11
Michael’s ear pain and the bad
dreams, no one was sleeping much
at our house.
When we returned to the doctor, I
told him the antibiotic wasn’t work-
ing. He said he’d prescribe another
one. But something told me this
wasn’t a simple ear infection. And I
couldn’t get that search result out of
my mind. It was all just too odd.
Bramble, the recurring dream, the
Google search—they all pushed
me to ask for more.
“I don’t want another antibiotic,”
I told the doctor. “There has to be
something else we can do.”
After I persisted, the doctor rec-
ommended removing Michael’s
tonsils as the best treatment. I hoped
that having the operation would
end Michael’s ear pain and help him
sleep better.
On the day of Michael’s surgery,
Mike and I sat in the waiting room,
nervous about our little boy’s proce-
dure. When the doctor came out
to talk with us afterward, I knew
something was wrong; the expres-
sion on his face told me.
“I removed Michael’s left tonsil,”
the doctor said, “but when I went to
take out the right one, I found a tu-
mor.” My stomach dropped.
Michael had rhabdomyosarcoma,
a cancer that usually affects very
young children. One of the most
common symptoms is an earache.
Luckily, the doctor had caught it
in its early stages, but Michael still
needed a year of chemotherapy
and radiation. The treatments were
brutal and painful to watch. That
year was a blur.
After Michael completed his treat-
ment, he was declared cancer-free.
The day his scans came back clear
was one of the best days of our
lives. I couldn’t wait for us to return
to a normal life. For Michael to get
to be a kid again.
6ULKH`0^HZZP[[PUNVU[OLÅVVY
watching Michael play with his toys.
I couldn’t help but smile. I was so
grateful that he was healthy. Despite
what he’d been through, he was
such a happy little boy. He’d even
begun sleeping soundly again.
He’d had his last Bramble nightmare
the night before his tonsillectomy.
Things had been so hectic that I
hadn’t even considered the timing.
I remembered my husband’s
online search. Curious, I went to the
computer and Googled the word.
A prickly vine or shrub. Nowhere
on the page did it say the word can-
cer. Nowhere.
I called Mike at work. He Googled
bramble with the same results.
Why had those words appeared
before but not now? Why had Mi-
chael dreamed about Bramble near-
ly every night for months, with the
dreams suddenly stopping after his
cancer was discovered?
Because someone knew we need-
ed the warning.
Michael is a 20-year-old college
sophomore today and completely
healthy. I’m so grateful for the
dreams and the Google search that
WSH`LKHYVSLPUÄUKPUNOPZJHUJLY
early enough to save his life. As it
turns out, Bramble may have
seemed scary, but he had just the
message we needed.Learn more about warning dreams at Guideposts.org/DreamWarning