An Amazing Perspective

Giuliana Rancic, the TV sweetheart of "E! News"who is married to "Apprentice" winner Bill Rancic, recently found out she has breast cancer at the age of 36.

Now, this would be a complete and utter shock to any body's system, but it is a double blow to Giuliana because she has been trying to get pregnant for quite a while now.

Turns out, the failure of her first two IVF treatments may have saved her life.  And, she was more than happy to admit to Ann Curry, on the "Today" show, that God's hands were all over this.

In a nutshell, Giuliana acknowledged that, had her first pregnancy taken, a pregnancy which lasted eight weeks after the second IVF treatment, she likely would have ended up on much sicker with breast cancer.

Had she given up on trying getting pregnant again or started down the road to adoption, she and Bill wouldn't have traveled to Colorado to a world-renowned IVF specialist, who insisted she have a mammogram.  Actually, he refused to even TRY to get her pregnant until the mammogram results were in his hands, because he knew pregnancy hormones increase the growth of cancer.  This came as a real surprise to Giuliana;  no other doctor had ever even mentioned this concern.   

And, while she initially bucked his suggestion with the statement "I'm only 36!  I wasn't going to have my first mammogram until I'm 40", she wanted the chance for a baby badly enough that she agreed.  She admits, that one act, quite possibly saved her life;  the results showed a suspicious area, one she'll have surgery on later this week.  And, naturally, her doctor has put the IVF on hold, for the time being.

But, Giuliana is a fighter.  She already has her eye set on the prize of a pregnancy, post-surgery and post-cancer.  She is urging women everywhere to get to their doctor if they think ANYTHING might be wrong.* 

Just this week I read a statement that mimics exactly what is going on in Giuliana's life:  Often God asks us to be obedient without telling us WHY.

And, generally, when we look back and finally understand the why?  It's amazing to put the puzzle pieces together and see how brilliant God's plan was all along.  And to realize that no human being, even the smartest in the world, could have possibly orchestrated something so amazing.

Two failed IVF procedures + one miscarriage + hope + an insistent doctor + a mammogram + cancer?  What did that equal for Giuliana Rancic?

God's hand prints.  All over her life.

Blessings on her as she travels this road to recovery and parent hood. 


*From MommaJ:  and, by all means, do your monthly breast exams and get that baseline mammogram at 40!