85: Severe Hydrocephalus in Utero & A Mother's Faith Despite the Medical Challenges | Jessica Cohen

When Jessica (Jessi) Cohen's routine ultrasound revealed a reality no parent should ever confront—her unborn baby, diagnosed with severe hydrocephalus and missing brain parts—their story took a turn towards the extraordinary. This episode invites you to walk alongside Jessi as she recounts the anguish and hope that defined her journey from that life-altering diagnosis to witnessing her daughter, Naysa Angélica's (her name means miracle of God, messenger of God), astonishing defiance of medical expectations. Through this conversation we discover a mother's undying faith and the deep strength she drew from it amidst the toughest decisions a parent could face.

Navigating a path seeped with medical opinions that often echoed hopelessness, Jessi's story sheds light on the often-clinical detachment and the contrasting support through select healthcare specialists. Her high-risk pregnancy, marked by anxiety-inducing consultations and a prenatal supplement discovery, Jessi will not just touch your heart, but also testify to the profound impact of faith. Every update, every doctor's visit, and the eventual emergency C-section—a moment of crisis enveloped in prayer and song—reminds us of the immeasurable depths of God's grace in life's toughest times.

We end this episode by sharing in the joy of Naysa Angélica's progress, a living testament to the miraculous health, found in God our Healer. Jessi's story doesn't end with a miraculous birth; it's an ongoing victory of overcoming the odds, from Naysa's achievements in crawling and speaking to the prospect of a bright future. And for those seeking support on their own healing journeys, we share the hope found in HealingStrong—a faith-based cancer and disease support community that embodies the very essence of hope and empowerment, reminding us all that even amidst life's greatest trials, we are never alone.

We know this episode will bless you!


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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

your baby has severe hydrocephalus. Your baby has parts of their brain missing. So we just have to wait and see. So your baby is going to stay in the NICU until the neurosurgeon tells us what to do next. They're going to have to keep examining her continuously around the clock to see if there are any neurological changes. Is she eating? Does she get a fever? Is she going to start vomiting? Is she going to compose, Like all of these things that they would normally expect from a baby with severe hydrocephalus? Because their explanation is the pressure against the brain causes for all of these complications to occur.

Speaker 3: 0:41

You're listening to the I Am Healing Strong podcast, a part of the Healing Strong organization, the number one network of holistic cancer support groups in the world. Each week we bring you stories of hope, real stories that will encourage you as you navigate your way on your own journey to health. Now here's your host stage four cancer thriver, jim Mann.

Speaker 2: 1:07

I am talking to someone all the way up in New York City, jessica Cohen, how you doing.

Speaker 1: 1:13

I'm good, thank you. How are you?

Speaker 2: 1:15

Yeah, I'm doing fabulous. As I shared with you before, I have a new haircut, so you know.

Speaker 3: 1:19

I always feel good after that.

Speaker 2: 1:21

That itchy. You have a story that's different than most of our stories. Usually it's a diagnosis of cancer and people will talk about how they approached it and how they get over that, but you have what I would consider as a parent of four would be even more devastating. It had to do with your child, of course. Why don't you tell us what that story is?

Speaker 1: 1:47

We had the opportunity to go through our family planning and put that in prayer and hope for the best, just like all families do, and excited when we received the news that we were expecting Going in for routine appointments. And then, at my 16 month follow-up or, excuse me, 16 weeks, sorry, 16 weeks follow-up the visit just seemed a lot longer than usual and of course I didn't know what was going on. I'm just excited to see that I could see my baby on the ultrasound. And then, once the visit was over, I was ready to leave. They're like no, you can't leave yet, we need you to speak to one of our doctors. And I'm like well, that's strange. I'm like, okay, and so finally the doctor sits me down and is explaining a bunch of things to me that at the moment I just it took me a very long time. It felt like a very long time, right. It felt like I was being talked to for about two hours, very long time, right, it felt like I was being talked to for about two hours Really, it was just a matter of minutes and explaining to me that it appeared that the baby's brain was not developing as it should for 16 weeks. There were parts of the brain missing and the ventricles were abnormally large, extremely severely large, indicating a diagnosis of severe hydrocephalus, and because they could see that parts of the brain were not developing as it should. What they saw was just one massive blank space, as opposed to seeing what should be the start of what appears like a butterfly. So when you look at the image of a brain, it looks like there's a butterfly be the start of what appears like a butterfly. So when you look at the image of the brain, it looks like there's a butterfly in the center of the brain that was completely missing. And so they said that this then meant that the baby either would not make it to full term. If the baby did make it to full term, it was a very high chance that it would be stillborn, and if it was born alive, then the baby was going to have severe developmental delays, cognitive delays, physical delays and health complications, which would result in the baby not having longevity or needing many multiple surgeries. It was a scary time.

Speaker 1: 4:08

We were told to go for testing immediately, a series of tests, because then they need to identify what the origin is so that they could then have us speak to the appropriate specialist who could consult us on what the next steps, what the advice the next steps should be. But ultimately all of that led to all tests coming back normal. So I had an amniocentesis, which is a very high risk procedure, and that test came back normal. All the genetic tests, which were a lot more extensive than what they would normally do in gestational testing they only do this in series of high-risk pregnancies and so that also came back normal. So there were no abnormalities on my side, nor on my husband's side, and so it was just a big unknown as to why this is happening, because typically this type of condition occurs either through a virus, infection or a genetic abnormality. And so of course, this then led to speaking to the specialist and advising us, based on their experiences, of what could occur and highly encouraging us to terminate.

Speaker 1: 5:20

And of course, at that point I also had to get an MRI, which I couldn't do until the baby was at 22 weeks, and so then also being told well, if you decide to terminate, then you only have like three weeks after you get the MRI done, because there's a limit on the timing for that. And of course this is all very overwhelming. It felt like just being poured with hot water, cold water all at once, like it was just very overwhelming, very hard to process, because in my heart and in my faith, I knew that this wasn't the results to the tests. Every time that I would go in for a scan, and especially after the MRI, that they just continued to see that there was no development in the brain and that the ventricles were extremely large. And being told by all these specialists what could occur, what the outcomes were and how likely it was that it was not going to make it to full term or the likelihood that it was going to be stillborn, it was a very, very scary time.

Speaker 2: 6:33

Yeah, that was not a good day.

Speaker 1: 6:35

It was not a good day. It was the hardest three weeks of my life.

Speaker 2: 6:39

Now was this your first child.

Speaker 1: 6:41

Yes.

Speaker 2: 6:42

Okay, wow, a little unnerving there, but go ahead.

Speaker 1: 6:45

Yeah. So after we had the MRI, you know, they did tell me this is it what we see? There is what is likely to occur at this point If the brain is not forming, then it won't form, and we'll have you speak to a neurosurgeon and a neurologist so that they can at least speak to you what the outcomes are likely to be. And so that's what happened, but they then continued to encourage me.

Speaker 1: 7:10

I was constantly being bombarded with phone calls from so many doctors, from so many different specialists, encouraging me to terminate and also warning me that, even if I decided to continue with this pregnancy, that I needed to also understand that this could impact me in my own personal life, in terms of my career, because at that point, most insurances probably won't cover the amount of care that it would require, and it would require for me to dedicate myself in caring for the child, because there is no outside service unless I could afford it out of pocket that could provide that level of care 24 hours, right, which was, then, also something very significant, because, you know, I don't have any other support other than we're working class, right?

Speaker 1: 7:58

So, like, where are we going to get that level of support? Um, and this is all based on how they were explaining it to us, but, yes, still nonetheless, while my mind is understanding what they're telling me, my heart I was so sad, but yet I had a sense of peace that I can't explain that I truly believe to this day that it was the power of prayer that helped me stay grounded and all I could do was just pray because I didn't have any other option. I didn't. There was nothing else I could do except cry and pray. I didn't want to talk to anyone.

Speaker 1: 8:35

Family would often provide me with support and do the best they could with I mean, it's a difficult time and no one knows what to say, no one has the right words and they want to say the right things, but everything just made me feel worse, and the only thing that felt me, that helped me feel rounded, was prayer, and that's all I could do, and I just wanted to be alone, and I wanted to be alone in my prayer and that's all I wanted to do, and I didn't want to talk to anyone and I didn't want anyone asking me the same questions over and over and over and over and over again, which is what I hated most when speaking to the doctors, which was what I would often tell them like stop asking me the same questions. You have my chart in front of you, you know what my situation is and just leave me. Just leave me. Let me attend these appointments one by one and let me do what you're asking me to do in these examinations, and just let me make my decision without you asking me the same questions over and over again and reminding me what the outcomes, the likelihood of these poor outcomes, are, and then also encouraging me to terminate because I'm running out of time and also then telling me I have options in other states, because I just I didn't want to hear that, because I didn't feel like any of that was helpful to me and it was just. It was.

Speaker 1: 9:52

It was just a difficult time and I was very sensitive and everything was bothering me because I wanted.

Speaker 1: 9:58

I wanted this baby more than that, more than anything, and I had my first consultation with their neurologist and then I had my first consultation with your neurologist and then I had my second consultation with the neurosurgeon and both of them told me the same thing. The other specialist said, but then the neurosurgeon said to me I see these cases all the time and I can't guarantee you that your baby is going to be fine, but I also can't guarantee you that your baby will be born with all these poor outcomes. Science tells us this, but we don't know until your baby is born. At the same time, while he's telling me this and I'm also telling him, I'm a person of faith and I have faith and I don't want to give up on this pregnancy he said if that's what you feel, then go with that, because we're not going to know until your baby's here of what's truly going to happen. Meanwhile, my OBGYN is telling me do you believe in prayer? Just pray, just pray and hang on to that and follow your heart. So I have these two doctors, amongst all these other doctors, telling me those two things and that filled me up with some

Speaker 1: 11:08

that filled me up with so much hope. Right, because then I felt like that was God sent, because here I am praying, understanding but not understanding. Right, because it was like this weird space of like I understand everything, I'm being told, but then also feeling like, no, I don't understand, because there's still this chance that something good could happen. And I, in retrospect, I realize now that that was my faith speaking. And so, after I spoke to these two specialists, I just one day dropped to my knees and just prayed and cried and prayed like I had never prayed in the days and weeks before. And then, when I opened my eyes, I was going through my emails. I just took a moment, opened my eyes, I was going through my emails, I just took a moment to settle myself, and I was going through my emails and I came across this information about the importance of choline, which is a supplement that you can take during pregnancy, and the benefits of it to brain development, and then all these wonderful benefits for prenatal care, and it's something that people should be taking on a regular anyway, and I thought that was interesting. And then I went to go look at my prenatal vitamins. I'm like, oh, my prenatal vitamin doesn't have that.

Speaker 1: 12:16

So then I consulted with all the doctors that I spoke to that were all speaking to me at that time, because I felt like every day I was talking to someone and they all said, well, yeah, you can take it, but it's not going to change anything, except for my OBGYN who said it doesn't hurt, just go ahead and try it. I mean, it's a good thing to take. Anyway, you should be taking it, but it's not required. But she didn't say it couldn't help. So that stuck with me and I'm like, you know, I'm just going to take it. And I took it faithfully.

Speaker 1: 12:52

And so finally it came to decision where, hey, there's only one week left within what the state allows for termination. What are you going to do? And you know, we sat with my family, we talked about it and I can't go through with this. I just I can't. I want this baby, I pray for this baby and I know that this baby has a purpose, and so that's what we did. And so then I was transferred over to a high risk pregnancy OBG care and then I just had my routine visits from that point forward, and every time I had an ultrasound it was always the same thing the ventricles are a little wider. This time they're going a little more. They're going a little more, and it was always devastating to hear that. But then again, prayer always brought me back to peace. But then again, you wait till your next one.

Speaker 1: 13:47

And it was this anxiety, time after time after time after time and again, until I reached my seven months of pregnancy. And then they told me well, it looks like everything is stable, the ventricles are stable, they're still enlarged, we don't know what's going to happen, but they're stable. And I'm like okay. Well, what does that mean? Well, they went up just a little bit more on the right than on the left, but it's not enough to say that it's significant. But it's still severe hydrocephalus, like okay. And so it remained that way all the way until my full term. I did get a little bit of elevated blood pressure, and so they recommended that I get an induction, only to just for my own safety. But thankfully I didn't have any other health complications Right before, since I had a scheduled delivery. Then they had me meet with the NICU and they said it's really important for you to meet the NICU and so that they can explain to you what is to happen next? Because, again, your baby may be born stillborn.

Speaker 1: 14:58

Your baby may be born alive, but it may pass after some some time, or it may be that your baby is going to need emergency surgery for a shot because if the head is too large, it's only going to continue to grow and then it's going to need a shot, and so that all will require for your baby, if they do get surgery, for your baby to be and I say the baby because at that time I didn't know right um, I didn't want to know the gender and I wanted it to be a surprise um. So they did say that, um, the baby could be in the NICU for a period of three months to five months. It was really unknown. It all depends on how they would recover from the shunt surgery, because that is a very high-risk surgery that could lead to a lot of infection and complications and that type of thing, wow.

Speaker 2: 15:56

That's very unnerving, even for a dad, but especially for a mom, because you have that, that biological connection that dads never can really understand, obviously because we can't have babies. I'm sorry, we just can't do that. I just I can't imagine, uh, how that would unnerve you. Did you go? You said you went the whole term, nine months or 40 weeks, whatever it is. I did?

Speaker 1: 16:19

I did. I went all the way to 38 weeks, yeah, because at that point, because I had the elevated high blood pressure, it was just best for my, my own safety and the baby at that point is considered full term. And so, again, you know, they just paying attention to the brain and the circumference of the head, uh, they were really, you know, paying attention on the swelling of the brain, which is really what they were worried about, and they thought that I could deliver naturally, but chances are that I could have an emergency C-section, which is actually what happened. So the day of delivery, that was also a very scary time. I went it was a Sunday and I went to church with my family and we prayed. I took a moment to take a nap, to rest, to just be with myself and to just remind myself that God is with me, that Jesus is next to me, he's in front of me, he's behind me, I'm surrounded by his power, by his love and his protection, and we're going to go to the hospital like that. And so I had to report at 10 PM, um, and that's what we did.

Speaker 1: 17:36

And you know, throughout my whole pregnancy there were a lot of um of different Christian songs that I would listen to. That just kept me grounded in those most difficult moments. And there were also some prayers that I would often listen to on YouTube this time and time again, over and over and over and over and over and over again, because I just needed it, over and over again, because I just needed it. But it helped me, and it helped me in those most difficult times, especially in those moments of silence that I just wanted to be alone. But I didn't want to be alone, but I wanted to be alone. I just I can't even explain what it was like to go through that. It was a very difficult moment. I don't have words for it, honestly, but those things kept me going, and so I wanted to hear that same songs, those same prayers. I wanted to listen to that while I was going through my contractions, while I was going through the process of delivery and, most importantly, because I truly felt that, as I was listening to all of that, so was my baby, and so I wanted for my baby to enter this world and to also listen to those, to those songs and to those prayers. So I wanted those things, I wanted all of that playing in the background during our delivery.

Speaker 1: 18:53

But then, when the baby was crowning, the baby was stuck, and so then they had to send me over to emergency C-section, which you know. Thankfully, everything went well during the C-section and at exactly five o'clock on the dot, which I learned afterwards, my friend, my best friend's mother, told me that five, the number five, means God's grace, and she was born exactly 5 pm, not a second more, exactly 5 pm. And they said happy birthday, it's a baby girl. And I didn't hear a sound and that made me nervous. And then I heard a cry, and then there was silence, and then they brought her over to me and from that point I didn't have words, right, because I felt this joy of seeing my baby and my baby's alive. Right, you know, I had a moment of scare because I didn't hear anything, but once I heard her cry that gave me relief, that gave me comfort, that gave me peace, and I just said thank you, jesus.

Speaker 1: 20:08

And then I saw her, and then I also felt this immense peace, and then they took her away.

Speaker 1: 20:17

And then I just had to wait and it wasn't until like maybe an hour later that they brought her over and they explained to me that she's responding well, that she's not going to need emergency surgery, not yet. She still needs to go to the NICU, she needs to still be evaluated, but she's responding well neurologically. All the neurological testing that they do in a newborn, they're all normal thing that they do in a newborn. They were all normal. I was like, thank you jesus, thank you lord, and I'm like well, what about her head? Because they did tell me that she's going to have this massive head, her head, I don't know to me, maybe because I mean everyone was saying, her head appeared very normal, so a little large, but normal within normal ranges.

Speaker 1: 21:01

Nothing of what they said. It was going to be like this massive head with the lump in the opening of the you know, like babies are born with an opening in their skull. They said that she would have these lumps because the swelling of the brain, you know, would cause for those lumps to happen. She didn't have any of that. No lump at all. I had the normal indentation, just like a normal baby. Yeah, praise God, yeah.

Speaker 2: 21:32

Yeah, were the doctors surprised, I mean, did they like, oh, what is this A normal baby? Were they like expecting the worst? Of course, and they're like okay, it seems normal, but we got to run tests. That's pretty much how it was at that point.

Speaker 1: 21:45

Yeah, it was. Wow. Okay, the baby's responding normally, but we have to wait and see what happens.

Speaker 2: 21:51

Right.

Speaker 1: 21:51

Because your baby has severe hydrocephalus. Your baby has parts of their brain missing, so we just have to wait and see. So your baby's going to stay in the NICU until the neurosurgeon tells us what to do next. They're going to have to keep examining her continuously around the clock to see if there are any neurological changes. Is she eating? Does she get a fever? Is she going to start vomiting? Is she going to start vomiting? Is she going to compose, like all of these things that they could, they would normally expect from a baby with severe hydrocephalus, because in their explanation is the pressure against the brain causes for all of these complications and to occur. They need to check her spine to make sure that there are no issues in her spine, because severe hydrocephalus could cause issues in the spine breathing, heart rate, kidney functions, liver function, all these things. They needed to monitor that because any pressure on the brain can cause complications in any of the organs.

Speaker 1: 22:55

And so it was a waiting game and they kept telling me well, you have to wait and see, well, we have to wait and see. Well, we have to wait and see, but we need to continue to. It was like two, three times a day. They were measuring the circumference of her head, Because their explanation is your baby has severe hydrocephalus. We are expecting inflammation of the brain, so the head is going to swell.

Speaker 2: 23:18

It's almost like they want to find something.

Speaker 1: 23:21

Yes, that is exactly how it felt and I remember on day two the circumference of the head dropped a little bit and I was so excited.

Speaker 1: 23:33

I was so excited and I'm like praise God, and I just started praying and then one of the nurses comes to me and says well, I don't want you to get too excited because that may not necessarily mean much. Right, it could just be. From one nurse to the next, they just measured differently because your baby wasn't, was moving too much or something. And I'm like it really bothered me because I'm like this woman sees me praying, sees the happiness and the joy that this brings me, and if I need to respect my faith and leave me in that joy and try to rob me from that, that really bothered me. I mean, I didn't say anything because I was, honestly, I was shocked by her even interrupting me in the middle of my prayer and happiness and calling family and telling people about what to me was great news. But I didn't let that. It bothered me but I didn't let it take away from my joy and my faith and my hope that my baby was going to be fine.

Speaker 2: 24:40

And we hear the little miracle in the background, right right now.

Speaker 1: 24:45

Yes, and I know I'm, I'm, and please interrupt me if you have any questions that I do. I can't help, but just like explaining every step of this journey but what turned out?

Speaker 1: 24:56

to be. You know, expecting a three month to a five month you-month duration in the NICU, with this shunt surgery Turned out to be that she did not need a shunt and was discharged home after five days. Wow, of course they warn you, anything can change. Your baby has severe hydrocephalus. Your baby has parts of her brain missing. Your baby has parts of her brain missing. You're going to need continuous follow-up with neurology, with neurosurgery, with your pediatrician, with neonatologist and then the genetic testing people. And she's calling me Hi baby, hi sweetie, can I bring her Sure?

Speaker 2: 25:41

She wants to come Hi sweetie, can I bring her?

Speaker 1: 25:44

Sure, she wants to come. Hi, sweetie Bang, come here, come here, baby, come here. Yeah, come, say hi. And so I was then to fast forward. After all of the follow-ups that occurred in the months in the first year of her life, I was told that she would have difficulty learning to talk. She would not learn how to crawl. I was told that she would have trouble learning to walk. I was told that she could eventually need a shunt, maybe later on throughout her first year, and none of that happened, hi hi how you doing that's jim yes nice to meet you so, yeah, and now she's running, walking.

Speaker 1: 26:30

She's so smart, she learned how to crawl wow and she obviously doesn't have any difficulty learning to talk. So we decided to name her nisa, because that means miracle of god, yes, and angelica, because that means messenger of god um so here she is yeah there's the perfect little child that the doctors wanted you to terminate, that's incredible yep exactly, Yep exactly.

Speaker 2: 27:01

Wow, and isn't that amazing. I mean, we all do this and of course we all need to do everything we know to do, but sometimes it feels like, wow, all I can do is pray. But you know that is the best thing to do. Obviously you know you believe God created the entire universe, so obviously he knows what's going on with this little child and he has this child on purpose and has a life plan for her. Go, do great things. You might be a doctor. Help other children.

Speaker 1: 27:35

Exactly, exactly, and all of the specialists now are just like wow.

Speaker 2: 27:40

Yeah, what a testimony. They're all amazed.

Speaker 1: 27:43

Now we're just like wow, yeah, yeah, what a testimony. Amazed and and I, you know, I, I after her her first 12 months they wanted to do another mri.

Speaker 1: 27:51

So those parts of the brain that they said are missing when you look at the mri, you know they'll tell you well, it's there, but not fully. And then you're, which you know I and I told the neurosurgeon this. I'm like, wow, I truly believe you were God sent because of all these doctors aside from my OBGYN. You also gave me hope and told me not to give up on my baby. Um, he was the only. I looked at the MRI and said, yes, we have this massive hole.

Speaker 1: 28:27

What appears like this massive blank space. But let me zoom in. I want you to pay attention to. He's like believe me, just listen to me, because I know what I'm doing. And he zooms in and you can see what they said was missing. It's there.

Speaker 1: 28:46

And it's partial, but it's there. That was something he always said to me. He's like it's not missing, it's partial, but it's there and it can still function and the way she's developing it is that way, and that is another To me, my faith. I just know it. I feel it in my heart that this is proof right, that this is God's work. So there's nothing missing, even if it looks different.

Speaker 2: 29:19

Chances are, when she's a teenager, part of that will shut down. But other than that, that's another story. And you know you don't know how many people especially the medical community there that was involved with hey how that has affected them, seeing your faith and seeing what they thought was going to be something terrible. And there she is, an adorable little child with a lot of hair and very outgoing.

Speaker 1: 29:45

Yeah, yeah, thank you. Yeah, yeah, thank you. Now, the new thing that the neurologist said to me was well, let's see what happens when she starts school. Maybe she'll have difficulty learning math or learning to read. But I'm focusing on the now, right and right now. What I'm seeing is she loves to read, she's recognizing words and she's repeating them, and she's like flipping through her books. She's already counting, she already knows her colors.

Speaker 2: 30:19

Man, you had gotten in touch with the Healing Strong prayer team.

Speaker 1: 30:24

I did.

Speaker 2: 30:25

How did that happen?

Speaker 1: 30:26

So I have the Bible app and I do the devotionals. And so when I got the diagnosis, when I had that moment of just feeling scared, worried about the future, the unknown, worried about making the wrong decision, right, because, even though I've always been a person of faith and prayer, when you get news like that, the human side of you just takes over, right, and it's hard to just stay grounded and at peace with your faith, even though that what, at least for me, right, that's what I I grabbed onto that, but I was still scared and I was still crying. I couldn't concentrate. I had to take time off from work, like it was. It was horrible. I didn't want to talk to anyone, I completely isolated myself and all I did was cry and cry and cry and I prayed for healing, but I also prayed for my faith because I felt like I was like it was like sand, right, like I felt like I was losing it and I I have it in my palm, but it's like it's, it's all falling off. Yeah, and it was just a very, but it's like it's all falling off and it was just a very.

Speaker 1: 31:54

It was a very scary time and so, out of desperation, I was going through the Bible app and doing the devotionals. I'm like I'm doing all these devotionals on healing, that's what I'm going to do because I just need to continue to read and I need to continue to just pray and just like hear the word of God and remind and remind myself of these biblical stories and I just I need to be saturated in that. That's, that was all I wanted to do and it was like this obsession of just like hearing the word of God. That's all I want to do. That's all I want to do, because I was so desperate to reach this point of peace and comfort because I was drowning in fear, and so, in going through one of the devotionals, at the end of the devotional there was like there was contact information for you know, contacting, contact us for prayer, or something like that. And that's what I did.

Speaker 1: 32:44

Um, and yeah, and I got a response immediately and I also received the most beautiful prayer that for like two or three weeks, I was listening to it daily because, like I explained, all I wanted to do was saturate myself in prayer and the word of God. That's all I wanted to do, and I didn't want to talk to anyone, I just wanted to be alone. I would just lock myself in my room. My mom would make sure I eat and all of that stuff, but I just, I just wanted to be alone. I would just lock myself in my room, my mom would make sure I eat and all of that stuff, but I just, I just wanted to be alone and just listen to prayer.

Speaker 2: 33:17

Wow, that's incredible. You know I'm part of healing strong because I had a, you know, a cancer story. Um, you know I was diagnosed with cancer and given a month or two to live, and that was seven years ago and I'm cancer free now. But it's just amazing how a ministry like that, like Healing Strong they wrote those apps on healing in the Bible app, rather and there you are, sitting there in the Manhattan area going through all kinds of stuff and you reach out and you connect with I think you were connected with Cheryl, right.

Speaker 1: 33:51

Cheryl yes. And I still have that prayer saved on my phone. I'm getting goosebumps.

Speaker 2: 34:01

Excellent. Well, jesse, I really enjoyed hearing that story and I'm so glad it turned out. The way it did and your daughter is is very beautiful.

Speaker 1: 34:11

Thank you.

Speaker 2: 34:12

She says hi very well, very friendly.

Speaker 1: 34:17

She's very friendly, she's so sweet, she's, she's the greatest gift. So of course, you know, every her first birthday was very meaningful. You know because they said, oh, if by her first birthday was very meaningful because they said by her first birthday we don't see any improvement, it's going to go downhill from here. And she was again. She's complete opposite. 100% of everything they said would happen when was her birthday.

Speaker 2: 34:47

August 15th wow, she'll be in college soon. When was her birthday? August 15th, august 15th, wow, yeah, she'll be in college soon.

Speaker 1: 34:55

I know my baby. I can't believe she's 18 months already.

Speaker 2: 34:59

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 34:59

Time is flying, but every day thankful.

Speaker 2: 35:03

And what's your husband's name?

Speaker 1: 35:05

His name is Gabriel.

Speaker 2: 35:06

Gabriel, okay yeah, it was great hearing the story and we'll be praying for you. You were telling me earlier you work with for the city.

Speaker 1: 35:16

you said, yes, I work for the city of New York.

Speaker 2: 35:18

Dealing with the migrant people that are just filling up the city. That's already crowded and so it's a. You need a lot of grace, a lot of patience and a lot of wisdom.

Speaker 1: 35:26

Yes, thank you for that. Yeah, conversations in a lot of ways. Yes, thank you for that.

Speaker 2: 35:29

Yeah, yeah, we'll be praying for you.

Speaker 1: 35:32

Thank you and thank you, jim, for this opportunity to help share our story, because I I share it every chance I get, but I was also praying for an opportunity to share it with a large, a larger network, a larger audience, because I want for people to to believe, right, to know that Jesus is real and he, he listens, he listens and he's there, he's very much alive and they says proof of that. And there are so many stories out there, just like yours, right? So many stories out there and we need to share this with everyone Because he is, he is our salvation and life has no meaning without him.

Speaker 2: 36:21

That's right.

Speaker 1: 36:22

Thank you.

Speaker 3: 36:23

Thank you again. You've been listening to the I Am Healing Strong podcast, a part of the Healing Strong organization. We hope you found encouragement in this episode, as well as the confidence to take control of your healing journey, knowing that God will guide you on this path. Healing Strong is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to connect, support and educate individuals facing cancer and other diseases through strategies that help to rebuild the body, renew the soul and refresh the spirit. It costs nothing to be a part of a local or online group. You can do that by going to our website at healingstrongorg and finding a group near you or an online group, or start your own, your choice.

Speaker 3: 37:14

While you're there, take a look around at all the free resources. Though the resources and groups are free, we encourage you to join our membership program at $25 or $75 a month. This helps us to be able to reach more people with hope and encouragement, and that also comes with some extra perks as well. So check it out. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give us a five star rating, leave an encouraging comment and help us spread the word. We'll see you next week with another story on the I Am Healing Strong podcast.