Readers will follow Olmstead’s diagnosis and treatments chronologically, and she offers intimate glimpses into her personal life in the process, including a second-chance marriage with a devout husband and court battles with her ex-husband that result in estrangement from her older children. Even in the darkest of moments, Olmstead never loses sight of her faith, admirably choosing gratitude over resentment. Her husband, Chuck, plays a supportive and loving role that bolsters that theme of gratitude, allowing a celebration of caregivers throughout the voyage as well, and the inclusion of their CarePage entries during the ordeal will resonate with readers. For those who savor devotional formats, Olmstead kicks off several of those entries with “today’s promise,” a Bible verse to study and reflect on, relating those insights back to her own experiences.
There are plenty of surprises here, too—none more so than Olmstead’s follow-up, “Life After Cancer,” that details not only her unconventional recovery (and baffling medical results) but also the life-changing health developments she attributes to her faith in God, as she writes that “the true miracle wasn’t what He did with the tumor, but what He did with my heart.”
Takeaway: A heartfelt Christian journey offering hope in the midst of suffering.
Great for fans of: John M. Perkins’s Count It All Joy, Abbot Oscar Joseph’s Memoirs of a Christian Healer.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: NA
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
This is the perfect book for anyone who has heard their doctor say the words, "It's cancer." From the first symptoms through five years of recovery, the author honestly and clearly states her thoughts and feelings in a journal form. Her family, friends and medical team also contribute their part in her journey through a devastating illness. All the while, she never looses faith in God and hope in her survival. It is a story of up and down days, and the determination to live one day at a time.
This is a quick yet in depth read on suffering and miracles. Hope and dashed hopes. Always uplifting and brutally honest. I loved to see the thread of God’s hand at work over time in the lives of this precious couple.
The author of LOVED SO MUCH IT HURTS is a talented, fine, writer. She shares her growth into knowledge of a loving God through a journey of pain and acceptance. My husband and I walked some of it when we cared for our grandchildren. Her young children had the resilience of the young and at times I wondered whom was caring for whom. My daughter-in-law intersperses LOVED SO MUCH IT HURTS with humor and and an insight into the everyday. I pray she continues in her healing and faith.
Local author Rebecca Olmstead has a story to share.
While overcoming cancer, she found a higher purpose to her life, greater depth of God's love and more inner strength than she could imagine. She is moving on and sharing her inspiration.
Olmstead chronicles her journey through illness and into God's plan for her life in her new book, Loved So Much, It Hurts.
Her life has always included writing; she began writing early "As soon as I could hold a pencil," she said.
Olmstead began by writing stories. When she was 12, she wandered into her grandfather's study.
"I found his old Royal typewriter and I taught myself to type," she said.
As an adult, Olmstead was still writing, busy enjoying her family, working on her perceived spiritual path and other projects, when suddenly her life changed.
"I had just completed my first mystery, set in Walla Walla. I was busy pitching that at writers conferences. That fall, 2009, I got sick,"she said. "I had back pain that radiated down my leg. I thought I'd pulled a muscle or something. Nothing the doctors did made it better; it kept getting worse. Then I could no longer walk."
It obviously was more than a pulled muscle, back strain or anything with a simple answer.
"My husband, my greatest medical advocate, insisted on an MRI," she said.
That's when they found a tumor.
"For the MRI, I had to be medicated. I'm very claustrophobic. I called it the 'torpedo tube,'" she said. "My GP sent me to a neurosurgeon for an MRI with contrast. The tumor was around the sacral nerve root; he wouldn't touch it."
Olmstead went to Seattle, and the gravity of the situation started to sink in. But overall, she still felt at peace.
She had considered herself a Christian all her life, but this was a whole new level of having to trust God. She had been through a divorce, had four little ones to raise, and, "We were poor as a church mouse," she said.
Olmstead and her children had prayed for her to meet the right person and marry again.
She said husband Chuck was the answer to prayer. Both were ready to rebuild their lives and move forward. Everything was going well, and then she got sick.
"I asked to know God," she said. "Faith is born of adversity and strength. I knew in my heart, regardless of the outcome, I had that same peace."
In this process, she learned many things.
"It revealed the difference between religion and faith," she said. "Then the fear flared up. We got to the UW and checked in. ... I set up a blog to keep everyone posted. I just started writing it out, any time I'd just pour it out, so much pain. The Holy Spirit ministered to me through my writing. I started hearing from people all over the world. It's God. God is using me despite myself."
Instead of going after the tumor immediately, there was a need to wait six more weeks, which worked out perfectly for her because she needed more time with her children.
When she did have surgery, doctors took out 2 inches of her tailbone to get at the tumor. Then it was a matter of pain management. Olmstead then needed to deal with the strong pain medication, as well as the pain.
"Some days I was clinging to God like a cat on a fan, hanging on for dear life," she said. "As my body didn't need the pain meds it would be like an overdose, then I'd go into withdrawals.
"It was two years until I was completely free. I continued to pour out my heart and I listened more to the Holy Spirit. I wanted to find out who He had created me to be. It led me to create a ministry blog. It was so challenging, my self image. Who in the world would listen to me? But I was faithful, now the blog is read in over 130 nations. I hear from people from all over the world."
The whole process of illness, recovery and moving forward has been a totally life-changing process.
"I'm doing things now I never though I'd be capable of doing," she said. "A friend came over and said, 'you've written a book.'"
Her next step was to trust God to overcome awakening from the numbness of the pain medications. In trying to write the story, she would have to face the emotions.
"Start to finish, it was a nine-year process with plenty of spiritual opposition to the process of becoming," she said.
Olmstead learned to recognize spiritual interference and shut it off. Part of doing that is to be thankful for the good things.
"The tumor was benign, it could have been malignant, I could have been paralyzed. It was a major miracle: The tumor had shrunk and released the nerves," she said.
The healthy and inspired Olmstead put her book together, and now works her ministry, WatchGodWork.com, and in other avenues. In her journey, as she said, "there is purpose in the pain."
