Have you ever witnessed a miracle? Our latest episode features Brooke, a music teacher whose unwavering faith and intuition led to her son Jameson's recovery from cancer. As a mother who faced misdiagnosis after misdiagnosis, Brooke's story is a powerful testament to the strength of a parent's love and the undeniable influence of divine guidance. She shares how community support and a crucial connection with an attentive doctor were instrumental in her family's journey, offering a profound insight into the peace that can surface in the midst of a crisis.
We're reminded through Brooke's experience that life's toughest challenges often bring about the most extraordinary miracles. This conversation delves into the essence of hope, the transformative nature of prayer, and the comforting promise of Christ's companionship in every step of our lives. As Brooke eloquently illustrates, prior adversities are often the foundation that prepares us for future triumphs. Her story is a beautiful mosaic of faith, resilience, and the power of human connection—a narrative that renews our spirit and reaffirms the presence of a savior in our personal stories. Join us for an episode that celebrates the miraculous, even in the face of overwhelming odds.
Please reach out to me if you are interested in sharing your story! I would LOVE to hear from you. :)
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Facebook: More than Coincidence: Remembering Jesus Christ in Your Story Instagram: mtc.rememberingjesuschrist
Have you ever witnessed a miracle? Our latest episode features Brooke, a music teacher whose unwavering faith and intuition led to her son Jameson's recovery from cancer. As a mother who faced misdiagnosis after misdiagnosis, Brooke's story is a powerful testament to the strength of a parent's love and the undeniable influence of divine guidance. She shares how community support and a crucial connection with an attentive doctor were instrumental in her family's journey, offering a profound insight into the peace that can surface in the midst of a crisis.
We're reminded through Brooke's experience that life's toughest challenges often bring about the most extraordinary miracles. This conversation delves into the essence of hope, the transformative nature of prayer, and the comforting promise of Christ's companionship in every step of our lives. As Brooke eloquently illustrates, prior adversities are often the foundation that prepares us for future triumphs. Her story is a beautiful mosaic of faith, resilience, and the power of human connection—a narrative that renews our spirit and reaffirms the presence of a savior in our personal stories. Join us for an episode that celebrates the miraculous, even in the face of overwhelming odds.
Please reach out to me if you are interested in sharing your story! I would LOVE to hear from you. :)
Follow us on Social Media:
Facebook: More than Coincidence: Remembering Jesus Christ in Your Story Instagram: mtc.rememberingjesuschrist
Hello everyone and welcome to. More Than Coincidence, remembering Jesus Christ in your Story as the author and finisher of our faith, our Savior writes personal experiences into each of our lives which can later strengthen, empower and bring us peace upon reflection. This podcast is dedicated to sharing these anchoring memories from everyone's unique stories in order to collectively remember and testify of the reality of Jesus Christ and His presence in our lives. I'm your host, lily, and I'm very excited to share these experiences together. Okay, so good evening everybody. Tonight on the podcast, we have Brooke Nice to meet you, brooke, tell us about yourself.
Brooke:
I am the music teacher at the elementary school, the Ranches Academy in Eagle Mountain, utah. Sweet, I'm a great fan, and I'm also a mom of two wonderful boys. Nice, that is my life.
Lily:
Hey, well, that's a good life I agree, yes, kids are fun. We love kids. Do you have any hobbies or interests that you like to share with everybody?
Brooke:
I love to hike. I love to sing. I got my degree in vocal performance. So, I'm an opera singer.
Lily:
That's I used to be, I guess.
Brooke:
Now I just teach music, yeah. So yeah, I love getting outdoors and I love performances and singing and that's me.
Lily:
That's incredible, oh, thank you. My daughter, my oldest. She loves music and I am not musically inclined and so I'm always like, oh good, there's another person I know that can help her if she wants to do music. She just she loves it, she sings, she makes up songs all the time and I'm like what do I do with this? Like I don't know what to do with this, so maybe I'll be reaching out.
Brooke:
Just be like hey, what do you?
Lily:
recommend Perfect Sweet. Well, I really appreciate you taking time to share your story with us, so I'll just ask you, brooke, what memories do you have that you reflect on, that prick your heart and remembrance of our savior Jesus Christ?
Brooke:
That's a really good question. It starts, I guess, about 10 years ago. I got pregnant and I miscarried that one and then I got pregnant again with my oldest His name is Jameson and it was kind of a bad part of life. I guess you're super poor, you have nothing and everybody around is like why are you having a baby?
Lily:
But it was right.
Brooke:
And come to find out, we had Jameson, and then we had nine more miscarriages, and so had we not had Jameson when we did we wouldn't have any kids.
Brooke:
And so that starts the story of my miracle child, jameson, and growing up. He had some hard medical stuff and then, at around four years old, january 2020. So right before COVID started, oh my gosh, yeah, it was a little ridiculous, but he we just kept taking him to the doctor for different things and they couldn't figure out what was wrong and finally he was super constipated and I took him in. This was like the fifth time in January and, oh sorry, February, and I took him in for constipation. The doctor said prune juice. Just give him prune juice and he'll poop. And I went back. I was like okay, and we tried it and he Like nothing was really working and he was just really off. And I remember sitting with my neighbor at the time, mm-hmm, telling her all these symptoms that were happening. She's like I would just Take him back in, like I've been there.
Brooke:
Yeah five or six times, but then the spirit was like bam, you need to go now. Yeah, yeah, and so I called the doctor. Like we have an opening right now, bring him in. And this was the cutest doctor. He.
Lily:
Did he?
Brooke:
Seventy years old. Yeah, dr Nelson, down in st George, if you know him, but or if anybody listening knows him he's fantastic and he, instead of dismissing me, he's like okay, if this mom is coming in again, something is really wrong right and he sent us to go get imaging and then he followed us there because he didn't have an x-ray machine in his office.
Brooke:
Whoa, yeah, like this man's wonderful. And and we get to the imaging center and Dr Nelson comes in after us get everything done and I kind of have this feeling something is going on Right. And I see dr Nelson and he's like, okay, we'll get the imaging results and I'll let you know. We get a call from him that evening saying there has they spotted something on the x-ray and you need to head to primary children's right now like in his, in his bowels.
Lily:
There's something there.
Brooke:
Yep, and he's like we can't tell what it is, but there's a mass and I'm like, well, it's 10 o'clock at night, so we can't go right now and you're in st George and you need to go to salt lake. Yes, yes, yeah we lived at st George or in st George at the time. Yeah and Uh, we're now terrified a little bit right and we get, uh, our whole little neighborhood, we're in townhomes. Um got together and one gave a blessing to james and I remember it just brought so much peace.
Lily:
Yeah.
Brooke:
Um. And then the next morning the doctor calls again at 6 am. He's like I consulted with radiologists over the country, we're all in agreeance, you really need to get to primary children's. And wow, okay, we are headed and on our way, yeah. And then he calls us again two hours later and it's just like um, I am part of this religion where we can put names in the temple and I was like, hey, I'm part of that religion too.
Brooke:
Please put his name in the temple and yeah, he's like thank you so much, I'll do that, and he's a wonderful man.
Lily:
Wow.
Brooke:
Um, so we get to primary children's and they do a CAT scan and they find this big mass in my son's Stomach in my mind I'm like it's just don't let it be cancer. Don't let it be cancer. It can't be cancer Right and I'm like it's just gonna be nine, be benign. It's not gonna be malignant, it's not gonna be cancer Right and then they take us up to what I now know is the cancer unit.
Brooke:
I didn't know at the time and nobody has told us that it's cancer yet. Until they start coming in and talking about a treatment plan, I'm like wait, what do you mean? What do you mean it's cancer? And the doctor's face just went white. She's like nobody has told you. I know nobody has told me and so I just I'm bawling at this point because my son, my four-year-old son, my miracle child right, has cancer and they say it's a huge mass. It ended up being eight inches, six pounds.
Brooke:
What Huge mass in his abdomen and it grew over a month and a half.
Lily:
I can't, I can't even fathom that.
Brooke:
Yeah, it's a very aggressive form of cancer and it's called Embryonal Rabdo Maya Sarcoma.
Lily:
Okay, yeah, big name located in the stomach.
Brooke:
Yes, it's a muscle cancer, so it can be anywhere that there's muscle, but his was in the stomach. But this is where all the miracles start happening. Okay, so we are told that he's gonna go into surgery and and Just to get a biopsy to see what it is exactly.
Lily:
Because they knew it was a sarcoma.
Brooke:
They didn't know what kind it was yet. Okay, um, and so they're like it's gonna take a couple hours, and so my husband and I bring board games. We're a big board game family yeah and we're playing in the waiting room and my parents show up and um, eventually, jason's parents showed up, but they were in Arizona at the time and um, it's taking even longer and longer and I'm like what is going on?
Brooke:
Yeah, and so Playing board games was good, because it was a good distraction, yeah, but I was getting a little more worried, a little more worried until finally they call on the phone and say hey, he's done with surgery. The surgeon's gonna come talk to you, okay and um, the surgeon comes and we go into this little room and he's like this has never happened before. I was like okay, what has never happened before.
Brooke:
Yeah and he's like we cut open here son's stomach and the tumor just lifted out. It's like this is a massive tumor and, like I said before, eight inches, six pounds, like the size of a baby. It was huge. And he's like, and it wasn't attached to anything. He's like I can't even tell you when his blood supply came from.
Lily:
Yeah to function, yeah um.
Brooke:
And he's like he's like to explain further. Something this big should have encroached on all his organs in his abdomen Right and it should have been attached to his bladder, his bowels, his stomach, his kidneys, his liver and growing separate masses in each spot Um no, it's just like it can become a part of the organs, if that makes it interesting and so something that massive, they would have to cut everything out right, and because it just popped out and wasn't attached to anything.
Brooke:
Yeah james, since bladder is fine, his bowels are fine, his kidneys are fine and liver is fine. Oh my, gosh. It didn't attach to anything, and that is A huge miracle, right? He's never seen it before. Yeah um, there was also His doctor, doctor fair at primary children's.
Lily:
He's also fantastic.
Brooke:
Um, he's Telling me that there was a lining around the tumor and that it was for sure going to test positive for cancer. He's like 100 it's going to, that's normal. It'll make him stage four, um, which is scary. Stage four cancer is scary and he, it's like we tested it and we tested it three times and it came back negative each time, which means that he was a stage three fragile myosarcoma.
Lily:
Okay, which was our next miracle.
Brooke:
So first miracle was the piece, the second miracle was the popping out of the tumor and third miracle is that was negative and it it was so easy to see these miracles happening because of that blessing. Yeah, before, yeah, um, one story that I want to get into, and this one is hard for me to tell.
Lily:
Um Tissues yeah.
Brooke:
We'll see how this goes. Um, he had started treatment and we could do some treatment down in St George, but some we had to travel for and come up to primary children.
Lily:
And this is just to make sure that if there was any other cancer anywhere else, it would just get rid of it. Exactly Okay, yes.
Brooke:
Um, because if there was even one cell left behind, it would have replicated, and because it was such an aggressive cancer, um, better safe than sorry.
Lily:
Yeah, like you have to do it.
Brooke:
And his regimen was 18 months of chemo. It's a long, that is long, yeah, and it's every week, and it's three different chemo meds. So we could do two of the chemo meds down in St George, but the third one you have to be hospitalized, and so we'd have to come and travel up here, yes, and stay the night and then be like how often? Once a week, once a month, uh that one was every, either like once a month or every six weeks.
Lily:
Okay, so still doable, but still that's a long trip.
Brooke:
Yes, yeah, and it's one of the reasons we moved up here to Salt. Lake. Yeah, cause it was a lot to keep traveling. Yeah, right, and it was very new to the cancer world. Yeah, and I did not realize the toll that chemo would take on his body, like you, kind of know, yeah, but you don't like living.
Brooke:
It is different, yeah. And so, um, he got his chemo treatment and then we went to my sister's house and we were playing on a big water slide and I'm like this little cheer him up, yeah, and he played hard, like super hard, it was just fun to see.
Lily:
Yeah, well, I'm good for you as a mom Cause. Then you're like hey, maybe he's. Like the drugs are like, okay, they're doing well, like maybe this is going to work Well and that's what I?
Brooke:
that's what I thought, yeah, but unfortunately they um, it wasn't the case. So that night he was in so much pain and I had maxed out on all of his meds, um, and so he is writhing in bed and I, I can, I'm across the room and I'm just watching him as he's tightening up, and there's nothing I can do.
Brooke:
I can't give him any more pain meds, and so the only thing I could do was pray yeah and I was probably the most earnest prayer I've said in my entire life to just please take away the pain from my son and sorry, um. As I opened my eyes, I watched as Jameson just relaxed onto his bed and he fell asleep and was instantly able to just be calm and peaceful, and that that memory, um, will forever be in my mind as an instant miracle and, uh, something that is not just a coincidence.
Lily:
Yeah, yeah, the power of prayer Like I can't even imagine. And just to know he's listening, he literally heard you and there was the result.
Brooke:
Yeah, and I later got confirmation that that is how we, as women, use our husbands. Priesthood, yeah, and that was awesome Cause I had been struggling with that for a while and so, even though we had this really hard and difficult trial and there are so many things that came with it and it still affects him to this day um, there were so many miracles that I don't know I would not say I don't want him to not have cancer.
Lily:
Like.
Brooke:
I would love to say that he never had cancer but because he did, we our testimony has grown so much and we have seen so many miracles. And there's this scary world of cancer, but there is also a beautiful world inside that you get to see the amazing things that come out of suffering.
Lily:
Yeah, yeah. Well, and you really, I think it takes on. When they say that Christ is the master healer, it literally takes on a whole other meaning in that sense and just even, and I don't know well you, you know my family- right.
Lily:
We have a lot of kids with disabilities in my family and so to know that one day he, my brothers, will be healed, their bodies will be whole, your son, one day, his body will be whole, yes, right. And I think that it's incredible that we can look to that and it gives us something to hope for. And when you see these moments of where you pray and God is there, immediately you hold on to that and you say, and you look forward with the faith and the endurance to say it will happen. I have seen him work in my life. It will happen in the end, you know, or I don't know, like what do you think?
Brooke:
No, I had had before that. It's so interesting Cause about a year before that I thought I had been abandoned by Christ and I could not feel the spirit, and I was somebody who the spirit was very strong in my life and I knew exactly what it wanted me to do and because of that trial, and I had to pay attention so much that even the most minute whisper of the spirit, or to the most minute whisper of the spirit that it made me be able to recognize it during that time of cancer.
Lily:
Yeah, cause that feeling. The memory of your abandonment was prior to it was prior to cancer.
Brooke:
There are so many things prior to cancer that got us ready for it. Like I got grief counseling because of my miscarriages I got five years before he was diagnosed I got an impression that we would have to deal with cancer. I thought it was gonna be me. But and so yeah, wow, yeah. So I knew it was gonna happen sometime in our life. I did not think it was gonna be my son or any of my kids. I was like, okay, I'll just be really diligent about going to the doctor, but ended up being my son and then having the trial of not feeling the spirit as strongly as I used to, which made me work to feel the spirit more, and all of those things led up to being able to handle this trial that we were handed and I also. It was interesting. Somebody told me once they're like this makes sense that your family got this trial, that it was sent to you.
Lily:
And you're like, excuse me A little bit, I was a little taken aback.
Brooke:
I'm like, okay, and it kind of rubbed me the wrong way, cause I'm like why would Heavenly Father send me this trial? Right, and I was praying about it over and over and it took a good like six months to get this answer. Yeah, and I actually got the answer. It wasn't sent to us by Heavenly Father, it was. We live in a terrestrial world where cells mutate, and James has, since one cell mutated and it became this terrible tumor. But Heavenly Father then assured me he's like but I'm using it to make you better.
Lily:
Like yeah, I think that that's that's so powerful. I've never heard anybody say something like that, that, that cause I feel like when we, even in general conference or, you know, in talks at church or in relief society or whatever, we always say we have trials to prove us, we have trials to make us better, but we don't. But I think sometimes we still think, well, they're, they're from God, like that's why, that's why this is happening. Right, it's his furnace that we're in. But you saying it's because we're in a terrestrial world, oh my gosh, huge, yeah. Like I feel like that. That's like almost even a paradigm shift of even just this is not personal, but how cool is that? That Christ is there for you Just cause this is stuff's happening, and he's like I want to be here with you just through your life, rather than just like here.
Lily:
Let me hold your hand because you're going through something that I would I don't know, I don't know if that makes any sense, but that's like, that's incredible.
Brooke:
It was a huge cause I had blamed myself. I have favorite sins, just like everybody else. Hey, me too. Right, it's bad, but when my son was diagnosed, I'm like this is because of me, because I have not been following the commandments like I should and Right, right, or how dare you, god?
Lily:
I felt abandoned and now my son has cancer. Yeah, like, how dare you?
Brooke:
That's like this has got to be me and so in a way, I think I was trying to control it, like if it was because of me, then I can change it. But that answer that took six months to get took control out of my hands, which is a little scary for me, but also put it fully into Christ's hands and our lives were in Christ's hands and he totally took care of us and Jameson is doing great now he is he's been out of treatment for two and a half years.
Lily:
Congratulations, thank you. So it's in remission then, is that?
Brooke:
Technically you can't say remission until five years out. Okay so but yes, basically remission Okay, and he's passed the two year mark and it's most likely to come back two years after treatment, okay, so that's really awesome, okay.
Lily:
But yeah, we were just. So. Now you're just kind of waiting to see like, is something going to happen?
Brooke:
Yeah, scans are hard, so he now he gets scans every four months now and then, next year I think it turns to every six months, yeah, but, and those are always scary, but again, I just have to let go of that control and just trust in my heavenly father in Christ.
Lily:
Right.
Brooke:
That they. They have my life Lots.
Lily:
Wow, I'm honestly I'm blown away. And so how do you feel your relationship has been? Cause we've kind of just talked a little bit about how these experiences have kind of have brought you to Christ, but how do you feel about Christ, like as a person? Do you feel like you really have come to know him, or do you like I don't know if that makes any sense- no, it does, I feel.
Brooke:
before cancer there's definitely before and then after. Before cancer, I felt insignificant. And I was like it's okay, like my ancestors got me Christ, you don't, you don't have to come personally, like it's fine, I'm fine. Mystery angel yes yeah. But after cancer and seeing the miracles, I know Christ was in everything and it definitely, I think, of my ancestors were too, but I think some of the miracles that happened were my was my savior and that he personally knows me and my son and my family, and to have that revelation is so comforting.
Brooke:
Like as I said earlier, I deal with some control issues.
Lily:
Right Same.
Brooke:
Yeah, but it's probably one of my favorite sins. But I'm now able to give up that control and even though the future is unknown, Jameson could get cancer again. It does happen. I know for a fact that we are taken care of and we will be fine.
Lily:
Yeah, oh my gosh. So I guess I have two questions. The first is how do you feel like Jameson has, like, strengthened his testimony? Do you have you been able to have a lot of conversations with him and kind of what do you? What is his kind of take on all of this? I guess I would be curious.
Brooke:
He has, so he has PTSD a little bit. Definitely, yeah, he. A lot of medical trauma, yeah, but, and it was really hard at first to access, so they get a port installed. Oh, installed, that sounds terrible.
Lily:
No way, I think it is, it is yeah.
Brooke:
A port put in so that they can access it easier Right. And so they don't have to keep poking their arms.
Lily:
Yeah.
Brooke:
And Jameson. At the beginning we would have to hold him down like five people, yeah, holding him down in order to access it, and I remember him screaming once mom, why are you letting them do this to me? Yeah, and that was heartbreak he gave me. Leave the room after that. Yeah, good, but I just said Heavenly Father is going to help you through this.
Lily:
Yeah.
Brooke:
And he can help you do hard things. And so every time he'd have to get his port accessed, we'd like hold each other's hands and say, I can do hard things, yeah, and we'd say a prayer and then he'd be able to do it. But it took. It took some time and it took a lot of practice, Right. But I remember the nurses in St George. They they'd have to hold him down.
Brooke:
And then we moved up to Salt Lake and we did treatments here, and then one time we went on vacation back to St George and had to do one more treatment down there and they had like five or six people come in ready to hold him down. And Jameson was like I can do hard things, Sat there and they accessed him and they're like he has changed so much, Wow, yeah. And they're like this is night and day difference of what we had to do Right and he.
Brooke:
It has been tough, but he knows that his Heavenly Father loves him and he knows that he can do hard things because he has yeah.
Lily:
Wow. So what would you tell parents who are going through this and are feeling either I'm abandoned or why is this happening to us, or you know what? You're sitting across from them?
Brooke:
right now. Like what would you?
Lily:
what would you tell them?
Brooke:
The power of prayer. Yeah, like that is huge and, honestly, sometimes you have to wait. Like I said, my answer to why it happened to us took six months. I had other friends who their answer was so that your son can be a light to the world, and I think that's wonderful, but that wasn't our answer Wow, and that he.
Brooke:
You may feel abandoned, but you're not. Yeah, he loves you, he loves us all and as a parent, you know this. When you see your child going through something, it hurts, and so he feels the same hurt that you do probably better than you do and it's hard, and it's okay that it's hard, but he'll always be there and just walk by your side Not just your ancestors, yeah, but he will walk there with you.
Lily:
Wow, so many crazy things tonight that I just I'm like I need to hear this. This is amazing, this is great.
Brooke:
Thank you.
Lily:
So are there. Are there any other? I don't. I don't have any other thoughts that are coming to my head, so I'm going to take that as a. You know what I think we might be done. So would you mind bringing a brief testimony, and then we'll wrap up.
Brooke:
My thoughts on the savior. There are many, but I think I would like to say that you are never alone in this world. With social media and just everything blaring in your face, it can be very isolating and I know that the savior is there as long as you knock. You have to do, you have to do some work, but as long as you knock, he will be there. As long as you ask, as long as you put down the umbrella, the reigns of blessings will come.
Lily:
That's awesome. Thank you, brooke, for being here tonight. You're incredible and I'm really glad to hear that your son's doing well right now and hopefully, maybe we'll check in a little bit later.
Lily:
We'll see how things are going, but thank you for your testimony and, in your time, thanks again for tuning into more than coincidence, remembering Jesus Christ in your story. Please follow us on social media or share us with a friend. If you have an experience you'd like to share, feel free to reach out. To more than coincidence, remember him at gmailcom. I can't wait to hear all of the amazing memories you all have of our savior. See you next time.
