Beginning, December 2013–2014

Chapter two

2015

Chapter Three

2016

Chapter Four

2017

Chapter Five

2018–2020

Chapter Six

2021

Chapter Seven

The End of the Beginning! 2022

Chapter One

The Beginning,

December 2013–2014

This is the story of my cancer and what my wife Marilee and I went through that began on Friday, December 13th, 2013 (yes, it was Friday the 13th—God knows my sense of humor).

The story unfolds way back about twenty years ago when I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. I am a high school social worker in Marion, Indiana, but back then, I was at McCulloch Middle School. I noticed that I was becoming very tired and lethargic during the day and sometimes would almost nod off while I was counseling my kids in my office. This prompted me to see my doctor. At that time, I was seeing Dr. Sam Toney; he was the one that diagnosed me with my thyroid problem. I was put on levothyroxine, one little pill, for the rest of my life. As a result, I have to have my blood checked every six months to see how I am doing. Everything went well, and my problem was solved.

Then, about eighteen years ago, Marilee had an accident on Valentine’s Day. It was a cold, wintery, and icy February day. She was babysitting the grandchildren, Mandy and Lyssie, at our daughter Noelle’s house when I went to pick her up. When I got to the house, I honked and saw her coming out the door. I turned my head forward temporarily, and when I looked back to see if she was coming towards the car, she was down on the sidewalk! I hadn’t seen it, but she slipped on some ice outside the front door, and when she tells the story, she says that she just kind of sat down, no hard thump or anything; she just went down. Well, while she was on her back, she said she felt the toes on her left foot scraping the sidewalk but wasn’t in pain. What happened was that as she went down, her ankle bone, which holds the foot straight, came apart and caused her foot to be completely backward. In other words, instead of her foot pointing at twelve, it was pointing at six! Well, several hours and an ambulance ride later, she was at Marion General Hospital. Long story short, she was a medical curiosity because she didn’t break any bones. The one that keeps your foot from rotating just came apart; the doctors were amazed! Marilee contacted our friend, Carolyn Schuch, who works for one of the best orthopedic doctors. She got hold of Dr. Rajmairah, and he came to see Marilee. She was taken care of wonderfully. He operated on her and put a titanium screw in her ankle to repair it (she asked for a bikini cut—ha!). She ended up breaking the screw weeks later (she has hard German bones). When Dr. Rajmairah took the screw out from both ends, he told her that the hole would probably never fill back in due to her age and, I guess, what women go through with osteoporosis. That’s when I told Marilee that maybe now would be a good time for both of us (we were in our forties) to start taking Citracal for good bone health. Well, little did I know that it wasn’t for her but for my bones that we started doing this. God was starting to prepare me for what would happen years later. Oh, and by the way, the hole did fill in!

Fast forward. As a result of my thyroid problem, I have to have my blood checked every six months, and then my doctor renews my prescription. It was in November of 2013 that I had my six-month appointment with Dr. Jim Orrell. Before seeing him, I have to go to a lab, have my blood drawn, and then the results go to Dr. Jim. When I went to see him, he informed me that he was concerned about something he saw in my bloodwork. It showed that I was anemic, and no man should ever be anemic, and my white blood count was low. He told me that he was making an appointment for me at the oncology center here in Marion. I went a couple of days later with Marilee. They took several vials of blood, gave me all this literature about cancer, and told me they would call me back to see a doctor. Well, I told myself and Marilee that I didn’t have cancer, I couldn’t, I was the baby of my family, and no one had ever gotten this ill at the age of sixty-two. I figured I had at least another twenty years. I was gaging this on my dad, that died at eighty-four, diabetes; my mom, eighty-thee, pancreatic cancer; my second oldest brother, José, seventy-six, brain tumors; and my oldest brother, Carlos, seventy-eight, Parkinson’s disease. You need to understand I am a stubborn Mexican man and sometimes hard-headed (as my mother used to say). When we got home from the oncology center, guess what? I threw the cancer literature in the trash and again said, I don’t have cancer!

Well, about a week before I went back to the oncology center, I was sitting with our insurance man at Marion High School, Mr. Dennis Messersmith. As I have done for all the years I’ve worked for Marion Community Schools, I turned down the special cancer insurance that is offered; why? I’m not getting cancer! Now, a week later, Marilee and I are sitting in the exam room waiting for Dr. Bendaly for my bloodwork results (Friday, 13th of 2013). Dr. Bendaly comes in, sits down in front of us, looks at me, and says those infamous words that will be etched in my mind forever, This is very serious; you have cancer! I felt like, whoa, I guess I got it! I look over at Marilee, and tears are coming down her cheeks (my poor honey). Then the doc goes on to explain that I have multiple myeloma, it’s in my blood and bone marrow, and it’s in about 40 percent of my body—wow! How fast cancer came since my last six-month blood test. As Dr. Bendaly continues to explain what multiple myeloma is and how it has attacked my body, and that he wanted to get me ready for a transplant a few months down the road, Marilee says through her tears, I have O negative, I’ll give him my blood! He looks at her and tells her that there is no need for her blood, that I will be my own donor! It is amazing the advancements they have made in this area.

After we left the doctor’s office, Marilee and I went back to work; this was during our lunch break. When I got to the high school, I went straight to my daughter Noelle’s choir room (she is the choir teacher at Marion High). I pulled her into her office, told her what the doc said, and hugged her as she got teary. I assured her everything was going to be fine; I didn’t want her to fall apart. I then went to my principal, Lennon Brown, and his secretary, Mikki Moore, who I’ve known since McCulloch’s days, and asked to see them in his conference room. I told them what the doctor said; Lennon got very sad, almost teary. Later Mikki told me she had such an upset stomach, well, she had to go quickly! Lennon assured me he was going to be very supportive and that I could take whatever time I needed and not worry. He was very kind the whole time through.

Marilee, who has a Facebook account, gets on the next day and asks for prayer from all our family and friends. Here is the actual request. I will be including all my Facebook (FB) accounts from here on in:

Marilee Kay Velázquez

December 14, 2013

I am asking all my praying friends to pray for Ed (and me) as we face a new thing in our lives. Ed was diagnosed with multiple myeloma yesterday, December 13, 2013. We know God is in control, and we completely trust Him! Our 2014 might be rough. All test results (bone marrow biopsy and bone scan) will be read, and treatments will start on January 2, 2014—and very likely, bone marrow transplant in the summer. We covet all your prayers—Ed continues to laugh in spite of this new thing! We are His—and nothing will happen to us without it passing through His hands!

It was amazing the multitude of family and friends that responded, saying that they were praying, that they had faith that I was going to beat this cancer, how much I meant to them in the past for my life, and how I had been a help to many of them. I was in tears as I read every day the responses that would come in. People were praying and touching the throne of God! This really began to show me how God had been using Marilee and me for many years!

After this, I started to use Marilee’s FB account as a way to communicate with everyone about what we were going through; it became very therapeutic for me! Actually, one of my reasons was to make people laugh. I laughed in the face of cancer and left it all in God’s hands! I titled my FB posts Our Cancer Adventure with the Lord—December 13, 2013.

Before I go any further, you need to know more about how God orchestrated our cancer adventure with Him to prepare us.

At the beginning of 2013, Marilee received a significant raise from her former boss at Tulox Plastics. It was a result of her immediate supervisor retiring from the company and leaving all her responsibilities to Marilee. Next, at the beginning of the 2013–2014 school year, I also received the salary I had asked for three years prior from our superintendent, Mr. Steve Edwards, when I was transferred from McCulloch Middle School to Marion High School in 2010. God knew that we were going to need the extra money in 2014!

Next, the summer of 2013 was also the year that we were to purchase a new car. This is something we have done for many years. Every six years, I get Marilee’s car, and she gets the new one. Our cars were paid off, but I really still liked my ’04 Hyundai Sonata. It’s a six-cylinder, smooth ride and quick! Therefore, out of the blue, I said to her one day, You know, let’s just keep our cars, I like mine, and we really don’t need a new one anyway. This was very different for me since I like to have a new car every six years. So again, the Lord was working in me, and I didn’t even have a clue! When I say we needed the extra money, believe me, we needed the extra money. We met our insurance deductible of $8000 by February 2014. God came through for us!

As God continued to work more in our lives, we became more in tune with His voice and what He wanted us to do. This prompted Marilee’s next FB post of an old youth chorus:

Marilee Kay Velázquez

December 14, 2013

This song has been in my mind every minute since we heard the news:

I Know Who Holds Tomorrow

I don’t know about tomorrow,

I just live from day to day.

I don’t borrow from its sunshine,

For its skies may turn to gray.

I don’t worry o’er the future,

For I know what Jesus said,

And today I’ll walk beside Him,

For He knows what is ahead.

Chorus

Many things about tomorrow,

I don’t seem to understand;

But I know Who holds tomorrow,

And I know Who holds my hand.

Every step is getting brighter,

As the golden stairs I climb;

Ev’ry burden’s getting lighter;

Ev’ry cloud is silver lined.

There the sun is always shining,

There no tear will dim the eyes,

At the ending of the rainbow,

Where the mountains touch the sky.

Chorus

I don’t know about tomorrow,

It may bring me poverty;

But the One Who feeds the sparrow,

Is the One Who stands by me.

And the path that be my portion,

May be through the flame or flood,

But His presence goes before me,

And I’m covered with His blood.

My next appointment at the oncology center was to have my bone marrow biopsy. I’ve heard about it but never talked to anyone about it, but I knew it was supposed to be painful because the needle evidently is tough, so they can jab it into the bone; I do not like pain! I went in, met with the nurse, and got taken into this special room to lie on the exam table. I was told to pull my pants down enough to expose my bottom (the things I do to entertain the medical staff) and lay on my side. The doctor came in; he was behind me so he could get to the