Skip to main content

A song in my heart

My oncologist walked in for our Wednesday appointment and I broke out in song, "Doctor, doctor give me the news I got a bad case of loving you . . ."
She joined in for the subsequent verses! Got to love a doctor with a great sense of humor and a great singing voice.

 In all likelihood, there aren't many patients that greet their oncologist in song! That's me, sharing a little bit of sunshine wherever I go.

 It was a blustery day on Wednesday (I can hear Pooh saying Happy Winds-day!) and C-O-L-D after we had several warm and sunny days, the change did little to brighten anyone's mood. My headwrap nearly blew away when I got out of my car in the morning and that brief exposure for my nearly bald head chilled me for most of the rest of the morning. I have a greater appreciation for the warmth a full head of hair provides. One of my WW members changed my chilly disposition shortly after, however, when she gave me a hat she'd crocheted for me. It was the second gift I'd received (the first was a beautiful sketch of a robin) from a member at that Benton Harbor meeting and it warmed my heart.

 As a WW Coach, I lead weekly discussions about topics related to health, habits and activity. And some of these can be fairly emotional for the members and I carry their stories in my heart, each and every one of the members I have had the good fortune to meet is now a part of me. Being 'in front of the room', though, I often forget that part of me sometimes becomes a part of the members too. And as I've been going through chemo, many of these members have reached out, outside of the Workshop time to share, to hug, to lift me up. What's not to love about my job?

 So, no wonder on blustery Winds-day, when the weather was depressing most Michiganders, I came to my oncologist appointment after having led two WW Workshops with a smile on my face and a song in my heart. Life is good!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

It's not a popularity contest, but ...

Fairy Tales

What do London Bridge, Humpty Dumpty, The Three Little Pigs and Kathleen Piggins have in common? They all fall down!  Well with the Three Little Pigs it's not the pigs that fall but the house but I have three not-so-little Piggins and it just seemed appropos to include that fairy tale here! Because this is a tale about falling down. But it's also about getting back up! At last night's Douglas Social  my friend Kris and I meandered through the crowd greeting and often hugging friends along the way to the beer/wine tent - I spotted a friend that recently moved to the area and went to give her a big hug. and after proceeded to fall flat on my arse. Time seemed to stop and it felt that the all eyes in the crowd were on me as I landed and then proceeded to get back up with the help of friends. One of the saddest part of the fall, was that I had just gotten my first glass of wine and it was now all over me.  I thought "Thank goodness I was drinking white". And t...
1 comment
Read more

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

I put my pride aside and got my ass off the grass and into the wheelchair. {I spent a couple minutes deciding whether to put an exclamation mark after that declaration or to put the period after that statement. I think the period better suits my mood about getting said ass into the wheelchair!} On July 4, Saugatuck has a wonderfully unique parade that includes quirky participants like the artsy-fartsy campers at OxBow art colony and the LGBT members of a local foundation along with the more traditional participants like Girl Scouts, fire trucks, and local politicians. It had been a couple years since I had been to the parade, this year, though, my Mom and sister were in town and I wanted to take them. So we loaded up in the van, including Kerri's wheelchair and my own. Once we parked, John asked if I wanted to use my chair and I initially balked but then remembered that it can be a long, hot parade and it might be better to have a place to sit. So, I acquiesced and took the cha...
2 comments
Read more
My aunt recently commented about my blog that I do a  "great job of sharing things very personal without them being morbid, too dramatic, TOO personal". I am about to let her down . . . It's been a tough week.  We learned that a man we knew from treatment at UofM, with a similar cancer, passed away on Tuesday. We knew that just after the treatment at UofM concluded, that his cancer had meta-sized to his lungs and other treatments (including one at John's Hopkins) did not help. John Cleasby was only 57. In my mind, I can see his face in the chemo infusion room at UofM - coping as all the patients were. He was a quiet and gentle man - who happened to be married to a former co-worker of mine. While sitting next to each other in the infusion area, it seemed a blessing that I found a long-lost friend in the chaos that was the UofM Cancer Center and hospital. Bonnie Cleasby and I shared so much and had such similar outlooks. "We are going to beat this thing", ...
1 comment
Read more