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Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Shan yao, bamboo leaves and watermelon rind

I went to my acupuncturist this week to see if she might be able to help with my abdominal bloating.  Its gotten to the point that pants that fit at the beginning of the day feel like a vice as the day goes on.  I started to go to acupuncture when I broke my arm a few years ago and ended up with frozen shoulder.  Acupuncture was a miracle cure, fixing what traditional physical therapy could not.

I go to the Acupuncture Healing Clinic.  Dr. Zhang was trained in China, has US acupuncture credentials and is a clinical assistant professor in the Integrative Medicine practice at Ohio State.  She knows her stuff and is a no-nonsense person.

I had seen her a few times last winter to help deal with some of the symptoms from the amyloidosis but hadn't seen her since I got out of the hospital.  She asked me about the transplant and the prognosis.  After I finished telling her about it, she said (in her very strong Chinese accent) "You'll do fine, you're a very strong lady."  Yeah, I get that a lot, I thought to myself.

She said she thought a few acupuncture treatments could help with healing my GI tract and helping me not retain water.  She went about placing the needles in my abdomen, thigh, calf, head and ear.  The head and ear ones are for relaxation.

After I was done, she gave me a list of foods I need to add to my diet: shan yao (Japanese potato), bamboo leaves and watermelon rind.  She said all of these would help soothe my GI tract and help with fluid balance.  So, Alan was off that day and out running errands so he went to the local Asian market to get the potato and bamboo leaves.

I haven't eaten the potato yet.  I found a recipe for shan yao and lemongrass soup.  It sounded pretty good and looked simple.  I've made a tea out of the bamboo leaves and its OK.  Kind of like grass-flavored water.  Tonight I'll cut up the watermelon, use the red part in my juice and chunk up the white part to eat as a snack.  I like jicama and watermelon rind is pretty similar to that in taste and texture.

I'll have several sessions with her and hopefully it will help.  If it does help, it could just be that it was only a matter of time but I'm willing to try anything to contribute to my recovery.  While I don't understand it, I appreciate the ancient wisdom that's contained in acupuncture.

My next adventure in my recovery is to attend a restorative yoga class.  Friday evening I'll be attending this class at Yoga on High.  The description says:

Otherwise known as the art of relaxation, restorative yoga postures melt away physical and mental tension and deeply rest the mind and body. They also assist the body’s processes of healing injuries and recovering from illness by releasing tension that would otherwise impede recovery. Join Gail Sky, a certified advanced Relax and Renew ™ teacher and Master Level Reiki practitioner, for a weekly dose of Restorative Yoga. Receive some Reiki as well, if you like. Please bring an eye pillow if you have one. No yoga experience necessary.
Now, where can I find an eye pillow?!?!?!

Friday, September 13, 2013

Psalm 40

The last few weeks since my last post have been really great.  Not that anything in particular has happened that's great, but its just been a steady stream of "normal."  I'm back at work on a regular schedule and feel like I'm back to being productive and contributing to the work of my team.  Its been nice to have the work and all the relationships I have there returning to normal.  Its not the same as before because I've taken the time away as an opportunity to focus my work time on the most meaningful things possible so its been even more rewarding.

One opportunity I've taken advantage of is becoming a mentor to a 3rd grader through Big Brothers/Big Sisters Project Mentor.  I'll spend 50 minutes each week with a student at the K-6 Science, Technology, Engineering and Math school located in an impoverished area of Columbus.  There will be a group of us who leave Nationwide during lunch one day each week.  We'll board a bus, head over to the school and work with our mentee on reinforcing academic skills.  I'm really excited about the opportunity to do this.  I figured if Nationwide could get by just fine with me being gone for 3 months straight, they can certainly survive with me being gone for an hour and a half in the middle of the day each week.

While Columbus is a pretty progressive (compared to the rest of the midwest) and diverse city, its not very integrated as this racial dot map from the 2010 census shows.


I'm really looking forward to getting out of my suburban cocoon and helping a young student become a data nerd like me...perhaps, a girl can hope.  But at least, help them through the stress of the standardized testing of 3rd grade and help them improve their performance in school and/or appreciation of learning.  And, as has happened every time I've done something like this in the past, I feel more blessed and enriched than the person whom I'm supposedly serving.

Another piece of normal was going to Cedar Point over Labor Day.  Because of my recovery, our only travel over the summer was to Claire's lacrosse tournaments.  While we enjoyed our time together, all the trips consisted of was driving long distances, sitting in the heat and rain to watch lacrosse and, occasionally, catching up with old friends like Jay and Mark in Richmond and Christine and Jim in Philadelphia.

So, we decided to end the "Summer of No Fun" with a trip to Cedar Point.  We all love riding roller coasters and there's no better place to do that than Cedar Point.  We left at 7 am on Saturday.  We got to the hotel around 9:30, checked in, got our tickets and hit the park.  I was concerned about my endurance and whether I'd be able to last as long as the others.  Yes, Alan and I both went to our room mid-afternoon for a little siesta but I was still going strong as we walked out of the park at closing time.  I rode all the roller coasters, some more than once, and really enjoyed myself.

I told Alan as we were walking out how nice it felt to do something normal and to not feel limited by my disease or recovery, at all.

I started my maintenance chemo the day we got home from Cedar Point.  Its a pill that I take once a day that, according to Dr. Efebera is "very well tolerated."  I remember her words of encouragement about how well I would do with the transplant and how enthusiastic she was about how well I was doing after the transplant.  I know her standard of the word "well" and my standard of the word "well" are not exactly in snych.  I was concerned that I would experience some of the major side effects.  Some people have had such debilitating side effect that they had to discontinue the treatment.  That would have been very demoralizing for me. But, the good thing is that I've been on the treatment for almost 2 weeks now and haven't had any noticeable side effects.  Yay!!

Another normal activity was going to see my dear friend Tami who happens to be my hair stylist.  I've been going to Tami for almost 7 years and have followed her through 4 different locations.  We talked about whether to color my hair (we decided not to) and she trimmed it up around my neck and ears.  Tami is a strong Christian woman and our conversations always focus on faith and family.

We talked about my disease and recovery and how God could use what has happened to me for His purposes.  Tami is always so generous with her praise and encouragement and Wednesday night was no different.   She said that she believes that since I'm in a leadership role at work, interact with a lot of different people and because I'm so outgoing and open about my illness,  my testimony of faith in God and the love from others will help people see the power of a real relationship with Christ and the care of a Christian community.

As I thought about that during my evening prayers, one of my favorite Psalms came to mind.  Its Psalm 40 and its one of my favorites due in no small part to the song by U2 called "40."   This song is always part of my church's U2-charist that we hold at our town's Irish Fest.  I listened to this song a lot in the hospital and during my recovery.  I really like the New Living Translation of this Psalm and feel that these verses capture my view of my disease and recovery--

Psalm 40
For the choir director: A psalm of David.

I waited patiently for the Lord to help me,
    and he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the pit of despair,
    out of the mud and the mire.
He set my feet on solid ground
    and steadied me as I walked along.
He has given me a new song to sing,
    a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see what he has done and be amazed.
    They will put their trust in the Lord.

As I was driving home today, I got a call from Tammy (yes another Tammy) one of the Nurse Practitioners at Dr. Efebera's office.  She said that they have a patient recently diagnosed with Amyloidosis and asked if I'd talk to her.  Tammy said the woman is only 46, very energetic and has a lot of questions about the disease and treatments. Tammy said that this woman reminded her a lot of me and she thought I might be able to help her out by sharing my experience and perspective.  Of course I said I'd love to help and told Tammy to give her my contact info and a link to the blog.

When I got home I had one of the most meaningful notes I've ever received.  The note was from Bethy, the daughter in law of my friends Allyn and Jasper.  Or, perhaps I should say the wife of my friend Reid.  I still remember when he was in high school and corrected me when I introduced him as my friends' son.  He said, "Aren't we friends?"  He's always been quite the charmer and has a very kind heart...rare combination.

Bethy's been dealing with some health issues of her own and we've been trading Facebook messages about our health issues over the last few months offering words of encouragement to one another.  We had the opportunity to catch up while we were in Santa Monica at the end of August for the wedding of Allyn and Jasper's other son, John.  In her note, Bethy commented on how much genuine love and concern she felt from me, Alan and the rest of the family as we asked her how she was doing, told her how much we care about her and told her we were praying for her.  Isn't that really what Jesus would do?  Show genuine love and concern to someone who is suffering.  I know my illness has helped me be much more caring and compassionate to those who are in need.

Whenever I'm trying to figure out God's purposes, I pray, I read scripture and I look for confirmation from the people God puts in my life.  

Looks like I got that confirmation this week.