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.
1 I waited patiently for the Lord to help me,
and he turned to me and heard my cry.
2 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.
3 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.
and he turned to me and heard my cry.
2 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.
3 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.
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